Common Good

I’ve been thinking about the concept of “common good” recently. Protestants and evangelicals in particular haven’t given much thought to this. Or at least this protestant evangelical hasn’t. (Maybe that is because the terms “protestant” and “evangelical” have become watered down of late? A topic for another blog some day…) Roman Catholics have given more attention to the concept of common good. By common good I mean a ‘good’ that is shared by all (or most) residents of a community and that is beneficial for the flourishing of that community.

You might disagree with me but I do not think that most folks outside the Church perceive the Church as working for the common good. Many are suspicious of Christianity in general and the institutional Church in particular. I’ve never had an unbeliever say this to me, but I think many subconsciously suspect that the Church is really just self-serving. Many are thinking, “Churches undertake many good ministries, projects and works but they do so for their own sake. Really they’re just out to grow their own influence, to increase their numbers and income with an ulterior motive to impose their morality on everyone else.”

To be clear, as Christians we are trying to grow in influence. This is the natural inclination of a people who have met Jesus Christ and wish to share Him with others, hoping that they too will experience a similar profound love, peace and joy. The trouble comes when we equate growth in my or our influence with growth in Christ’s influence. When we combine these two we devise outreach and service projects in the name of Christ that mostly just serve ourselves.

In contrast to this, what would it look like if Christians and local churches were serving the “common good”? What would we do whether or not our influence grew, or people joined our church, or our reputation improved? What does our community need? Whatever issues our community faces Christians ought to be engaged in it, regardless of who gets the credit! I’m not a church history scholar, but when the early Christians rescued exposed infants and cared for the sick and dying I don’t believe they did so hoping to gain credit or grow their numbers. They did it simply because these things needed to be done. According to the Scriptures God had bestowed dignity on every human being for all were made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). Also “Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures.” (1 Corinthians 15:3) The inherent dignity of human beings (even those who were castaways) and the grace of God in the gospel demanded such a “common good” response. Certain people needed to be cared for, no one was doing it so some early Christians stepped up and in their service the gospel went forward and the influence of Christ expanded.

What does that mean for Christians today? In our generation nearly everyone is active in social justice. But who is working to love and serve the gang of teenage hoodlums rampaging in our community this summer? Who is working to equip our youth to become valuable contributors to our community? Many are helping the poor in times of crisis, but who is helping them break out of poverty? Oh that the Church may again be characterized by love and service and not power brokers!