Self Portrait - 011 - 2010One of the more famous quotes from St. Francis of Assisi is, “Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary, use words.” There is an important lesson in that statement often overlooked. Until the post-modern revival of social justice, Christians typically said far more than they physically did. Racing to condemnation and stagnation toward action became the hallmark of evangelicals. We were quick to send people out with tracts, street-corner evangelism, formulas, and scripts with little to no life-investment. Heck, we’d even volunteer at a soup kitchen now and then to bolster our egos and show that we were willing to get our hands dirty from time to time.

But it was just noise. We thought we were doing God’s work by preaching loud and long the evils of sin and how morality would save you by coming to the Church (we would say you were coming to Jesus… but we really always meant the Church. Our church, in fact.) This worked for a season… the Church promised hope, fulfillment, and a place to belong. There’s even an entire segment of Christianity that took that whole thing even further by promising wealth and prosperity… I wonder if we’d realized that Charismania was birthed from a man-centered Gospel?

Time finds us out though. Yes, there were those who came and found true hope because they actually found Christ, but there were (and probably still are) many who just found the church and found it filled with the same egotistical and selfish people they encountered on the outside, just with prettier talk. Substance was rare. Life-changing faith was rarer still. Empty words.

Today, however, we see a full-on resurgence of social justice and service-minded Christianity. Now we’re talking. Bring the cup of cold water, help the less fortunate, work to better your fellow man, but let’s not confuse everyone with these Gospel words… they sound just like that crap the church has been vomiting out to the culture for decades. Nobody wants to hear more empty words about Jesus loving them and what it means to be born again and what-not. No sir. If we just serve them, they’ll see Jesus and come to know Him and that’ll be good enough, right?

There are a lot of people who are capable of doing “good” in the world through social justice and service. In fact, many who have proven far more capable at it than we are. There are others who show a greater interest in their fellow man than many Christians. Sadly, most Christians still act like they’re looking for a merit badge when they serve (me included). What sets Christians apart (or should) is the Gospel. Acting without ever preaching will just lead to misunderstood actions.

By all means, demonstrate the Gospel. Serve and fight for justice. But words, at some point or another, will always be necessary. In the famous quote from St. Francis, we have to note that he said when necessary… not if necessary. We must both act and preach so that our words are not empty nor our actions misunderstood. The truth of the Gospel must be clear and plain… we do what we do not for ourselves, but because God Himself became a man and died for our sins so that the prodigal can be brought back into His family. God is the One (whose Son we killed) that adopts us anyway. He welcomes us into His family as if we’d done nothing wrong for the sake of His son. We must act, yes, but we must also speak to ensure that the Gospel is clear (with love, grace, humility, and good sense).