(3) Nor must it be left out of account that the fact of the Incarnation, theologically conceived and estimated, with its pregnant; suggestions of the worth and destiny of man and the Divine hopes and aims regarding him, provided for thoughtful
and re.sponsive minds a purified imjjulse towards a new humanitarianism.
(4) Profound as the influence of Jesus upon social life has been, it was by no means His primary function to procure its reformation. The social rectifications which unquestionably trace their original impulse to Him are of the nature of by- products of His work. He came to reveal God to man and to bring man to God. Nevertheless, He had an ulterior purpose, to which this was in a sense a preliminary step, in the founding of an ideal community, designated the Kingdom of God, composed of individuals M'hose mutual relations were determined by the implications of their proper relationship to God. The immediate implication of the doctrine of the Fatherhood of God is the brotherhood of man. These two doctrines are basal to, and determinative of, Christ's whole ethical system. The ultimate aim of Jesus, then, may be said to have been social, inasmuch as the final end of His mission would be achieved only in the I'ealization of a regenerate society.
(5) Jesus consistently set an ideal of perfection before men. Himself sinless. He would have all men sinless as well ( Jn 5" 8" ' Sin no more ' ; Mt 5*^ ' Be ye perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect'). But this perfection was not merely a negative condition, a state of freedom from every evil spot or stain. The context of Mt 5*^ clearly indicates the connotation the word r^Xetos is intended to have. It meant such perfection as that of His Father in heaven, Avhich, on the posi- tive side, was determined by the gracious activities and loving ministries of which men were the objects and beneficiaries. Human perfection was then to be attained only through a life of similar benefi- cent activity. It cannot be achieved in isolation. Christ never contemplates human life so situated. He regards man as essentially a social being, whose full self-realization can only be attained in vital relationship M'ith his fellows. No man may go apart by himself and live a truly godly or saintly life (Jn 17^^" ^^). The ideal character, according to Jesus, is to be realized only through the projier discharge of the social responsibilities entailed by communal life (Mt 19"^^). Sin with Him, and sin of the most blameworthy kind, is largely neglect or failure to fulfil social duties and obligations (Mt 25-i2f.) The virtues, on the other hand, which dis- tinguish the good man after the mind of Christ are those which emerge in a life of vigilant and inces- sant beneficence and self-sacrificing love (Mt 25^^''^', Jn 15"). The whole spirit of Christ's teaching condemns the hermit existence as one which gravely imperils a man's title to be considered a citizen of the Kingdom of God. The root of the world's evil is selfish individualism.
(6) Jesus, then, was not properly a social reformer ; He was an inspirer of social reform. He enunciated principles in the light of which the evil of prevalent conditions, practices, and accepted institutions be- came increasingly apparent. He changed things by first changing men. He made many things impossil)le by making them intolerable to the sensitized conscience and Christianized heart.
3. Attitude of Jesus to existing social relation- ships.— (1) All this is borne out by the consideration of Christ's attitude to the society of His OAvn day. Upon its constituent elements He passed no strictures suggestive of an attitude of protest or condemnation. He accepted its inequalities of position and possessions without demur ; nor did He range Himself with that species of socialism which anticipates an epoch when the relationships of master and servant, rich and poor, employer and employed, capital and labour, shall cease to exist (xMt lb-^ Lk 17^-», Mk 14'). These characterize the normal and stable state of society, which He
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SOCIAL LIFE
seemed to regard as fittingly ordered to provide the opportunities or agencies for the evolution of the type of character which most conformed to the image of God, and the realization of the type of life which best expressed His spirit.
(2) If, then, the essential features of society as presently constituted undergo ' a sea-change into something rich and strange,' it will not be because Jesus deliberately legislated to that end, but be- cause the spirit He infused into men, educated on His principles, demanded different conditions for its fuller and more perfect expression. His sym- pathies were inferentially on the side of an indus- trial and economic order wherein individual talents, capabilities, and fidelities would have ample scope to prove and exercise themselves, and would meet with such suitable and proportionate reward as would stimulate and foster healthy aspiration, honest ambition, and those qualities of industry, integrity, and disinterested fidelity which go to form the ideal character (cf. Lk 12^^^- lOi^^-)-
(3) Jesus did not forbid the accumulation of private proprrty. Rather He accepted it as a fundamental right of every man to possess in security whatever property honestly belonged to him (Mt 2015 2520'- ^ 13«-^«). That is the under- lying assumption of those maxims which inculcate giving, and of those utterances which approve a saintly charity (Lk e^'*-^^'^^). He had no word of censure for the many persons of means whom He numbered amongst His friends. His disciples con- tinued to own property (Jn 2P'''-, Lk 19^"^), and His little company subsisted on a common, if meagre, purse (Jn 12^ 13^^). Poor Himself, He inflamed no envy of the rich, nor fostered any class feeling. Money He accepted as an effective instru- ment for the furtherance of the Kingdom of God. He recognized that, while for one it might be a snare and therefore should be foregone (Lk 18^^- ^*), for another it provided means towards the better doing of God's will. He was urgent in His warn- ings regarding the spiritual dangers which attended its ampler possession. He magnified its subtle power to enthral the affections and divorce the heart from God by winning that trust for itself which should be reposed in Him alone (Mk 10^^, Mt 13^^). He vividly portrayed how it dried up the spirit of unselfish sympathies and tended to render men indifferent and callous to human need (Lk 16''"''- ). He understood how its successful acqui- sition developed an unquenchable thirst for more, and therefore He admonished all to beware of covetousness, the greedy spirit which wants more than it can profitably or enjoyably use (Lk 12i^"-). In various ways He impressed upon men that money was not the true wealth, and could not of itself* procure true blessedness (Lk 18^^"^^ 12^1 16'^). See, further, art. Wealth.