In the last decade, some in the US culture have called on leaders to “wake up” to the inequalities and injustices that exist in society, to declare them as wrong, and to work to dismantle as much as possible of our national foundations, in order to rebuild under a new order. The motivation behind these activities is often cited as the pursuit of fairness, inclusion and equity. Taken at face value, this seems like a reasonable course of action for a society. After all, who doesn’t want to be fair?

One issue Christians have in responding to “woke” leadership is that some of it sounds vaguely like what Jesus would do. After all, Jesus did ransack the temple once, turning over the tables of money changers and railing against the religious profiteers of the time. And Jesus wasn’t a friend of the ruling Jewish religious order. Or of the Romans. Or of the people in His hometown. He spent a great deal of time with the outcast, and the poor, and the unpopular people. Jesus said, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed” (Luke 4:18). James, who wrote one of the earliest New Testament letters, echoed Jesus’ teaching for the early church, writing, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” (James 1:27)

Jesus was also kind. And forgiving. And loving. And His teaching on social justice issues was straightforward and good. Help the poor. Visit the sick and those in prison. Care for the elderly. And the more difficult ones: Love your enemies. Turn the other cheek. Deny yourself and take up your cross. It was on the cross that Jesus became the embodiment of social justice, paying the ultimate cost to redeem people back to Himself. How should we view today’s social justice policy in light of the Gospel? Most importantly, how can we best emulate Jesus in our lives and leadership?

Aware versus asleep. The term “woke” might have started with Martin Luther King, Jr. in his Oberlin College commencement address in 1965. He said, “there is nothing more tragic than to sleep through a revolution… The great challenge facing every individual graduating today is to remain awake.”[1] King’s point about people ignoring civil unrest, and the plight of those around us in need, is well-taken 50 years after he said these words. Many Christian leaders today turn their heads to the very people Jesus told us to care about—the poor, those in prison, the oppressed.

The church, however, is largely asleep on these commands. The latest estimates place the total income of American churchgoers at $3.5 trillion annually. Yet less that 5% of them tithe their incomes, and of those tithes, about 2.3% of total church income goes to the poor and oppressed. This means about 6¢ per churchgoer, per day, goes to helping those in need in the US. You may disagree with the terminology that “woke” has become in our culture, but when we look at where Christians put their efforts and resources, we’re certainly deserving of a Gospel call to “wake up!”

Question: Are you aware of the needs of the poor and oppressed in your community?

Self-development versus societal development. The great disconnect with woke policy is that it favors remaking society over self-development. If you want to make the world a better place, you have the most influence and ability to change something within your own life and leadership. Naval Admiral William H. McRaven, ninth commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, delivered a memorable commencement speech in 2014. He urged students who wanted to change the world to begin by “making their bed every day”. The lesson was that changing social order began in the individual—if you aren’t capable of organizing your own life and possessions, why would you assume you are able to remake society?

Often, “woke” individuals don’t engage in their own development, but instead push for changes through protest, law and government policy. We might ask, “What is our society or government doing on issues of social justice?”, but this should always be after we ask this of ourselves. Admiral McRaven explained, “If you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another. By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter. If you can’t do the little things right, you will never do the big things right.”[2]

We’re commanded to care for the poor and those in need. Romans 12:13 instructs, “Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.” The New Testament focuses on personal responsibility and action on matters of society, never telling us to overthrow a government or live in open rebellion to authority. Public leaders today often try to force their will and ways on society. Instead consider leaders who inspire others to do better. Kenney’s inaugural address of 1961 challenged Americans to “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”[3] This was a call not to revolutionize society, but instead to revolutionize ourselves.

Question: What are you doing to develop yourself and serve others in your community?

Excellence over fairness. God isn’t fair and has never pursued fairness. And thank heavens for that because if God were fair, we would all be in hell. In fairness, we all deserve eternal punishment for our sins. In fairness, we would all be judged and held accountable to God’s perfect standard. Spiritually, then, fairness is not to be pursued. Rather, we pursue personal excellence, which is giving our very best effort, in humility, having received mercy and grace from God. This is in keeping with Philippians 2:3, which teaches us, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.”

Much of woke leadership efforts can be placed under the heading of “creating fairness”. American laws are generally formed in the vein of “equality of opportunity”, this is, each person has equal opportunity for success. In this culture, the most effort, or the cleverest solution, wins. More recently, though, the “woke” pursuit has been “equity”, which is justice according to natural law or right, free of bias or favoritism. DEI initiatives, for “diversity, equality and inclusion,” push employers to hire and judge workmanship on the basis of “fairness”, over excellence. In this scenario, it is preferred to hire someone in a minority or victimized “class” even if they are not as qualified or experienced as another candidate. The result of these efforts has been an explosion of victims, as people search for a class to join which gives them an advantage.

DEI initiatives in colleges have been struck down by the US Supreme Court, and the elimination of DEI practices is trickling down into corporate America.[4] Leaders are realizing this practice, while sounding compassionate, is divisive, and reduces the pursuit of high achievement and excellence. A practical example of favoring excellence over fairness is a recent practice by the company Scale AI. CEO Alexandr Wang said his company now hires for MEI—“merit, excellence and intelligence.”[5] Wang commented, “It’s a big deal whenever we invite someone to join our mission, and those decisions have never been swayed by orthodoxy or virtue signaling or whatever the current thing is.”

Question: How does your humility before God affect how to serve the people around you? Are you encouraging others to pursue excellence over fairness?

The great difficulty with compassion in current culture is that we most often demand it of others before considering how we might exemplify it in our own lives and leadership. This is the fallacy of woke leadership—it has no soul. Because “woke” leadership lacks a spiritual foundation, it is morally questionable. Jesus Christ provides a Christian leader with the connection between faith and compassion. Ephesians 4:12 reminds us to “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” True kindness and tenderheartedness comes not from woke mandates, but out of gratitude for the grace and mercy shown to us by Christ. When we follow Christ, we can indeed grow in awareness of those in need, work on self-development and pursue excellence. The better alternative to woke leadership is Christ-centered leadership. We can begin to look like the leaders mentioned in Colossians 3:12, who put on “as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience…”