(864) 546-4540
Center for Global Opportunities
  • About
  • Outreach
    • CGO Screen Ads
    • Local
    • National
    • Global
    • Request Help
  • 2023 Trips
    • CGO Mission Teams
    • BJU Study Abroad & Study USA
  • Blog
    • Submissions
  • Internationals
    • International Student Organization
  • Events
    • MLK Day
    • GO Greenville
    • GO Week
    • Summer Ministry Conference
  • About
  • Outreach
    • CGO Screen Ads
    • Local
    • National
    • Global
    • Request Help
  • 2023 Trips
    • CGO Mission Teams
    • BJU Study Abroad & Study USA
  • Blog
    • Submissions
  • Internationals
    • International Student Organization
  • Events
    • MLK Day
    • GO Greenville
    • GO Week
    • Summer Ministry Conference

THE CGO BLOG

A Big Question and a Biblical Answer

2/3/2017

2 Comments

 

Mark Vowels, CGO Director

Picture
One of the essential questions that must be answered by anyone seeking to engage in gospel outreach is, “What exactly is our responsibility toward people who are not Christians?” Are we sent by the Lord to serve humanity or to proclaim the Gospel, or both? And if both, what is the relationship between the two?
 
Many evangelicals today point to the great command, “love God and love your neighbor” (Luke 10:27) as being essentially equivalent to “Go and make disciples among all people” (Matthew 28:19). The question is not whether they are both important, or both essential. Jesus commanded us to do both. The question is are they the same?

Is loving my neighbor by providing humanitarian relief, medical care, social justice, agricultural assistance, environmental improvement or any other act of human kindness a fulfillment of the Great Commission?
 
My answer is no.

Some historically conservative Christians, or fundamentalists, in reaction to what they perceived in past generations as an over emphasis by non-evangelicals on service to humanity, claimed that their only obligation to the lost was to proclaim the gospel. They emphasized Jesus’ teaching in passages like Luke 4:43, where Jesus states that He was sent to proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God, or Luke 19:10 where He says that He came to seek and to save the lost. They highlighted that the Apostle Paul gave little focus to the physical welfare of the lost, but incessantly prioritized the proclamation of the gospel (Romans 10:1, 14; 15:20; 2 Timothy 4:17). To be clear, I agree that both Jesus and Paul did prioritize the proclamation of the Gospel above all else, and therefore we too should be prioritists.
 
Frankly, however, that does answer the questions, because both Jesus and Paul demonstrated compassion for the physical well-being of non-Christians. Both capitalized on opportunities to help people who were hurting. So it is not legitimate to ignore people’s needs while saying that we only focus on proclaiming the Gospel.

We cannot say to those whom we could help (but maybe don’t want to), “be warmed and filled” in the name of prioritism. We must seek to help those that we can, because Jesus commanded it (Matthew 5:42) and modeled it (Matthew 9:35).[1]
 
Those who focus predominantly on providing physical aid sometimes emphasize Luke 4:16-21, where Jesus claimed to fulfill Isaiah’s prophecy about the Messiah. They point out that much of that passage speaks of social or physical deliverance, so this must have been part of Jesus’ earthly mission, and therefore directs our earthly mission as well (John 20:21). That’s fair, but much of what was prophesied by Isaiah was not fulfilled by Jesus during His earthly sojourn and apparently awaits a future Messianic reign. (That discussion goes beyond the point of this blog post.)

​My burden here is to convey the fact that nowhere does the New Testament encourage the idea that mercy ministry is the fulfillment of or equivalent to the Lord’s commission to proclaim the Gospel and make disciples. Any holistic approach to ministry which places man’s physical need on a higher, or even equal level with his spiritual need goes beyond what is written in the New Testament. Any teaching that places the Great Commandment and the Great Commission in an either/or relationship is flawed.
 
That brings us back to the original questions. What exactly is our responsibility toward people who are not Christians? Are we sent by the Lord to serve humanity or to proclaim the Gospel? The answer is that we should do – we must do - both. We must do both because Jesus commanded both. We must do both because Jesus did both. We must do both, not because Gospel proclamation does not take priority, but because Gospel proclamation demands both speaking Christ’s words and imitating Christ’s life.

[1] This passage refutes the notion that Jesus only healed as a Messianic sign. Matthew is specific that Jesus went to all the cities and villages of Galilee, both to proclaim the Gospel and to heal every disease and affliction. It is hardly necessary to provide physical relief to every hurting human being in an entire geographic region simply to make a theological point. 
2 Comments
Matt Hancock
3/5/2017 07:06:58 pm

Yes, well said, "Jesus and Paul did prioritize the proclamation of the Gospel above all else." I recently came across this same point reading Hendriksen's comments on Lk. 19:41-42 when Jesus was weeping over Jerusalem:

"By and large what Israel wanted was its own kind of Messiah, a Messiah of the earth, a political deliverer. And that was deplorable. No wonder Jesus was weeping. He saw very clearly how wicked these people were, and what would be the result.

"For this materialistic attitude there was no excuse whatever. Even in the Old Testament – the only “Bible” these people knew – the Messianic prophecies had placed the emphasis on spiritual rescue. See Isa. 53:10, 12; Jer. 23:6; 31:34; Mic. 5:2; 7:18-20; Zech. 13.1; Mal. 3:1-6.

"And when the Savior himself arrived, even though he was indeed a perfect Redeemer, with blessing for both soul and body, his emphasis too had been very strongly on the spiritual. A few examples will prove this. Even when we limit ourselves entirely to Luke’s Gospel, note the following passages : 4:4, 8; 5:20, 32; 6:20-49; 7:47-50; 8:4-15; 9:23-26; 10:20-24, 38-42, 11:1-4, 40-42, ect. The stress had been on salvation from sin, on conversion to holiness of life, spiritual fruitfulness."
-William Hendriksen, Baker NT Commentary on Luke pg. 878

Reply
Holly Abbott link
7/7/2022 12:37:46 am

Thanks forr a great read

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Subscribe

    RSS Feed

    *If RSS feed is not working for you, please add it to your app or software manually by adding this url:
    ​www.bjucgo.com/blog/feed

    The CGO Blog

    Written by the CGO staff, with guest posts from students and other faculty/staff at BJU to provide thought leadership for missions in a new millennium. 

    Categories

    All
    Alumni
    Ask A Missionary
    Atheism
    Bible Study
    Buddhism
    Catholicism
    Children's Ministry
    China
    Christmas
    Church Ministry
    Common Ground
    Contextualization
    COVID 19
    COVID-19
    Cross Cultural
    Culture Blocks
    Education
    Evangelism
    Field Reports
    Gratitude
    Great Commission
    Greenville SC
    Holism And Prioritism
    Inspiration
    International Students
    Islam
    Local Church
    Medical Missions
    Millennials In Missions
    Ministry Team
    Missionaries You Don't Know
    Missionary Kid
    Missions Gamechangers In 2018
    Missions Internship
    Missions Mistakes
    Missions Strategy
    Missions Trip
    Muhammad
    Multiculturalism
    Outreach
    Pastoral Ministry
    Persecution
    Prayer
    Preparing For Ministry
    Sanctification
    Study Abroad
    Testimony
    Thanksgiving
    Ukraine
    Uncomfortable Ministry
    Urban Ministry
    War
    Woman's Ministry
    Women In Missions

    Archives

    April 2022
    February 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016

Picture

                               © COPYRIGHT 2022. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.​

#BJUCGO