Engaging God’s mission through justice and compassion : an evangelical discourse

Abstract

In the mind of many Evangelicals, “doing justice” is inextricably linked to the loss of sound doctrine, spiritual dynamism and a watering down of the gospel. The exploration of this article investigates the actions of the Evangelical church in South Africa with regards to her engagements with the mission of God on earth. Hampshire (1982:95) states “Is it possible that a person might not be doing what he/she honestly say he/she will be doing, without being true that what he/she is not doing is what he or she is intended to do?”. An argument, is, therefore, made for missional hermeneutic in reading the Bible, thus bringing to exploration the statement articulated by Wright (2006) it is not much the case that God has a mission for his church in the world as that God has a church for his mission in the world. Mission was not made for the Church; Church was made for mission- God’s mission. In this article, the theology of compassion will be examined through missional hermeneutics and how it relates to the “actions” of the Evangelical Church in post-apartheid South Africa. This understanding of compassion calls for a radical decentring of self, and putting at risk of the self in the free re-enactment of the dispossessed state of those who suffer (Davies, 2001), for human action is a moral action. God calls us to “do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly before the Lord” (Micah 6:18). This article concludes that engaging in compassionate acts does not lead to a social gospel or a lesser understanding of the gospel but a more biblical (orthodox) understanding of the Christian good news.