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    « Down with the Homogeneous Unit Principle? | Main | Pastors are Fatter, Sicker, & more Depressed »

    August 4, 2010

    Ur Video: Dever & Wallis on Justice and the Gospel (Part 2)

    What did Jesus mean in Matthew 25 about judgment and compassion toward the poor?


    In part two of the conversation between Mark Dever, Jim Wallis, and Skye Jethani, they talk about the judgment passage in Matthew 25. Was Jesus saying that our just and compassionate actions toward "the least of these" is central to our faith, or are they evidence of our faith? Is justice a gospel imperative or a gospel implication?

    Pick up the Summer issue of Leadership Journal to read more from Dever, Wallis, and others on the intersection of justice and evangelism.

    Posted by UrL Scaramanga on August 4, 2010



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    Comments

    I don't always agree with Jim Willis but I absolutely do on this one. In my opinion it's a false choice between faith and works. If you believe in and love Jesus then it will play out in your life and you will be feeding the hungry, clothing the naked etc...
    This is my favorite passage in the Bible.

    Posted by: Robin at August 4, 2010

    I would like to see the Christian community stop attaching justice with the poor and poverty, stop letting the secular world set our agenda and methods, and to see the Church Universal simply be who they are supposed to be. When we are who we should be, we will do what we are supposed to do.

    When you attach the idea of justice with poverty the way that the secular leaders are, such as Bono, you must understand that such a concept is enveloped into either socialism or communism. Our acts of ministering to the needs of the poor and depraved are to be the result of grace and mercy rising up in us as the people of God…not some act of justice. Justice attached to feeding the poor is like president Obama proclaiming that we “need to spread this around a little bit.” This is not our calling or activity in the world.
    Christ has set the agenda, we see the model in the book of Acts for what it should all look like, and our need is to stay on course.

    Posted by: Mark Gomez at August 5, 2010

    Jim Wallis misquoted Matthew 25 (which fits his interpretation of what it means)... here is the whole verse he quoted but left out an important part:

    And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
    (Matthew 25:40 ESV)

    See the part he left out? "MY BROTHERS"... Jesus is not talking about just anyone but He is saying it is His "brothers" who are the "least of these". And according to Jesus who is that? Earlier in Matthew (12:46-50) he says it is not His physical brothers but...

    "For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
    (Matthew 12:50 ESV)"

    The view Mark Dever expressed in the last video (part 1) fits perfectly with this.

    Posted by: Jason D. at August 5, 2010

    The Bible is irrelevant to Christians in our current political situation.

    When given the choice between hating government and doing something for the least of these, Americans will choose hating government.

    I see absolutely no morality in Christianity today other than hating gay people, hating government and hating liberals. You don't need the Bible to do that.

    I wish that Christians for once would just renounce the Bible, rather than using it as a justification for hate. Jesus would prefer that.

    Posted by: John at August 5, 2010

    The Gospel is an amazing account, and supremely radical and revolutionary. To follow it is to transform our world. Yet the Church should be something sublimely 'not of this world'.

    Pope Benedict once wrote "Where it (politics) wishes to do the work of God, it becomes not divine, but demonic".

    When we forget or gloss over the spiritual and transformational mission of the Church, and introduce politics and the resulting and inevitable factions, who then finds the "Peace of Christ" in God's House?
    Who will be the commissar in our City of God?

    Posted by: Steven at August 6, 2010

    One of the interesting things I find about Jim Wallis is how he impunes the character of the folks in the church where he grew up by stating with certainty that they were all racists. These are unnamed people who are not around to defend themselves but he uses them to give his position credibility. Yet if one analyzes this argument, there is no real substance to it. He also gives no definition to the word 'racism'.

    Posted by: Melody at August 6, 2010

    It all boils down to Matthew 22:37-40, "Jesus replied: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

    We are to look after our own interests as well as the interests of others in loving God!

    Posted by: Bobbi at August 7, 2010

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