How should followers of Jesus respond in times of political turmoil and cultural division, when the loudest voices often drown out the wisest?
I recently thought about this question with a group of young professionals in Brussels. We began with the ancient words of the prophet Micah: “What does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with God.” (Micah 6:8) The three virtues of justice, mercy, and humility provide a compass for our actions in times of polarization.
Act fairly: Act based on truth.
Justice begins with truth. In an age of rampant misinformation and manipulation, Christians must be men of truth, both factually and morally. We cannot manipulate truth, even if it helps our argument. Acting fairly means pursuing what is right, not just what is advantageous or popular.
Justice resists the tribal instinct to divide the world into us and them.
Justice calls us to see the image of God in all people. Even if you find that opinion offensive.
Justice resists the tribal instinct to divide the world into us and them. Justice refuses to weaponize faith for political gain.
Acting fairly means speaking truth to power and exposing lies and half-truths. It means speaking the truth in love to our neighbors, our communities, and our own hearts. It means pursuing the common good. We seek to benefit not only our tribe, but all people, especially those who are marginalized and have no voice.
Justice is not revenge. It’s resilient. Justice wants relationships and society to be made right, not just punishment. Justice demands shalom. Justice stands as a quiet revolution against the shouting matches of our time: listening, discerning, and healing.
Loving Mercy: Rooted in Love
Compassion is an attitude of love in a broken world.
Compassion is an attitude of love in a broken world. It recognizes that we all need grace. In a polarized culture, compassion looks like patience, forgiveness, and empathy. Marcy chooses to understand before blaming.
The parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) teaches that loving mercy means treating so-called “others,” or adversaries, not as enemies to be destroyed, but as neighbors to be loved. Compassion transcends tribes and ideologies. Compassion crosses boundaries, heals wounds, and restores dignity.
Compassion also calls us to resist the cynicism that pervades political life. When everything becomes a power game, we are reminded that compassion is the most transformative force on earth. We can practice compassion by refusing to shame, caricature, or dehumanize people who are different from us in conversation, around the dinner table, in political debates, or on social media.
Loving kindness allows us not to retreat from the public sphere but to enter it with kindness. Compassion allows us to approach culture not as culture warriors, but as cultural healers. As truth-tellers of elegant taste.
Walk humbly, rooted in hope
We are not the saviors of the world, Christ is the savior.
Humility is a rare virtue in today’s public life. In an age of anger and self-promotion, walking humbly is countercultural. Humility reminds us that we are not the saviors of the world, but that Christ is. We don’t have all the answers. We are still students of the school of grace.
Humility prevents us from idolizing political movements or leaders. Humility allows us to confess when we are wrong. Doing so frees us to listen before we speak, to learn from others, and to trust that God is working even in ways we cannot understand.
Walking humbly is ultimately an act of hope. It trusts that God’s purposes will not be thwarted by human folly or failure. While justice grounds us in truth and mercy grounds us in love, humility fuels us with hope, the quiet confidence that truth will triumph and light will overcome darkness. Hope reminds us that the story is not over yet.
Therefore, justice, mercy, and humility are based on truth, love, and hope.
Truth without love is harsh and divisive. Love without truth becomes sentimental and weak. Without either, hope becomes weak.
Truth without love is harsh and divisive. Love without truth becomes sentimental and weak. Without either, hope becomes weak. Truth confronts lies, but it does so with love. Love builds bridges but never abandons truth. Hope sustains them both and reminds them that the story is not over yet.
Jesus described the influence of his followers, who embodied yet another triad of these virtues in the world, as “the salt of the earth,” “the light of the world,” and “the yeast in the dough.”
Salt preserves flavor and prevents spoilage. Light reveals, guides and dispels fear. Yeast works invisibly and extensively, changing everything from the inside out.
In the age of culture wars, retreat or domination is not an option. Salt, light, and yeast suggest another strategy: a faithful presence as a loyal minority.
Think about it. Salt, light, and yeast each make up a small part of the meal, room, and bread, but each changes the whole. Let’s go all over the world and live it.
First published in Weekly Word. Republished with permission.
Jeff Fountain and his wife Romkier are the founders of the Schuman Center for European Studies. They moved to Amsterdam in December 2017 after living in the Dutch countryside for over 40 years working at the YWAM Heidebeek Training Center. Mr. Lomkie is the founder of YWAM Netherlands and chaired the national board until 2013. Jeff served on the board of YWAM Europe for 20 years until 2009. Jeff chaired the annual European Hope Roundtable until 2015, and Lomkier most recently chaired the Women’s Leadership Network. Jeff is the author of several books including Living as People of Hope and Deeply Rooted, as well as a weekly column on European issues called Weekly Word.
Weekly Word is an initiative of the Schumann Center for European Studies. Geoff Fountain is a New Zealander with a Dutch passport and currently the Director of the Schumann Center for European Studies (www.shumancentre.eu), living in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Geoff graduated with a degree in History from the University of Auckland in 1972 and worked as a journalist for the New Zealand Herald from 1972 to 1973 and as a traveling secretary for the Senior Students Christian Fellowship (TSCF) in 1973. He has lived in the Netherlands since 1975 and has traveled and lectured in almost every country in Europe. For 20 years after the fall of communism, he served as the European director of Youth with a Mission, an international and non-denominational missionary organization. He is president of the international non-denominational movement Hope for Europe, which organized two pan-European conferences in Budapest in 2002 and 2011. In 2010, we established the Schumann Center for European Studies (www.shumancentre.eu) to promote a biblical perspective on Europe’s past, present and future and to encourage effective engagement with the issues facing Europe today.
