Do Justice, Love Compassion,
and walk humbly with your God
~ Micah 6:8

Christians are meant to have our hearts transformed by the love of God, and as a response to that internal work to go and love others. The disciplines of "social holiness" are the faithful response to God's love embodied by the people of God. Put another way, we love because God in Christ loved us first. (1 John 4:19-21)
Mercy and Justice have been described in this way: Once there was a river that flowed past two villages. The second village found that there were people in the river who needed rescuing, so they got them out of the river. Concerned that people kept needing to be rescued from the river the village council got together to learn about why people were in the river in the first place, then having learned the root cause of the problem sought to fix it.

The first was mercy (getting people out of the river)
The second was justice (discovering why people were in the river and making changes to prevent it from continuing)

Mercy

When we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick or imprisoned, and heal the wounded we are doing the work of mercy. This is always needed, and it is the responsibility of those who follow Jesus to embody this kind of compassion in the world. Because every person is a child of God, who reveals the image of God in this world and is worthy of love and belonging.  You can click above to find out some ways you can embody Mercy through our Church.

Justice

In the baptismal vows of the United Methodist Church we commit to "resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves". Often this takes the form of protest, of advocacy, and of joining with others to give voice to the voiceless. The work we do for justice looks like campaigning for clean water, marching with others for a cause, writing letters to elected officials, and sometimes becoming those elected officials. We do this work to combat against systems of oppression and exploitation, because we believe that the faith of the Christian is to embody the reign of God in this world now. That is why Christians often pray this line "thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Click above to see what the United Methodist Church is doing worldwide for justice and how you might join in!