What is the relationship between good news and good deeds in our movement building?
I’ve been wrestling with ways to describe the relationship between what I believe are three elements of a holistic and integrated understanding of the gospel of the kingdom.
Three Concepts Keep Appearing in the Literature:
Visibility and Credibility and Compassion
John Stott, in his book “Christian Mission in the Modern World,” argues that evangelism and social action are partners.
“As partners the two belong to each other and yet are independent of each other. Each stands on its own feet in its own right alongside the other. Neither is a means to the other, or even a manifestation of the other. For each is an end in itself. Both are expressions of unfeigned love. . .
To sum up, we are sent into the world, like Jesus, to serve. For this is the natural expression of our love for our neighbors. We love. We go. We serve. And in this we have (or should have) no ulterior motive. True, the gospel lacks visibility if we merely preach it, and lacks credibility if we who preach it are interested only in souls and have no concern about the welfare of people’s bodies, situations and communities. Yet the reason for our acceptance of social responsibility is not primarily in order to give the gospel either a visibility or a credibility it would otherwise lack, but rather simple uncomplicated compassion. Love has no need to justify itself. It merely expresses itself in service wherever it sees need.”
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If any one has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and truth.–1 John 3:16-18
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