The Call to Compassion and Justice

By Lyndon Azcuna, LifePlan Executive Director

God’s people are called to be blessings to the world. This call started with the call of Abraham (Genesis 12:3, Genesis 26:4) and is manifested when God’s people live lives of compassion and justice to the people around them. Consider the following verses: 

“If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the town of the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother” (Deuteronomy 15:7) 

“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8) 

 God wants to bless the world through His people practicing compassion and justice to those around them. Imagine that we were all sitting down on a side of a river watching people going down the river drowning. If we respond by pulling people out of the river, we are practicing compassion. If we walk upstream to find out who is throwing people into the river in an effort to stop the drowning, we are practicing justice. Compassion is relief of the immediate issue; justice is addressing the root issue. God’s people are called to practice both. 

 Which is exactly what we do at LifePlan. We practice compassion by providing excellent services intended to help provide relief from our clients’ immediate issues, but we also practice justice by helping our clients deal with the root issue – sin.  Our desire for all our clients is for them to recognize their ultimate need of being restored in their relationship to God through the life and death of Jesus Christ. We exist to spread the Gospel (justice) by helping people choose life and live a Hope-filled life (compassion). 

 Would you consider giving to LifePlan today to help us bless the world and expand the reach of the Gospel?