Common Grace

 Our local shopping mall has a special desk for fund-raisers, just inside a main entrance.  The causes seeking support there vary from week to week.  I find myself wondering whether the popularity of the charity might be in inverse proportion to the number of people at the desk.  That seemed to be borne out by the most recent occupier of the fund raiser desk.  Just one person at the desk!  So shoppers were not required to run the gauntlet of charity fundraisers soliciting handouts.  The charity was the well-known Fred Hollows Foundation – which cares for eye-health in deprived communities around the world.  The late Fred Hollows (who died in 1993) together with his wife Gabi established the foundation that is now active in 25 countries and has facilitated the restoration of sight to more than three million people worldwide.  All made possible by the overwhelming support of the Australian public.

One is reluctant to make any kind of criticism of a man who has done so much good and who is held in high esteem in Australia, in New Zealand (where he was born) and around the world.  However I must comment on the wording on a large billboard next to the fund-raising desk.  It contained (in bold letters) a quote from Dr Hollows. “I believe that the basic attribute of mankind is to look after each other.”  Okay, I have no doubt that it was a basic attribute of the doctor – and caring for others is certainly a driving force behind the Fred Hollows Foundation.  The million-dollar question is whether ‘looking after each other’ is indeed “the basic attribute” of mankind.

Jesus once told a parable in which two men passed by without showing compassion to a wounded traveller.  The third, a despised foreigner, took care of the victim.  One out of three hardly makes compassion ‘the basic attribute’ of humanity.  The sad fact is that the Bible has a totally different take on ‘the basic attribute’ of mankind.  The pessimistic outlook of Romans chapter 3 stands in stark contrast to the optimistic outlook of Dr Hollows.  It was interesting to discover that Fred Hollows was raised in a Christian family which took seriously its membership of the Church of Christ.  Fred is reported to have even studied theology for a year before giving it all away and becoming known for his atheistic views.  It would be nice to think of the doctor’s “basic attribute” of looking after others as a carry-over from his Christian family background.  Did the Bible’s second great commandment, to love our neighbours as ourselves, shape his compassion for others?  However that may be, the fact remains that Fred Hollows was essentially a humanist – the view that man is the measure of all things.

So what then about the obvious support amongst Australians for the work – not only of The Hollows Foundation but of so many other charities?  It’s an intriguing question.  On the one hand we’re struck every day again by the greed and selfishness of human beings.  The nightly TV news programs don’t give much confidence in the thesis that ‘the basic attribute of mankind is to look after each other’.  And yet... recently a Facebook fundraiser to cover the necessary costs for specialised surgery for a needy young person raised thousands of dollars in a matter of days.

The answer lies in what theologians call Common Grace.  ‘Grace’ is the Bible’s word for God’s favour.  That grace... that favour of God... is the basis for Him saving us and reconciling us to Himself.  Paul said that it is by grace that we are saved.  It is not our doing but purely the undeserved favour of God.  But the favour of God is seen in other ways than in salvation.  God is still busy in this fallen and broken world in a more general way.  One way is by God restraining the evil in the human heart so that mankind is not as absolutely corrupt as Romans 3 pictures us.  Common Grace was taught by Jesus when He said that our heavenly Father causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good and that he sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. (Mat.5:45).

So when we see works of charity flourishing here and overseas then that should not first of all make us praise human beings for their unselfish generosity but it should make us thank our heavenly Father who still moves us to show compassion to the needy.

John Westendorp
2MaxFM 10/11/2024

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