Might I be so bold as to ask you, “What is wrong with it?”
At first glance it seems perfectly fine and many might shout in agreement. However, I would wager that if you thought about the implications of this statement and others like it you too would vehemently disagree with it. You would disagree with it, not because of anything that it states, but what is not stated. This is a statement about the mission of the church and one that is fundamentally misguided. What is the mission of the church; to feed the homeless or to go and make disciples? I do not believe that the two are mutually exclusive, but I do believe one takes precedent over the other. The one with eternal implications is the one that should concern us most. The salvation of souls, not bodies should be our motivation for helping the least of these. Scripture tells us “If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing,” (I Cor. 13:3).
Giving to the poor is not necessarily equivalent to loving the poor. Why?
Because we are to love like Christ and “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us,” (Rom 5:8). In I John 3:16 we read, “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” Finally, we can’t forget John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Here we see that love is undoubtedly connected to eternal life and so must our love for others be. Charles Spurgeon said, “What we want is to win souls,” and “Have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you're not saved yourself, be sure of that!”
Thus my objection to the statement above is that it implies caring for orphans is more pressing than the salvation of souls. You might object and say I have misunderstood. However, I would disagree. Many young Christians today are simply confused. They have been led astray by those who preach another gospel and do not recognize how inconsistent their beliefs have become. Satan wants us to be distracted from the cross, from freedom from sin, and eternal life, and he has done so by getting many of us so focused on social justice that we forget the cross of Christ.
Once again, social justice is a good thing and most certainly the will of God. However, it is also the will of God that none should perish but that they should come to repentance. D. A. Carson says it best, “It will not do to argue, though some have tried, that whereas they may be weak on the cross, they are closer to what the New Testament says about ethics.” Might we decide with Paul “to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified,” (I Cor. 2:2). Might our focus and motivation be the cross of Christ—the gospel.
Read more about this topic in this post.
"Wherefore all theology, when separated from Christ, is not only vain and confused, but is also mad, deceitful, and spurious; for, though the philosophers sometimes utter excellent sayings, yet they have nothing but what is short-lived, and even mixed up with wicked and erroneous sentiments." --John Calvin