Proverbs 31:8 NASB
Open your mouth for the mute,
For the rights of all the unfortunate.
Open your mouth, judge righteously, give the oppressed and needy what rightfully should come to them. Where those direct evangelical demands of justice and mercy are at stake, the church must not remain silent.
Her Lord is Lord of the church, and of the whole world, and therefore she has a mission in that world.
▪︎ A church may never allow itself to be pushed back within its own circle.
▪︎ Nor should it suffice with the message of repentance, knowing that the gospel will continue to do its work like a salting salt.
That commission, the proclamation of the gospel, is its primary task; but that does not mean that she should ignore her secondary duties, and that she can remain silent when the world is in need, because justice is being trampled on.
The church does not turn over when it interferes with development aid. Nor does she shift her interest from the spiritual to the material questions.
Just because the church realizes its ‘horizontal responsibility’ does not mean that it will lose its ‘vertical task’. Where this does happen, the church is guilty of crossing borders and goes beyond the scope of its mandate, authority and expertise.
The ‘vertical task’ and the ‘horizontal responsibility’ must be inextricably linked.
Twitter: @SchoemakerHarry
Website 1: https://devotionals.harryschoemaker.nl
Website 2: http://bijbelplaatjes.nl
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