What is the relationship between compassion and justice?
Posted by Amy L. Sherman

In His inaugural address in Luke 4: 16-21, Jesus outlines His threefold mission on earth. He's come to preach good news, to restore sight to the blind, and to set free the oppressed. We could label these three activities "evangelism," "compassion ministry," and "justice mission." When we do, we ought to hear an echo of Micah 6:8 -God's call on each of His followers to "do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God." That verse helpfully sums up the heart of Christian discipleship. Followers of Jesus need to imitate His threefold mission. Any one of the three, by itself, is insufficient.

Evangelicals have been good for a long time at evangelism. And when we consider the many Evangelically rooted ministries focused on meeting people's practical needs-World Vision, Food for the Hungry, Compassion International, Joni and Friends, Voice of the Martyrs, the Christian Community Development Association, World Relief, and dozens more-that have sprung up in the past 50 years or so, it looks like we'd get decent marks on compassion ministry, too. But what about justice missions? Here there is room for growth.

Someone once said that compassion ministry is fishing drowning people out of the river, and justice ministry is going upstream to figure out how they got into the river in the first place--and trying to fix that.

One important reason why some end up in the river is that they are pushed in on purpose. And with this we confront a kind of injustice Evangelicals are not adequately addressing. That hypothetical person in the water represents a victim of injustice-an injustice committed with intentional violence by someone abusing his/her power. That is the kind of injustice that International Justice Mission, the leading Evangelical group active in "justice mission," addresses. IJM literally rescues children from forced bonded labor, girls from brothels, and adults from illegal detention. And then they prosecute the offenders, in order to strengthen the public justice system. If enough bad guys get punished consistently for pushing the vulnerable into the river, then they may stop their aggression. That's justice mission-and it is a kind of ministry that the Church must increasingly adopt.

This kind of work can be more difficult than compassion ministry. For one thing, it means entering the most dark, scary, dangerous corners of our world. For another, it means embracing the often unfamiliar and uncomfortable Biblical truths about God's hatred of injustice and the need to hold perpetrators accountable as part of the scriptural mandate to "do justice." But most uniquely, it means actually having to fight against very real people who are committed to continuing the abuses. Justice mission of this sort is characterized by the presence of violence. Compassion ministry can be dangerous (think of those ministering at night in a crime-ridden urban ghetto) but it isn't always. By contrast with some of the justice scriptures, the Biblical texts calling us to compassion are familiar: love your neighbor, share your bread with the hungry, be like God and show mercy. We are comfortable with a God who tells us to be kind to others; less so with One who castigates wickedness. And usually, no one actually violently opposes us when we go to demonstrate compassion to someone in need. You probably did not get beat up by someone the last time you helped a blind person to cross the street, gave a bagel to a homeless guy, taught an ESL class, or tutored an at-risk kid. Typically we don't have to "fight" for compassion the way we have to fight for justice.

Compassion, of course, is always part and parcel of justice. Our compassion for the victim motivates our engagement. And even perpetrator accountability is an expression of compassion. It is strong version of "tough love." It's instituted not only to protect future victims from the perpetrator's attacks, but also to turn the bad guy away from his sins, with the hope that true repentance will come, bringing with it the possibility of new life.

The Biblical call to justice is clear, and that's reason enough to embrace it. But interestingly, our very commitment to compassion ministry may also propel us into justice mission. Perhaps you sponsor a child in India-maybe even through Compassion International. Your $30 month is helping her to stay in school, get medical care, and hear Bible stories. But if the public justice system in her village is so broken that she is put into bonded slavery for a debt her parents incur, or if an unscrupulous sex trafficker kidnaps her and forces her into a Mumbai brothel, your compassion ministry becomes irrelevant. At this point, she doesn't need your child sponsorship dollars and friendly cards-as lovely as those things are. She needs to be rescued. Justice mission is a vital and irreducible part of the compassion ministry called poverty alleviation. Through compassion, we can help the widow to earn income through micro-enterprise, or the farmer to increase his crop yields through irrigation, or the peasant child to get an education. But if the bullies can then take away these things with impunity-stealing the widow's lands, tossing the farmer in jail without cause, or sex trafficking the little girl-all the while bribing police to insulate themselves against prosecution, then our accomplishments disappear.

The unfortunate truth is that these very situations occur daily worldwide. So, Evangelicals must not settle for two cheers for their efforts in following Jesus' threefold mandate. It's time for more vigorous involvement in justice mission.

Dr. Amy L. Sherman directs the Center on Faith in Communities at the Sagamore Institute for Policy Research, and serves as Senior Fellow for the International Justice Mission.