Social action and the Last Day
How does social action relate to the Last Day and the new creation?
Following on from Part 1 (on the relationship between evangelism and social action), here are six more propositions to chew on:
Theologically speaking, social action is part of sanctification.
I hinted at this in the first post of this series, but it is worth re-stating at this point. The good and loving action we take on other's behalf—whether helping our neighbour clear his drains, or helping an entire village to have any drains at all—is a fruit of the Spirit in our lives. It is part of that lifelong process of being transformed into the image of the Son, who loved others and laid down his life for them. One of the mistakes people make in this regard (it seems to me) is they attempt to relate social action to a larger, looser category called ‘mission’. I don't see this move (or this category for that matter) in the New Testament.
Godly social action will be recognized on the last day, along with all our godly deeds.
Our good deeds are the fine linen we will wear on the great day of judgement. They will not earn our salvation or justification (of course!), but they are evidence of our saving faith in Christ. They will thus be a reason for commendation from our heavenly Father, even if others have not seen them (1 Cor 4:5).
We should engage in social action because the world is going to be destroyed.
The approaching day of God is often seen in the New Testament as a strong motivation for godliness and holiness: Paul urges his Colossian readers, for example, to set their minds on heaven and the coming day of Christ as this is the motivation to put off the old and put on the new (Col 3:1-17). If social action is a species of good works, then it too is related to eschatology in this way.
2 Peter 3 gives it a particular twist: the inevitable coming of the new heavens and earth, the home of righteousness, should motivate us now to godliness and holiness, even though we expect—no because we expect—a cataclysmic reconfiguring of this creation on judgement day. I am aware that there is some debate over 2 Peter 3 as to the proportion of ‘continuity’ and ‘discontinuity’ between old creation and new. Personally, I think the emphasis of the passage is very much on the discontinuity. However, it makes no difference for our purposes how much of the created order will or will not be destroyed. Read Peter's argument carefully:
Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. (2 Pet 3:11-14)
He does not say, “Some of the creation will be preserved into the new creation, and so it's worth improving people's social circumstances and building more just infrastructures, because these will endure in some way into the new creation”. But also notice, he does not say, “It's all going to burn anyway, so what's the use of trying to help anyone or do anything?” No, his argument is “Because of the destruction that is coming, what sort of people should you be?”
This is the culmination of a theme which runs right through Peter's second epistle—that, in view of the coming day of judgement in which we finally enter into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, we should be all the more diligent to make our calling and election sure, making every effort to supplement our faith with excellence, and excellence with knowledge, and so on, through to the crowning virtue of love (1:5-7).
So the coming judgement of all things, in which the heavens and earth are “stored up for fire” (2 Pet 3:7) should by no means put a dampener on our efforts to love other people. On the contrary, says Peter. In view of its coming, we should redouble our efforts to live godly, holy lives of love.
Godliness is other-person-centred.
The word ‘godliness’ sometimes has a private, inward-looking smell about it in our Christian culture, as if it consists entirely of personal Bible reading and prayer. But this is inadequate. To be like God is to give yourself for others, as Christ did. It means serving the interests of others rather than ourselves. There are a multitude of ways we can do this, small and large. (More on this in Part 3.)
The ultimate eschatological motive for social action (like all godly, loving action) is to glorify the God who has redeemed us.
Here's one way in which loving social action is like evangelism. In both cases, what is required from us is not success or results, but God-glorifying action. We don't evangelize in order to save people; we evangelize to bring God glory, who does the saving. We're not in it for the results, although we rejoice when we see the results. We're in it as faithful stewards, imitating our Lord and Saviour who came to seek and to save the lost—which is why we'll keep evangelizing till kingdom come, regardless of the results. Ditto loving people and trying to help them, in all sorts of ways. We're not in it to change the world, although we rejoice when we see results. But we recognize that world changing will happen in God's time, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. We're in it to give God glory on the day he visits us (1 Pet 2:12).
In the meantime, this old creation remains frustrated and futile.
The New Testament repeats the realism of Ecclesiastes (via Romans 8, for example). The world remains a fallen and frustrating field of moral action, under the power of the evil one. We are not building the new Jerusalem now, nor even laying bricks that will endure into it. We are citizens now of the new heavenly Jerusalem, but it comes down from heaven; it is not made with human hands.
We should therefore be cautious about grand schemes. We should take action on behalf of others as we have opportunity, neither being discouraged by the inevitable disappointments and shortcomings, nor dazzled by the optimism of those who do not share our biblical perspective.
