Last month, the church where I serve had a series entitled 'Local people, global citizens'. It was designed to raise the question of justice this side of glory, and in particular, God's calling of us to do justice, and some practical ways of obeying that calling.
After an introductory week which laid out the theological principles, we had the privilege of hosting two terrific Christian organisations, International Justice Mission and Compassion, who spoke movingly of human trafficking and child poverty respectively. And then we finished with the undergirding spiritual reality and the call to global proclamation of the gospel.
It was a great month!
There's lots to say about it, but one thought emerged early on that became something of a guiding principle. When you think about it, it's obvious. It goes like this.
When it comes to the Christian walk of obedience to Jesus, it's clear that prior to Christ's return, none of us will ever reach perfection! In fact, that's an understatement! None of us get even close. But what is equally clear, is that true though that may be, it neither inhibits God's calling us to holiness of life, nor should it inhibit our devotion to that calling.
In other words, the fact that we can't do everything in no way means that we are to do nothing, in terms of obeying our Lord.
What's more, the idea that calling people to obey Christ is somehow necessarily to slip into sinless perfectionism, is just a category error. Sinless perfectionism isn't about God's command for us to be obedient, it's about pretending that we can fully comply with that command.
What we realised in our global citizens series was this ...
The exact same principle applies to justice.
It is of course the case, tragically and wickedly, that we will never see justice fully restored before Jesus returns. sin is just too deep. But it is equally the case that, though that is true, it neither inhibits God's calling us to do justice, not should it inhibit our devotion to that calling.
And likewise, the idea that calling people to do justice is necessarily to slip into a social justice gospel, is just a category error. The social justice gospel isn't about God's command for us to do justice, it's about pretending that we can fully comply with that command.
And of course, the same applies to our efforts in global mission.
The fact that we can't do everything - in obedience, in justice or in mission - in no way leads to the conclusion that we should therefore do nothing!
Can't do everything, don't do anything??