Christians are often concerned about spiritual and moral evils. Rightly so, because God is holy, and God desires righteousness across all the earth.

As Christians, we must not be too selective in what we see as unrighteous. In the Word of God, there are many more types of sin we are urged to avoid than just sexual impurity, drunkenness, and blasphemy. What about pride, selfishness, greed, and indifference to the poor?

In the first few chapters of Isaiah, for instance, the prophet condemns not only religious insincerity and idolatry, but also greed, injustice, corruption, exploitation of the vulnerable, “grinding the face of the poor”, and those who “add house to house”.

In New Zealand, we have a major and growing problem. Some people have large incomes and splendid houses (and often multiple houses), but many others have much lower incomes, and live in crowded and unhealthy houses for which they pay high rents. An increasing number have reasonable incomes, but to find an affordable house seems to them an almost impossible hurdle.

Many New Zealanders feel entitled. But many others feel they and their whānau can barely get by. Such inequity has become multi-generational and entrenched, and spills over into many other social disorders.

Are these matters Christians can ignore, as essentially matters of just economic and social policy, and political? We don’t think so. We believe there are deep moral issues in these matters, and that as Christians we must always look for justice and righteousness, and for loving our neighbour as ourselves.

Mark Maney’s article, Kiwis deserve HOMES, helpfully explores one aspect of this.

Author: Dr Stuart Lange

Dr Stuart Lange is the National Director of the NZCN and is a Senior Research Fellow at Laidlaw College, where he was formerly Vice Principal. Stuart wrote and presented the historical DVD documentary Te Rongopai: 200 years of the Gospel in New Zealand, 1814-2014.