Deeds not Creeds? An Encouragement for Both.

There is a common mantra circulating within the confines of modern evangelical Christendom which teaches: ‘deeds not creeds’. Intentionally respectable but utterly naive is its basis – in my humble opinion! It seeks to downplay the vigour of proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ and His saving power at the altar of civic & communal duty. Moreover, much worse is that when Christians do expound views on morality and the more didactic aspects of their faith, they are commonly charged with an opposition along the lines of, “Why are you so worried about [.....] why do you not concern yourself with mass starvation and worldwide injustice” - sadly general society & Christians themselves often buy into this myth and believe the church is generally fledgling in her duty to her fellow-man.

The following is taken from the blog ‘God and Politics in the UK’ http://godandpoliticsuk.org/2012/04/26/uk-public-is-increasingly-apathetic-towards-politics-but-christians-buck-the-trend/ accessed 27 April 2012.

‘Also whilst nationally community involvement and volunteering is dropping, the Church of England tells us that:

• More people do unpaid work for church organisations than any other organisation.
• A quarter of regular churchgoers (among both Anglicans and other Christians separately) are involved in voluntary community service outside the church. Churchgoers overall contribute 23.2 million hours voluntary service each month in their local communities outside the church.
• The Church of England provides activities outside church worship in the local community for 407,000 children and young people (aged under 16 years) and 32,900 young people (aged 16 to 25 years). More than 116,000 volunteers and an additional 4900 employed adults run children/young people activity groups sponsored by the Church of England outside church worship.

So why do Christians do this?  Why do we care?  It’s because God tells us to care for our world, our society and those around us.  It’s part of our spiritual DNA.  Take these two passages for example:

Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good,  to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone. (Titus 3:1,2)’

As with many things in our day, a dichotomy is made between the two (deeds & creeds) where there need not be. We who are evangelical and broadly, we who call ourselves Christian who adhere to the faith ‘once for all delivered to the saints‘ [Jude 3] must recognise that the same Saviour who told us to ‘Love thy neighbour as thyself’ also gave the command to ‘go therefore and make disciples of all nations‘.

It is time to abandon the self-flagellation with which certain corners of our community of faith is oft guilty of and recognise that while we must be actively engaged in the temporal good of our fellow-man, we are not at the self-same time obliged by Lord or conscience to neglect his eternal peace. Furthermore, we can [it must be noted with no sense of pride - since whatever we have comes from God and all thanks for any good he deposits in us is due only to Him] be confident in the face of opposition that we are actually performing our mandated ‘civic and communal duty‘ [the church at large] and so with assurance of that fact move forward in deed and creed.

P