We seek and keep shalom.
We live by the Covenant and shalom is the whole point. It’s more than just the blessings granted to obedience; it is obedience itself. Biblical Law is its own reward. It is harmony with reality.
We could use other words here, of course — compassion and mercy, for example. Genuine compassion and mercy are part of the Covenant. It’s not enough that we seek to build shalom within the covenant community of faith, but that we project it outward. Evangelism as a term generally implies the individual effort toward missions.
First and most obvious is the sensory field of our hearts. Based on our individual mission and calling, we use our heart to identify people to whom the Lord wants us minister. We aren’t looking at instrumentality; we do what is just because it is just. Justice includes compassion and mercy, restoring in some limited ways the justice that should have been there in the first place. The limits are not just the mission and calling, but the very real blessings that God has given us. We cannot give what we do not have from God, and we most certainly cannot trust human reason to decide what we ought to be giving. But we project our overwhelming compassion from our hearts, waiting for the signal from God to give what He says we should give.
But in a broader and more general sense, or very presence is the Presence of God. Our obedience to His Law bleeds away the authority of demons. Our faith moderates the justified wrath of God, unless He warns us to flee a particular situation. This is crucial to the heart-led way. This is how we discern where and to what we called, and whom we touch.
In general, we are inclined to purposeful, and sometimes random, acts of kindness to express the power of shalom to others. Naturally, compassion is not defined by human reason. Human need is not the guide to what we do. It has the purpose of our Lord’s glory, and human need is simply the opening we use to shine. The Law of Noah teaches us not to be manipulated by shallow human purpose. We can’t let them drag us into their concerns. For His glory, there are times we must say, “no.”
What most Western Christians don’t understand is that we have no interest in simply getting people to hang out with us. Instead, we should expect our pursuit of shalom to polarize, to drive away those we cannot help in the first place, while calling out to those whom the Lord has appointed us to serve up a heaping dose of His glory. So all that effort with analyzing the demographics and structured appeals is wasted. We operate under the leading of our convictions, not man-centered reckoning in the flesh. We do what our heart directs us to do, and nothing else.
Walking in Biblical Law, by the power of Christ’s Spirit, is in everyone’s best interest.
‘For His glory, there are times we must say, “no.”’
A wise older pastor of mine built half a sermon around Jesus NOT healing people. He pointed out that there were probably hundreds of people He came across in person that could’ve used healing, but He chose not to do it. He left it as a mystery, which it ultimately is, but there’s something about God’s character to be explored in His express silence on matters we’d prefer Him to speak on.