During his message at The Gospel Coalition’s 2019 National Conference, Pastor Tim Keller argued that justice—advocating for racial minorities, the poor and the needy—needs to be an important part of the Christian lifestyle. He says the primary mission of the church is to call people to repentance and share the gospel message, but that if we do not show our love by our deeds, the outside world will not heed the message we preach.
“When the world sees Christians only evangelizing and not caring about society, not doing the Good Samaritan thing—when the world sees Christians only evangelizing, you know what they see?” Keller says. “They actually see people who just care about increasing their tribe, increasing their market share, increasing their power. Now that’s not true, but from the outside, they don’t have the Holy Spirit. What else are they going to think when they see you do evangelism and the church grows and grows and grows? They’re going to say, ‘They’re just like every other business in the world, every other power block in the world, trying to get a bigger part of the market.’ But when they see us evangelizing and pouring ourselves out for the poor and the needy, and caring about racial justice—when they see us doing both, as Christians, then I think, frankly, the preaching of the gospel makes a lot more sense to them.”
To hear his full remarks on the subject, watch the embedded video above.
