(1) Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, (2) and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. (3) For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, (4) that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, (5) and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. (6) Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. (7) Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. (8) Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. (9) For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. (10) But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. (11) Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed. (1 Cor 15:1-11)Eleven verses in which Paul lays out the entire "gospel I preached to you." I'm looking ... I'm looking. Nope. Not one reference to poverty, nutrition, crime, or war. I can only conclude it is not the Gospel.
Is it important that we do good works that God has laid out in advance? Yes, of course (Eph 2:10). Should we care about the poor, the widows and orphans, the needy, the oppressed, and more? Absolutely (James 1:27; et.al)! Let's just not confuse it with the Gospel. Because if all that other stuff is "the gospel," it is "another gospel," and we know what Paul taught about that (Gal 1:6-10).
2 comments:
The idea of providing for the poor and underprivileged, is a wonderful sentiment. however when the sentiment begins to overshadow the Gospel, the message becomes the victim at the expense of the sentiment. but what if we should place the Gospel over the needs of the poor, then we are mean spirited. Are not the rich in need as well? are not the rich also in need of the Gospel? Does the poor man deserve special consideration from his sins, simply because of his social status? If The poor man blames the rich for his condition, then steals from him, does that justify his actions? it is so easy to love the poor and despise the rich. because or our noble sentiment toward the poor we create a hypocrisy by pretending that the care for them. when in fact we need them to stay poor so that we can feel good about our exercising fulfillment of our sentiments. God forbid that we should strive to care for the rich as well.
Paul Farmer, an amazing guy who’s done wonders for medicine in the third world, calls these folks WL’s. It stands for “white liberals”, he’s basically talking about the folk who talk a good game, but never actually get their hands dirty.
FYI, I’m positive he’s politically left, you know it’s bad when you hear those sorts of things from leftists.
I used to work for an organization which started out as a Christian ministry, and (at least locally) has transitioned into just one more nonprofit. I fully support the work we did, and know it was important. It’s just sad to see the jettisoning of the Gospel part of the organization. In contrast, when in Haiti, the Gospel goes hand in hand with the medical services. Every surgery patient gets prayed with, and rejoiced with.
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