Human trafficking. Racial prejudice. Health care. Immigration reform. Same-sex marriage. Environmentalism. Poverty. Abortion.
What comes to mind when you think of social justice?
In this new video, John Piper talks with Matt Chandler and David Platt about this trendy, vital, and often blurry topic. Piper has contended that Christians "should care about all suffering, especially eternal suffering," Similar, Platt notes, is his own church's informal motto: "As we work for justice in the world, we speak clearly about the Judge of the world."
Opportunities for social action will inevitably spring up as members are holistically discipled in the faith according to Matthew 28:19. "Church elders should so minister a robust gospel—a full-blooded, deep, sanctifying, transforming, humbling, radical-making gospel," Piper says, "that these sorts of [social justice ventures] naturally happen." As Platt adds, "A robust commitment to the gospel and the Great Commission will inevitably lead to encounters with the impoverished, the orphaned, and so forth."
"Be where you are" is the drum Chandler beats at The Village Church. "If you're doing gospel ministry where the Lord has placed you," he observes, "there will be plenty to do in terms of justice and gospel ministry."
It's also important to tie social justice to personal holiness, Platt point out. Fighting sex trafficking while looking at porn, for instance, is an ironic—and tragic—double standard.
Watch the full 10-minute video to see Piper, Platt, and Chandler discuss the relationship between social justice and the gospel, contemporary distortions of love, and more.
