How the Church Changes Social Conditions
Saturday, November 13, 2010 at 1:57PM Kevin DeYoung has me thinking about this issue. I'm still wrestling through it, but it caused me to think of this quote by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones:
It is not the task of the church to deal directly with these problems. The tragedy today is that while the church is talking about these particular problems and dealing directly with politics and economics and social conditions, no Christians are being produced, and the conditions are worsening and the problems mounting. It is as the church produces Christians that she changes the conditions; but always indirectly...
The church cannot change conditions; and she is not meant to change conditions. And the moment she tries to do so she is in various ways shutting the door of evangelistic opportunity...My concern as a preacher of the Gospel is with the souls of men, my business is to produce Christians; and the larger the number of Christians the greater will be the volume of Christian thinking. It is the business of individual Christians to enter Parliament, as Wilberforce did, or to speak in the House of Lords as did the Earl of Shaftesbury, or to seek election to a local Council, and in general to act as good citizens. You are still citizens—act accordingly. (Life In The Spirit In Marriage Home And Work)
In other words, the church produces disciples, and disciples work for justice. The process is short-circuited when the church stops focusing on making disciples who will change social conditions, and focuses on the social conditions directly.
Still thinking about all of this. More coming on this later.
Reader Comments (4)
A greater tragedy than what Lloyd-Jones envisioned has happened in a lot of circles - that even in evangelical churches social justice is thought to be the Gospel.
What concerns me, (and I suspect that Lloyd-Jones may have got this but perhaps not communicated it in this quote) is that people like Wilberforce would never have changed the world strictly as individuals. There was a network of other Christians working for the abolition of slavery of whom Wilberforce was merely the most prominent example.
"It is the business of individual Christians to enter Parliament, as Wilberforce did, or to speak in the House of Lords as did the Earl of Shaftesbury, or to seek election to a local Council, and in general to act as good citizens."I am always torn when I hear this sort of language. On the one hand, I think that it is obvious that there is some sort of priority given to gospel proclamation. It is through believing in the crucified and risen Messiah that people enter into the Kingdom of God. On the other hand, it seems obvious from Scripture (mainly Luke-Acts) that Jesus did not come merely to save souls and then enable individual Christians to "love their neighbor". This doesn't fit well with passages like the Magnificat or Zechariah's song (I can't remember what they call it) where it seems that God is sending his Messiah to establish a new world order marked by justice and peace and redeem a "people" (not merely to live as individuals) who live according to God's will. Moreover, this idea of establishing a new society/world where the poor receive good news, the captives and oppressed are liberated, and the blind are given sight seems central to Jesus' ministry. Jesus' Galilee ministry is marked by the proclamation of the kingdom, forgiveness, and deeds of power.My question is how do Jesus' deeds of power relate to our deeds of love in the present. Is there a relation? The purpose of those were to display the love of God and presence of his kingdom through Jesus (and then the apostles). Do our Spirit-empowered deeds of love have the same effect? The way I see it is that when the Church (not merely individuals) acts as salt in light in the present they are displaying the reality of the kingdom of God and the gospel proclamation summons people to join in for themselves.Darryl, do you think I'm off base?
"I am always torn when I hear this sort of language."Me too. You make a lot of sense, and I'm wrestling with all of this too. Hope to have another post in the near future that tries to make sense of all of this.Thanks, Nick! (and Dan and Ken)