Billy Graham and Martin Luther King Jr.

Among Christians and Christian leaders, there's a tendency to lean towards one of two approaches to the gospel.

The Billy Graham approach is about: salvation

The Martin Luther King Jr. approach is about: social justice

I just wonder why so many people are split between the two when the Bible so clearly teaches that both are essential to God's mission in the world.

Ephesians 2:8-9 is a scripture verse that many people love, especially those who tend towards the salvaiton side of the spectrum.  Paul says that we are saved by faith through God's gift of grace in those verses. 

Most people stop there, Paul didn't. 

The very next thing he says sounds a lot like social justice.  Paul says "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

The whole reason God gave us the gift of salvation is so that (in Paul's words "for we are") we do things to make this world a better place to live.  Why?  Because it's not ours, it's God's and He created us and re-created us to take care of it. 

May we be the kind of people that pursue both.