The New Testament Approach to Social Responsibility

There has been a variety of different ideas on the subject of Christian approach to the social order. These range from the extreme of maintaining complete non-involvement to the extreme of wholehearted committal. The former is based on the contention that Christianity is spiritual and not social, because the gospel deals essentially with man’s spiritual problems. The latter extreme maintains a fully-fledged social gospel and sees no relevance in the spiritual issues. Our present purpose is not to discuss either of these extremes, but rather to examine the New Testament evidence which provides guiding principles on the subject of social responsibility. There is certainly no blue print which sets out the Christian approach in detail, for the New Testament does not purport to present a manifesto of this nature. Although certain specific aspects will be considered these will serve mainly as a framework for the enunciation of general methods.