Philip Gulley shares the story of an argumentative churchgoer who obsessed over end times details but was M.I.A. when there was a call for volunteers to serve in the local food bank. He argues, “We’re so busy preparing for heaven that we forget to make earth a better place.”
Brian McLaren agrees. He says, “The kingdom of God is not a ticket to heaven but a call to transform this world through love and justice.”
Have we got it wrong? Are Christians too preoccupied with the life to come? If we stop talking about heaven will that make us more useful here on earth? The Bible presents an interesting balance.
1. Jesus’ central call was to repentance, not free soup
Most scholars agree that Mark 1:15 is the statement of Jesus’ core message: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” The way many speak about the kingdom of God today, you might have expected Him to tell people to just roll up their sleeves and join Him in trying to help people—and He did plenty of that—but Jesus’ primary message was about calling people to repent and believe the good news.
There’s an interesting episode where people confront Jesus with a shocking case of injustice. The Roman governor, Pilate, had killed some Galileans while they were offering sacrifices. You might expect Jesus to form a political protest: “Down with Pilate! Away with Rome!” Instead, he says to them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” Jesus was stubbornly focused on people’s spiritual condition and need for repentance.
But didn’t Jesus feed the 5,000? He did, and He showed compassion for all of people’s physical struggles. But even then, He pointed beyond their physical hunger to their spiritual need. Listen to how He addresses those who just wanted more bread in John 6:27: “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life.”
We should care for people’s physical needs, but followers of Jesus should imitate His priorities, and His was a message of eternal life received through repentance and faith.
2. If all we can offer the poor is free soup, we leave them hopeless
The book of James makes it clear that faith without works is useless (James 2:17). We should help those who are “poorly clothed and lacking in daily food” and give “them the things needed for the body” (James 2:16). But if Jesus is reduced to a social worker and all we can offer is charity, then the poor are at the mercy of the privileged, and there is no future hope.
If you haven’t eaten all day, free soup is nice, but it’s never someone’s first choice. Heaven is the promise of a feast to all who turn to Jesus. It’s the hope of relief from this world’s struggles and injustices. That hope was central to the early church’s mission.
In 1 Corinthians 15:19, Paul said, “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.” If our religion can be reduced to a little more food, a little better health, and a little more friendship, then we should pack it in. But the reality is that we worship a Saviour who has risen from the dead and offers eternal life to all who turn to Him.
3. Only Jesus’ promise of eternal life can motivate us to serve soup when things get hard
Diana Butler Bass once wrote, “Our faith should focus on healing this planet, not escaping it.” That sounds noble enough. And trying to escape this world feels like an abandonment of the mission Jesus gave us. But aid workers and those involved in areas of justice and compassion are especially prone to burnout.
When you set out to “heal the planet” it’s not long before you realize that your efforts are a drop in the bucket. The Bible tells us that our planet is broken and will one day be destroyed. What’s the point of changing the sheets on the Titanic?
According to the Bible, it’s the very promise of the life to come that motivates us to overcome the setbacks and difficulties that inevitably come when serving the needy. Take the Christians in Hebrews 10:34-35, for example. It says, “For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.” How did they keep going when their support of those who had been imprisoned led to profound loss? They had their eyes focused on their eternal inheritance. We need a strong eternal hope to deal with the challenges involved in serving others. To shortchange one in service of the other is to move backward, not forward.
Jesus never taught us to ignore the pain and injustice around us, but neither would He let us live like this is all that there is. Our mission is to declare the gospel and call people to repent and believe in Him. But when we’ve experienced the love of God, it moves us to love our world. And the people that we love need eternal hope just as much as we do.
In awe of Him,
Paul
