Very well done material came in the mail yesterday promoting the very worthwhile work being done around the world by the organization called "Doctors without Borders".
All they do is amazing and they deserve to be supported. It is exemplary, good humanitarian work, but it is not Christian work- it is not done in Christ's name or for His Glory. It is not designed as a witness to the Gospel and is not designed to lead to conversions. It is completely secular. However it is exactly the kind of work that is so popular with Christians and increasingly being done by evangelical missionary agencies.
Advent begins this coming Sunday. During December Christians celebrate with joy the advent, the coming, of Christ into the world- the reason for the Season. Many believe His Mission in the world was to serve the poor, the outcast, the suffering and oppressed and we are now to do likewise. That has become the definition of the Gospel. Our call it is said, is to continue this mission of Christ. Thus we support the work done by Doctors without Borders and others like them.
But this was not the original mission of Christ. This contemporary approach to "mission" is wrong. It is not our mission now. Christ's mission, then and now, is the Salvation of souls and that is our mission now. Humanitarian work is good, but it is not our primary work.
1 Timothy 1:15, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief."
Mark 2:17, " I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."
Luke 19:10, "For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost."
Matthew 20:28, "Even as the Son of man came ...to give his life a ransom for many."
1 John 4:10, "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his only to be the propitiation for our sins."
John 3:16-18, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believes on him is not condemned: but he that believes not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."
Acts 3:26, "Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities."
