The social thrust of the gospel, and thus the aim of Christian social ethics, is not primarily an attempt to make the world more peaceable and just. Put starkly, the first task of the church when it comes to social ethics is to be the church. Such a claim may well sound self-serving or irrelevant until we remember that what makes the church the church is its faithful manifestation of the peaceable kingdom in the world. As such, the church does not have a social ethic; the church is a social ethic.
The church is where the stories of Israel and Jesus are told, enacted, and heard, and as a Christian people there is literally nothing more important we can do. But the telling of that story requires that we be a particular kind of people, if we and the world are to hear the story truthfully.
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