When Mercy Ministries Become Justice Ministries
There is a growing trend in evangelical circles to rebrand mercy ministries as justice ministries. I recently came across this reality when I was asked to give someone church recommendations. In my research, I came across a church with a justice ministry. Under this ministry was everything from feeding the poor to adoption. Such ministries were once identified as mercy ministries. Why are churches rebranding them as justice ministries? What does this shift reveal about our current moment?
You may be wondering if this is even a big deal, and that’s a fair question. With the rise of social “justice,” mercy has taken a backseat. It is now very hip to advocate for justice, and as Christians, we should promote justice but we must define it biblically. That’s the problem, much of what passes as justice in the woke worldview is actually injustice. Within Christianity, the problem is more subtle as we have blended mercy and justice together. Such confusion leads us to lose both.
Justice and mercy are both important to Christians. We must advocate for both without collapsing them upon each other. Justice is giving someone what they have earned; what they are due. Justice is merit-based. It is something we are owed.
Conversely, mercy forgoes merit and gives good to those who are undeserving. In a very real way, the two are opposites. It was only through a supernatural act of God that both justice and mercy were accomplished at the cross (Rom. 3.26). To make it plain, justice is something we can demand while mercy is something we have no right to demand. It is this ability to demand justice that makes it more appealing.
If Christians make feeding the poor an issue of justice instead of mercy, then we are saying the poor have the right to demand satisfaction from others. Moreover, they have the right to demand they receive what belongs to others. Such an action violates the eighth commandment and is therefore unjust.
Biblically, things like feeding the poor and adoption are acts of mercy not of justice. Poverty is not always caused because of injustice. While some people become poor because of oppression, it is also true that some are poor as a result of justice. The acts of some people earn them poverty (Prov. 6.9-11; 24.30-34). In these cases, it is clear that helping the poor is not an act of justice, but of mercy. For Christians, justice and mercy are both desirable virtues, but they must remain distinct. If we confuse mercy and justice, we lose both.
A Revealing Confusion
What does this trend of mercy ministries becoming justice ministries tell us about ourselves? First, it exposes that we are bored with mercy—a truly dangerous place to be. We look at mercy and think it isn’t nearly as appealing as justice. To demand justice feels empowering while asking for mercy requires humility. To truly love mercy, one must have a transformed heart. One must have drunk deeply of God’s mercy in Christ. Our apathy toward mercy testifies to our spiritual sickness.
The indictment is that we are bored with God’s mercy. We would rather demand justice than do the hard work of promoting mercy through transformed hearts. A people bored with mercy is a people ripe for judgment. Our entire standing before God rests upon his unchanging mercy as Christ meets the demands of justice.
Second, our boredom with mercy reveals a staggering self-righteousness. When we cast out mercy and replace it with a redefined justice, it reveals hideous pride. We don’t believe that we need mercy. When mercy ministries become justice ministries, it reveals that we think we are the just ones. It reveals that we think we do not need mercy. In a very real way, the modern social justice movement is a modern-day Pharisaism. Keep these laws and you will be righteous. Everyone feels the need for righteousness. We also feel our inability to get it.
There are only two options. We can seek that righteousness through our ability, or we can receive it through God’s mercy. Too many evangelicals are infatuated with achieving a moral standing by meeting the demands of the manmade woke laws of our day. But these will never satisfy our need for righteousness. We need an alien righteousness that comes from outside of us. We need Christ’s righteousness and we can only get that through the mercy of God. If we confuse justice and mercy we confuse the gospel. Be careful what you ask for. If we continue to demand justice while sneering at mercy, then God may just give us what we want.
November13, 2023
Dr. Levi Secord
