EMQ » April – July 2025 » Volume 61 Issue 2

Topic: New Models of Mission 

Summary: Just as Jesus did not separate social action from his ministry, Christians working among Muslims should live out their faith through social action. By addressing specific needs in the local context, Christians’ actions compel Muslims to Christ through the credibility of faith in action. Our deeds need to match our proclamation.

By Jean-Pierre Maure

I have been working as an expatriate kingdom servant in Morocco for over 15 years, including more than ten as a family. Over time, sharing life with our host community highlighted to us the many social challenges faced by our friends and neighbors. Thus, we started to ask God what we were supposed to do about it. We have learned through the years that having such a mindset can lead to unexpected outcomes. Indeed, we have since then founded two charities. God has opened doors for involvement with vulnerable women, children, and young people with disabilities. This whole process has prompted us to explore the topic of social action, especially when it comes to Muslim contexts.

When I speak about social action here, I refer to the practical demonstration of Jesus’ love and compassion, especially towards those on the margins of society. These are some of the “good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:10),” which we, as Jesus’ followers, were “created for.” I want to share here what we have discovered along the way.

Jesus Engaged in Social Action

Much of Western Christianity tends to separate verbal proclamation of the good news from social action.[i] In contrast, and as launched in Luke 4:18-19, Jesus had a holistic ministry. He understood his task as proclaiming the good news to the poor, setting captives free and healing the sick.[ii] Therefore, as we read the Gospels, we see how his verbal proclamation was done in parallel with feeding the hungry, healing the sick, casting out evil spirits. Also, Jesus spent a lot of his time hanging out with people at the margins of society (sinners, cheaters, prostitutes, people with no education or status). In doing so, Jesus honored, acknowledged, and empowered them.

Then, Jesus sent his disciples with the same holistic brief (Luke 9, 10), expecting them to emulate his lifestyle as they encountered people. After Jesus’ ascension, his followers continued in the same way, with Paul encouraging them to “imitate Christ” (Ephesians 5:1), so much so that these early followers came to be named after Jesus’ own title, the Christ.

Jesus’ life and example demonstrated that he cared deeply for the poor in general. He did not limit his social efforts to believers. In this, he followed God’s Old Testament commands (e.g., Leviticus 19:9–10; Proverbs 21:13, 22:9, 29:7). Indeed, Jesus fed and healed many people who were not following him. Many probably never followed him. He most certainly expected his followers to do the same.

Social Action Cause Early Church Growth

We know from the New Testament that the apostles organized food distribution for widows and orphans. We also know that Paul collected money from richer congregations to provide for the needs of less affluent brothers and sisters.

However, we often fail to recognize the extent to which compassion was unusual in the Roman world. Tom Holland states that to Roman aristocrats, the sentiment that “God was closer to the weak than to the mighty, to the poor than to the rich … ‘so the last will be first, and the first last,’ … would have seemed grotesque.”[iii] For Romans, who had “erected a legal framework which benefited the few but weighed heavily on the many,”[iv] there was only value in being strong and powerful. Jesus’ concepts of compassion for the vulnerable and of equality for all human lives (later formalized in Galatians 3:28) were incredibly counter-cultural.

Early Christians swiftly implemented these concepts in their respective contexts. For example, Paul H. Furfey explained that early believers dramatically improved the rights of women, in a context where Romans saw woman “as little more than a sexual object.” Even Rabbis “had a low opinion of women,” instructing men not to speak to them in public, not even their own wives. Within the church, women found safety against the constant threat of abusive divorce and quickly came to play “a rather prominent part in the early history of the Church.”[v] Indeed, going against the surrounding culture of the Roman Empire and Jewish customs, women of the Christian subculture were welcomed as deaconesses, evangelists and teachers.[vi]

Another example is the way early believers reacted during urban epidemics. While the influential and rich would escape to safe hills, Christians often stayed behind to look after the sick even when these vulnerable individuals were not related to them.[vii] This seemed like madness to ruling elites but was genuine obedience to Jesus’ Golden Rule (John 13:34). Alan Kreider recounts how preachers such as Cyprian would encourage Christians to engage in such dangerous deeds. Listeners would, in response, “live in a distinctive way that communicated the Christian message to outsiders. When this happened, the sermon was important to the growth of the church.”[viii]

Such social involvement from early Christians would prove incredibly compelling in the long run, eventually contributing to the acceptance of Christianity as the state religion in the Roman Empire. Be it through extending love and charity beyond the Christian subculture, “liberating social relations between the sexes and within the family,” leveling the Roman class systems, or prohibiting infanticide (non-exhaustive list), Rodney Stark reckons that the “ultimate factor” in the rise of Christianity within the Roman Empire was that “Christianity gave to its converts … nothing less than their humanity.”[ix] The effects of this dramatic shift have been rippling all the way throughout the centuries until today.

Opportunities for Christian Social Action

Holland asserts that as Christianity kept spreading as the official religion in Europe, the once counter-cultural values of compassion for the poor as well as equal value for all human lives became ingrained in Western societies.[x] These values have become the norm, whether or not people recognize that it all started with Jesus.

Since Western societies have embraced these Christian values, much social action that once depended on Christians has now been nationalized. For example, most Western countries now have state-funded institutions which look after widows, orphans, and people living with disabilities. Under certain conditions, marginalized individuals trapped in addictions can enter free schemes to get rid of their predicaments. Single mothers can access benefits to support their families.

As a result, even though there is still plenty to do for Christians who wish to get involved, opportunities and the necessity for social action have gradually decreased in the West. In contrast, most kingdom servants located in majority Muslim countries have observed that there are few such nationalized programs in their host communities. Economic considerations certainly play some role in this, but I contend that there are much deeper roots to this issue.

Miroslav Volf, a champion of building bridges with Muslims, has identified that love for enemies is one of the great distinctions between the teachings of the Bible and the Qur’an.[xi] The Bible insists that God is love (1 John 4:16). God therefore loves all his creatures. Following this fundamental concept (exemplified by the life and teachings of Jesus), Christians are also expected to love the other (Matthew 7:12), even when the other happens to be an enemy or a sinner (Luke 6:27).

In contrast, no such teaching can be found in the Qur’an. As a result, as stated by Volf, “Most [Muslims] reject the idea that the love of neighbor includes the love of enemy.”[xii] Yes, the Qur’an occasionally exhorts followers of Mohammed to repel evil with good, and pardon and forgive others,[xiii] but it is always implied that these “others” would be Muslim. The Qur’an never instructs Muslims to love their enemies. Even when one looks at the hadiths, the ones most often quoted (Al-Bukkhari 13 and Muslim 45)[xiv] obviously indicate that Muslims are expected to extend love and charity within the limits of the Muslim community, not beyond.

Therefore, most good Muslims are inclined to look after their relatives and, perhaps, even unfortunate (righteous) members of their communities, but things are different when it comes to marginalized individuals, especially people seen as sinners. Volf states:

Christians affirm that, as it is written in the New Testament, “God is love.” This means not only that God is loving, but that God loves always, and that God loves unconditionally. Though God doesn’t love evil deeds, God loves all people, including those who commit evil deeds. Now Muslims resist that claim. God is infinitely merciful, but God’s love is conditional; there are people, and not just deeds, whom God does not love.[xv]

If the Qur’an’s Allah does not love sinners, including “ungrateful evildoers” (Surah 2:276), why should Muslims?

In our Moroccan Muslim context, few people would ever think of helping women who have fallen into prostitution. Indeed, these women are seen as the worst sinners of all, even though most of them find themselves there because of having suffered horrendous abuse. We also face an uphill struggle in our desire to provide opportunities for young people living with disabilities, as it is still widely believed that these individuals (or their families) must have committed some kind of despicable sin to deserve such punishment.

This is not to say that no Muslim ever loves sinners or even their enemies – we know many such exceptional individuals in our context. However, in the light of what I have presented above, I would argue that their sincere compassion for such individuals has more to do with the Holy Spirit working in and through them than with teachings found in the Qur’an or in the hadiths.

Social Action in the First Movement Among Muslims

Radin was born in Java in 1835.[xvi] After having been an observing Muslim for some time, he decided to become a Christian and was baptized in 1867. Radin chose Sadrach as his Christian name, following in the footsteps of one of Daniel’s companions who refused to abandon his Jewish heritage while living in Babylon. Some have said that Radin chose this name as a sign that he was not going to renounce his Indonesian heritage in becoming Christian. In that colonial context, local believers would traditionally leave their socio-cultural heritage behind at conversion.

Sadrach was a very successful evangelist. He used contextual methods that respected the Javanese-Hindu-Muslim context, and the number of believers quickly increased. They built their first church in 1871 in a Javanese style. They called it a mosque because it looked more like a mosque as opposed to colonial church buildings.

Sadrach’s ministry led to what is seen as the first ever movement in a Muslim context,[xvii] with more than 7,000 followers at some point. Many have pointed to Sadrach’s contextual approach as the main factor that led to this successful movement.[xviii] However, very few have noticed or emphasized Sadrach’s significant engagement in social action. He deeply cared for the wellbeing of his community, notably pioneering in cooperative banking and new educational options. For Sutarman Soediman Patronadi, this seems to have played a significant role in the growth of Sadrach’s movement,[xix] an insight missed by most observers of Sadrach’s ministry. Yoshua Budiman Harahap also highlights the social dimension of this movement.[xx] Under Sadrach’s leadership, the community joined forces to clear up forest and develop rice fields, thus reaching a remarkable level of self-sufficiency. As a result, “Sadrach’s community became a magnet attracting other villagers to come and join it.”[xxi] Could it be that Western Christian eyes have been blind to this social dimension?

Christians’ Good Deeds Compel Muslims to Follow Jesus

In his study of factors having contributed to hundreds of MBBs’ decisions to follow Jesus, Dudley Woodberry identified that the most important factor was “the lifestyle of Christians.”[xxii] This is also emphasized by Evelyne Reisacher, who stresses the importance of a lifestyle where kingdom servants’ actions match their words in Muslim contexts. She states, “It is also my experience that Muslims often look at whether my life, as a Christian, matches what I profess … It is not enough to preach; Muslims have to see our faith through our lifestyle, our compassion, our good deeds.”[xxiii] This is consistent with what I found when interviewing 75 Moroccan MBBs about why they became Christians.[xxiv]

This truly is the crux of the matter. Verbal proclamation alone will not do. As demonstrated from biblical, historical, and contemporary evidence, we must always remember that preaching and prayer (with accompanying signs) are not the only factors involved in the growth of the kingdom of God. Social action is an essential component. How do we, as kingdom servants, show true compassion and engage in what will be perceived as good deeds by seekers in our respective local communities? No one size fits all. For Jesus, it included feeding 4,000 hungry people and healing lepers. For the early church, it included redefining gender relationships, class systems and sexual ethics, or caring for people in times of epidemics. For Sadrach, it was cooperative banking and access to education. In our North African context, it is caring for pregnant single mums, illiterate nomads and young people living with disabilities.

I believe that all kingdom workers in Muslim contexts should be asking God how they can engage in social action in a way that is relevant and counter-cultural to their host community. May God lead us by his infinite wisdom.

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[i] Bryant L. Myers, Walking With the Poor, 2nd ed. (Orbis Books, 2011), 7–10.

[ii] Myers, Walking With the Poor, 73–75.

[iii] Tom Holland, Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind (Little Brown, 2019), 21.

[iv] Paul H. Furfey, “Social Action in the Early Church 30–180 A.D.: II. The Dignity of the Human Person,” Theological Studies 3, no.1 (1942): 107.

[v] Furfey, “Social Action,” 92–97.

[vi] Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity: How the Obscure, Marginal Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force in the Western World in a Few Centuries (HarperCollins, 1997), 107–110.

[vii] Tom Wright, God and the Pandemic: A Christian Reflection on the Coronavirus and Its Aftermath (SPCK, 2020), 3.

[viii] Alan Kreider, The Patient Ferment of the Early Church: The Improbable Rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire (Baker, 2016), 203.

[ix] Stark, The Rise of Christianity, 209–214.

[x] Holland, Dominion, 21.

[xi] Miroslav Volf, Allah: A Christian Response (HarperOne, 2011), Chapter 8.

[xii] Volf, Allah, 183.

[xiii] See, for example, Surah 13:22, 28:54, 41:34–35. The Qur’an (Oxford University Press, 2004).

[xiv] The Prophet said, “None of you will have faith till he wishes for his (Muslim) brother what he likes for himself” (Sahih al-Bukhari 13), accessed Februrary 3, 2025, https://sunnah.com/bukhari:13. It is narrated on the authority of Anas b. Malik that the Prophet (may peace and blessings be upon him) observed: “None amongst you believes (truly) until he loves for his brother” – or he said “for his neighbour” – “that which he loves for himself” (Sahih Muslim 45a), accessed February 3, 2025,  https://sunnah.com/muslim:45″https://sunnah.com/muslim:45.

[xv] Miroslav Volf, “Is Allah God?” Emir Stein Center, October 24, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYQqeYX7Y14.

[xvi] Many biographies of Sadrach have been written over the years. The summary of his life presented here is based on one of the most recent ones. Emanuel Singgih, “A Postcolonial Biography of Sadrach: The Tragic Story of an Indigenous Missionary,” in Al-Jāmi‘ah: Journal of Islamic Studies 53, no. 2 (2015): 367–86.

[xvii] David Garrison, A Wind in the House of Islam: How God Is Drawing Muslims around the World to Faith in Jesus Christ (WIGTake Resources, 2014), loc. 725.

[xviii] E.g., Singgih, “A Postcolonial Biography of Sadrach,” 347. Garrison, A Wind in the House of Islam, loc.750.

[xix] Sutarman Soediman Patronadi, Sadrach’s Community and Its Contextual Roots: A Nineteenth-Century Javanese Expression of Christianity (Brill, 1990), 206–7.

[xx] Yoshua Budiman Harahap, “Liberatio Communio: The Ecclesiological Identity of Sadrach’s Javanese Community,” in International Bulletin of Mission Research 41, no. 3 (2017): 242.

[xxi] Harahap, “Liberatio Communio,” 242.

[xxii] J. Dudley Woodberry, “A Global Perspective on Muslims Coming to Faith in Christ,” in From the Straight Path to the Narrow Way: Journeys of Faith (Authentic Media, 2006). J. Dudley Woodberry, Russell G Shubin, and G Marks, “Why Muslims Follow Jesus: The Results of a Recent Survey of Converts from Islam,” Christianity Today 51, no. 10 (2007): 80–85.

[xxiii] Evelyne A Reisacher, Joyful Witness in the Muslim World (Mission in Global Community): Sharing the Gospel in Everyday Encounters (Baker Academic, 2016), 110–111.

[xxiv] Maure, Jean-Pierre, “Paving the Way for Power Encounters: Contextually Informed Practices for Evangelism in the South of Morocco” (DIS diss., Fuller Theological Seminary, 2021), 107.

 [JW1]I love this article, I believe it is one of the best one in this issue. I do wonder if this sentence might be gently tweaked. While the Holy Spirit can and does work in and through those who do not know Christ, I’m not sure that is the only explanation for this result. thoughts?

 [EM2]This is the author’s argument and he is entitled to his view. It is not our role to fine tune the theology of our missionary contributors. This is certainly in keeping with missiological discussion around God already being at work in the world, even in/among non-Christians.

This is the kind of issue you could raise by putting a comment on the published article and seeing if you can generate some discussion.

 [3]Thanks, Evelyn. I’m fine with leaving it as is.

 [KA4]While true that the early church redefined caste systems, this article uses the example of the Roman Empire which is built on class, not caste.

 [EM5]Thanks for picking this up.

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EMQ, Volume 61, Issue 2. Copyright © 2025 by Missio Nexus. All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced or copied in any form without written permission from Missio Nexus. Email: EMQ@MissioNexus.org.