1. A Very Specific Starting Point⤒🔗

When I try to give an indication of the content of Christian social work and Christian social assistance, I start from a very specific point of view: I take the Bible, the only Word of God, in which he has revealed himself, as my standard and guide. This means that I start from the biblical view of humanity and the world. My faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is my conviction in life, which is also decisive when we discuss the topic of relief and assistance in social needs.

This point of view is not the same as the humanistic or neo-Marxist view with a few corrections, additions to, or subtractions from it. It is entirely of its own nature, because it does not find its starting point in inherently worldly categories, but in the self-revelation of the Lord God, the Creator and Sustainer of all, the Redeemer and Renewer of life that has been degraded through sin and guilt, and the great Finisher of what he has begun and what he has decided to accomplish. This self-revelation of God is incorporated in the Bible, which speaks to us of God the Helper, who calls us to help one another, and also points to Jesus Christ, the Servant, from whom we learn to render true service to the Father and to our neighbours by the Holy Spirit.

This view of humanity and the world, which we draw from the Word of God and which we can call biblical or Christian, is not integrated into the existing (humanistic or neo-Marxist) framework of social work, but in accordance with our deep conviction it establishes its own distinctive framework of social service.

I have the impression that all who accept the Bible and want to rely on it for their thinking and acting have not given sufficient consideration to this Biblical starting point in the field of social welfare. Therefore, more than ever, all the energy of those who confess Christ should be combined in order to account properly and responsibly for their own point of view, to arrive at their own organization of Christian social work, if we can rightfully use this term.

2. An Attempt to Define Christian Social Work←⤒🔗

I want to attempt to give a description of Christian social work, without pretending that I have already fully understood it. There will still be a lot of thinking and discussions before we have formulated our position in all clarity and have incorporated the consequences of this in the concrete design and implementation of social services. But it seemed wrong to me to adhere to a negative analysis without attempting to give a positive and initial impetus in explaining what Christian social work should be from a biblical point of view.

I have based this article on two key concepts, namely helping and serving. Both of these are focused on the field of the social functioning of people, whereby the overall scope is supported by the Christian view of humanity and of the world, as the Bible teaches us.

I would like to present this biblical, Christian view of humanity and of the world concisely, and in a few cases in the form of some propositions, as follows:

• The Bible speaks to us of God, who is from eternity to eternity and who has created everything in unlimited wisdom and with great power, who sustains and rules over all that has been created in a way that can never be fully understood by us, yet in such a way as to make all things work together for the good of those who love him (Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 9, q/a 26).
• The Bible proclaims to us that God also created man, and that this being created means that man stands in relationship to God the Creator, to the other people as fellow creatures, and to everything else that God created. This being a creature of God is maintained, even when sin entered, and man turned away from his Creator to the devil through deliberate disobedience. Thus, man turned the good rapport with God into a hostile one. Man will always have to be seen as functioning in these relationships. Whoever omits this from his reflections, retains a reduced and therefore incorrect image of man (Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 4, q/a 9; Canons of Dort Chapter III/IV, Article 1).
• The Bible then teaches us that the first people God created have become unfaithful to God’s will and command; they have brought sin into this life with all its consequences; and lastly it teaches that all their descendants are also sinners. From the beginning of his existence man is under the spell of the powers of sin and demons. He does not love and seek God, but instead seeks his own honour, advantage, and certainty at the cost of, and while neglecting, his fellow men. Thus, as a sinner, man stands in a negatively charged relationship with God, the neighbour, and the creation as the work of God’s hands. He is inclined to all evil and of himself incapable of any good (Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 2, q/a 5; Belgic Confession, Articles 14 and 15).
• Man lives in a broken society full of possibilities for conflict and aberrations. From this disintegration of the essential relations which is caused by sin (that is, from man’s attitude toward God, his fellow men, and God’s creation) arise all misery and every single need in this world. This did not happen to man as a fateful condition but is recorded in the accounts of heaven as an action that corresponds with guilt, judgment, and condemnation. However, the effect of sin is not so complete that life in this world has become a hell and an impossibility. There is still a slowing down of the powers of sin in the goodness of God over all people. People have been given some distinction between what is decent and what is indecent. They can also somehow respect the general conditions for the possibilities to live and develop life itself, and also to help and serve each other in social life (Canons of Dort Chapter III/IV, Article 4).
• Finally, the Bible teaches us that God has sent his Son into this world in order to redeem, deliver, and renew men, and to fight, conquer, and remove the realm of evil from this world. Therefore, the redemption of human life lies in the Lord Jesus Christ. This salvation becomes ours when we put our faith in the Redeemer. He is preached to us from the Bible, so that we might know him and trust in him. In as far as we practice communion with him through faith, by the power of the Holy Spirit, our lives are involved in a process of renewal, so that the disrupted relations are somewhat and also more and more restored; so that we love God our Creator again and serve him; so that we approach our fellow men with love, and help and care for them; and so that we will marvel at the work of creation of our God, and use it with love in order to benefit society and the existence of this world. In addition, we will fight against sin, evil, and the devil (see Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 12, q/a 32).

These biblical notions determine the thinking and acting of those who want to let themselves be directed by the Bible and who want to be Christians in this sense. This applies also to their social assistance, their involvement in social work and welfare. In this respect there is true Christian service.

That is why we now also want to see, within the outlined biblical view of humanity and the world, what the Bible says about helping and serving each other, with a specific focus on social support. This, too, is done in a summary and also in the form of propositions:

• The first thing that strikes us in the Bible is that God knows everything about need, being stuck, about people in conflict situations, those who for some reason can no longer function as healthy or normal in society. The Bible is aware of injustice and oppression and has a message for the oppressed and the oppressors. God knows about exploitation and servitude; he sees the need of widows and the victims of violent abuse. For reasons of space, we can noto indicate all the ways that the Bible speaks of man’s many and various needs. God’s Word proves to be a real word. God has not closed his eyes to our needs. They touch his heart, and therefore they should also touch the hearts of all who know him and live with him. That becomes clear in the Lord Jesus Christ. We see him in steady confrontation with the sick, the deaf, the blind, the paralyzed, the epileptic, those possessed by evil spirits, the dead, the widowed, the prostitutes, the tax collectors, the collaborators, the traitors, and many others.
• The second thing that we read in the Bible is that it speaks of help, compassion for the needy and destitute people, liberation from oppression and violence, taking a stand for those who are afflicted, and serving the neighbour so that fulfillment of life is also possible for him. It is clear from the Bible that God is the great Helper, the Merciful, the Saviour, and the Redeemer, and that Jesus Christ his Son is the Servant, the Deacon par excellence.
• We will only outline this briefly. At the beginning of the Bible, as a mighty proclamation, stands the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, where the Israelites sighed under cruel slavery; they cried out in their misery. However, God leads his people out through the hand of Moses and Aaron. In this it is revealed to us that God does what he is; he proves to be the mighty Helper and Deliverer of those who lived in misery and oppression. However, he not only helps his people, but does this for a specific purpose: that Israel may serve and belong to him, that this people will live in gratitude and obedience according to his will.

Later, in the times of the judges and the kings, the Lord has also made himself clear in the history of Israel as their Helper and Deliverer, in mercy and loyalty. And what applies to the whole nation also applies to every member of it. God does not forget the cry of the wretched one, and therefore when man is in distress, he may call upon him. The fact that God helps the oppressed and punishes all who commit wickedness and injustice has also made a deep impression upon the peopleIsrael. In Psalm 146, his people sing about God,

who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free; the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

The history of Israel is filled with this call to God’s purpose: “that they might keep his statutes and observe his laws” (Psalm 105:45). It is precisely through this purpose that the deliverance of God is completed in our lives. We are helped and delivered in order to belong to God. The true liberation, the complete help, is not only to be delivered from injustice, oppression, trouble, and frustration, but also from the sovereignty of sin; it also entails being brought to and united with God, to obey and serve him from now on. One should therefore never think that liberation from social injustice or the cessation of a social emergency as such conveys the full freedom and the complete life. According to biblical teaching, true freedom and fulfillment in life is accomplished there where the bond of love and trust with God arises.

• In the New Testament all of this comes to light even more concretely in the shape, conduct, and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has come to deliver, help, save, redeem, and be merciful. He has been anointed, sent, and prepared “to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18; see also Isaiah 61). In Christ, a new kingdom is dawning, one in which complete liberation from poverty, suffering, oppression, and everything related to it will be realized. Think also of his sermon on the mount (Matthew 5:3-7:29). Christ wants his kingdom to be realized in the life of those who believe in him, and that kingdom will break forth one day with full force and glory when he returns on the clouds. In the meantime, however, signs are being set up in this world of that realm and of himself, his help, liberation, and mercy.
• This liberation, this helping and assisting of people in need, is done by God and Jesus Christ through people. He motivates them to do so; he equips them with gifts that can be brought to further development by responsible instruction. He especially assigns those who have been helped by him, and who are involved in the mighty liberation of his realm, to help others and bring them true freedom. This mutual help may be learned in the practice of the communion of believers, and from there it can move into society to be practiced there. This is diakonia, coming from Christ ( Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 21, q/a 55).

From these biblical directives I come to an attempt to describe Christian social service. It concerns help in social emergencies, the kind of help that wants to be preventive as well as curative and educative, which must be directed individually as well as structurally. It is done from the all-encompassing liberation of God in Jesus Christ with the perspective of teaching man (or men) and letting him live in obedient bondage to Christ, and in joyful exercise of love for one’s neighbour according to God’s will based on our salvation in Jesus Christ! It seems desirable to me to clarify this lengthy description a little further. We will do that in the following section.

3. Elaboration of Some Terms←⤒🔗

Earlier we spoke about the provision of social “service” or “assistance.” This is a somewhat broader definition than the so-called general social work, in which an initial reception and care for people takes place by individuals and families in emergency situations. Within and as a result of this general social work, all kinds of specializations have developed, depending on the clients, their needs, methods, and areas of focus. Sometimes a particular specialization developed into an independent whole, such as functional structure work, clubhouse work, community work, welfare, and other specialized services. In the terms “social service” or “social assistance” everything is now included. It concerns the institutionalized, expert, theologically principled support of individuals, families, and groups in society with regard to their needs, conflicts, and frustrations—internally and externally—and also an institutionalized etc. working on society to eliminate the elements that disrupt the unfolding of life in service to God and fellow men.

By speaking about “serving” and “assisting,” we are on the right biblical track, because people in the Bible—especially those who are claimed by Jesus Christ—are called to provide diaconal help to each other. This serving and helping based on the abovementioned biblical grounds must be supported by strong and deep love for one’s neighbour, may be experienced in the mutual communion as believers, and will have to be realized in the unity of word and deed, and can be directed to any person and any group of people in emergency situations, whether caused by themselves or by others.

In our description we also mentioned the term “social service.” This is because here we are concerned with whether things are right or not, that is, in accordance with God’s will and intention for human life and for the functioning of the (fellow) man (or men) in his (or their) social relationships. We need to realize, however, that we are thus concentrating on a sub-area of ​​human functioning; yet it is still an area that can never be separated from the other sectors of human existence and is inextricably linked to these other sectors, since man must always be approached as a totality and in his totality. Anyone who would remove the social aspect and regard it as an abstract and then turns it into an absolute, is also devaluing ​​and denaturalizing this social aspect at the same time! This is in conflict with the Christian image of man, that is, a biblical perspective of mankind.

4. An Opening toward Three Areas←⤒🔗

In my opinion, the social service has three terrains or dimensions. It can be preventative, curative, and educative. Some of these areas will overlap to some extent, but it is necessary to distinguish them.

Up until now it has been clear that the emphasis in the delivery of social assistance is clearly on the curative element, that is to say: the immediate help in acute needs and conflicts. The methodologies and the treatment routes have been adjusted accordingly. The two other fields have so far only received incidental attention, while they are just as essential and no less important, in my opinion, even more important than the curative side.

For example, in medical services, it is remarkable how much attention is given to the preventative side: prevention of disease and contamination, and from further development and expansion of diseases. In the field of social care, prevention no less needs to be addressed, which will require a lot of energy, research, and the designing of appropriate methodologies. Social service providers, as a rule, become so overburdened with the assistance and the elimination of acute emergencies that there is little to no time left for prevention. This certainly requires a separate section within the existing social service bodies.

In my opinion, the educative side is the least developed, both in medical and social services. In this educative side concerns the educational character of the service once provided, being educational for both the client as well as the social worker. With this educative element, I envision that the person who was helped has learned from the process what it means to help someone else and how that works, so that he, in turn, can be a helper and can be used as a volunteer or be trained some more to provide more expert assistance. Presently, more attention is paid to the use of volunteers in social services and that is a very positive development. The educative element, however, also has a focus on the social worker. From the service rendered and the completed course of treatment, together with the client, a formative experience flows forth, both positively, which shows that the right mentality, method of approach, and method of aid was used, as well as negatively, whereby it becomes clear what has been lacking in the provision of assistance or what went wrong, as a warning for any future work. This educative side has to be profiled even more than it has until now in social services.

5. An Indication of the Directions←⤒🔗

In the given description it is stated that the social assistance must be directed toward both the individual, that is, the single person and his need, as well as toward the structural, that is, society and its problematic issues. I want to advocate for a coordination and integration of these two points of view and orientations in the whole of social services. I do this again from the Christian comprehensive view on human life. Man may never be seen, approached, and treated as an atom, a self-contained being, for then one does not really see the true person, the human being as God his Maker has placed him in the midst of the connections of the broader life and society. Man is rooted and anchored with thousands of fibres in society. It is also incorrect to analyze society only from a structural angle. Then only an abstraction will be left. After all, the structures of society are full of human initiatives and manipulations, and the structures only get their meaning through their use by people.

It will be clear that the humanistic view of man is detrimental to the comprehensive view of man, because the humanist ignores the most essential relationship of man, namely the one with God, and then confines man to his own powers and potencies, and in the end also denies the reality of sin and its wrongly directed tendencies. That is why the social services filled with humanistic motivations do not provide adequate help for people in their individual emergency situations.

We also reject the (neo-)Marxist social analysis as a starting point for the social structural services. It derives its starting point from the view that man is a physical being only gradually distinguished from the animals, a being in which the spiritual aspect is completely filtered out, as something that has become irrelevant. The Marxist view of man and society is only materialistic and atheistic. The structures of society are analyzed within the Marxist vision of society with its division of people into capitalists and workers, and with its slogan of a class struggle as the only possible framework of approach and characterization. This analysis, therefore, lacks the comprehensive view of man and fails to recognize the varied versatility in the society structures and their possibilities to deal with issues.

This does not mean, however, the rejection of the directives of the social services toward the individual and the structural, but they only get their specific and full-fledged place within the Christian view of humanity and the world.

6. Clarification of the Perspective←⤒🔗

Very specifically, the perspective of social work or social assistance clearly shows which philosophy of humanity, philosophy of life, and religious belief are foundational. I have displayed my view with conviction and without any attempt to hide or cover it up. Any social service, if it wants to be worthy of the name, needs to happen from the all-encompassing liberation of God in Jesus Christ, with the aim of teaching people or allowing them to live in obedient bondage to Christ and in joyful exercise of love to the neighbour according to God’s will, taking into account the brokenness of this life through sin, working from the salvation in Christ and under the blessing of the Holy Spirit. This perspective is, I believe, biblical, Christian and, more specifically, Reformed, that is, Reformational.

In Christian social service the aim is to help one’s fellow man so that he learns to live in hearing, understanding, and also in doing the will of God. That is the biblical standard for the functioning of man in society and in all his interpersonal relationships. It is God’s will that we love him above all else and our neighbours as ourselves. Within our response to this, life can unfold in a healthy way and we can still experience life as worthwhile, even if it does not always go the way we want it, and even if we can only function within certain limits.

Within Christian social assistance all of this should not be placed within a legalistic framework with an authoritarian way of acting and dealing, but it may be opened up, approached from the liberating forces of salvation in Jesus Christ for individual life and functioning as well as for living together and handling the structures of living together.

Only within these biblical frameworks can one speak of “Christian” social work and “Christian” social workers. In my opinion, these are the only reliable basic values, which could be elaborated on, but which have been presented in a nutshell in this article.