The family of
humanity and social order
Some Christians are not very favorable to the “social
gospel.” It has come to
mean of helping improve society to the exclusion of telling people about having
a relationship with Christ. But as Pastor Randy Wallace preached on Sunday, our
salvation must have some impact on this world, or otherwise God would send us
directly to heaven. Our goal as Christians is not to merely “go to heaven,” and
it is not to simply cease sinning. A “drug-induced coma” could stop us from committing sins, but not from the “omitting”
sins. There are sins of commission (bad things we do) but there
are also sins of omission (good things we don’t d0).
As a reflection of His light of
the world are we going to hide it under a bushel? No. (You saw that one coming
didn’t you?). “In the spirit of Christ, Christians should oppose racism, every
form of greed, selfishness, and vice, and all forms of sexual immorality,
including adultery, homosexuality, and pornography,” so says the Baptist Faith
and Message, Article 15, The Christian and the Social Order.
While only those who have accepted Christ are truly adopted into God’s
spiritual family, as members of the human race and a part of this world, we are
also the direct objects of His divine love. The Apostle Paul spoke that even
the pagan Greek world knew that we were His offspring, God’s children:
Read Acts
17:16-31*
What are some
historical examples or people who have worked for racial harmony, based on
Christianity?
What are some
historical examples or people who have worked against racial harmony, based on
their distorted view of religion?
As the family of humanity, and especially since we recognize that we are
all from one blood (the actual word used in Acts 17:26 although NIV translates
it as “man”) through Adam and Noah, the church of all people should be at the
forefront of uniting the relations between races, nations, ethnicities, and cultures.
God has always commanded His people to reach across the barriers to reach those
who are different than we are. We who have the means should always work to
provide for those without means; i.e., “the orphaned, the needy, the abused,
the aged, the helpless, and the sick.” The story of the Good Samaritan was told
to someone who was prejudiced against Samaritans. And we who have already been
born (I think that pretty much applies to all of you are reading this) should
“speak on behalf of the unborn and contend for the sanctity of all human life
from conception to natural death.”
In 1682 a persecuted Quaker Christian by the name of William Penn founded
a city as a place where everyone would feel free to worship as he so chose,
even if it were the religion of the native Americans or non-Christian. Even
though he was given the land by King Charles II, Penn paid the local Lenape
people and made a treaty of friendship with the Native American chief Tammany
under an elm tree at what is now the city's Fishtown section. This degree was
so much more than tolerance of others; it was a loving affirmation for the
brotherhood of man (and sisterhood of women). Therefore, Penn (for whom the
state of Pennsylvania is named) called the city Philadelphia, a city which
still goes by its moniker of “the city of brotherly love.”
The Baptist Faith & Message states, “Every Christian should seek
to bring industry, government, and society as a whole under the sway of the
principles of righteousness, truth, and brotherly love. In order to promote
these ends Christians should be ready to work with all men of good will in any
good cause, always being careful to act in the spirit of love without
compromising their loyalty to Christ and His truth.
*Acts 17:16-31
16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19 Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.” 21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)
22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.
24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26From one BLOOD he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
Acts 17:24-31
