Missional Justice ( Reflection 1) Motive

Last week a series of ‘Read Reflect Respond’ reflections on the theme of ‘missional justice’ that I’d been asked to do for TIDES, a daily devotional within the the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, were sent out to subscribers. Reproducing them here for anyone interested – hope they are of some help.

MONDAY: The motive for missional justice – love

READ – DEUTERONOMY 10:12-19 12 And now, Israel, what does the  Lord your God ask of you but to fear the  Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good? 14 To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. 15 Yet the Lord set his affection on your ancestors and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations – as it is today. 16 Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. 17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. 18 He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. 19 And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.

REFLECT What is the passage saying and what does this mean for us? Fear’, ‘walk’, ‘love’, ‘serve’ and ‘observe’: five commands are given to Israel as she is about to enter the promised land. The command to love is reiterated numerous times in Deuteronomy (6:5; 10:12; 11:1, 13, 22; 19:9; 30:6, 16). The other four commands can be seen as examples of what love for God means in practice. Love means fearing God in gratitude and thankfulness. Love means to walk in the ways of the one true God. Love means serving God wholeheartedly and therefore obeying his commands. For Israel to live this way will be a source of great blessing for her own good (13). But note how verses 17-19 then unpack a practical example of love in action. Since God ‘loves the foreigner residing among you’ (18), Israel is to do the same (19). Authentic love for God cannot be kept to the self – it must overflow to others in need because this is the indiscriminate way that God has loved Israel (15).

RESPOND The motive for missional justice flows from our experience of the love of God that simply can’t be kept to ourselves. How is that love ‘overflowing’ to those in need in your life; in your church’s life? The global refugee crisis means that there are refugees living in our neighbourhoods. How can disciples who claim to love God show practical care to such foreigners in our midst?