A small moral victory (I guess) from the world but it serves as an example for the lesson I learned from the book Marks of the Mesenger by J. Mack Stiles. In the chapter titles "Messengers in a Troubled World" Stiles discusses the balance between social justice and evangelism in a third-world context. Of course, this is a hotly debated topic. How do we serve physical needs of people while trying to keep our focus on the gospel (assuming we are supposed to keep our focus there)?
Stiles makes the point that once we decide that these people are suffering simply because of their physical need we have already made a wrong turn. We are pitying them because of their material needs, not their gospel needs. He writes, "...to be who we are meant to be we must remember any desire to distance speaking the gospel into pain and deprivation is a result of a whole host of misguided impulses, Western guilt for one...We expose how sold out to materialism we've been when material suffering dashes our faith" (65).
The point isn't that physical needs aren't important or that we shouldn't meet them. Stiles makes that clear later in the chapter. But the point is that we have missed the point as soon as we target those people because of they want of material possessions. Help them with their material needs or don't help them with their material needs, either way your focus is on material possessions rather than the gospel.
Grace and Peace,
Stephen
