Cornerstone Curriculum, Official Certification Edition - Mentor's Guide

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Do not hesitate, therefore, to discuss these objectives briefly before you enter into the class period. Draw the students attention to the objectives, for, in a real sense, this is the heart of your educational aim for the class period in this lesson. Everything discussed and done ought to point back to these objectives. Find ways to highlight these at every turn, to reinforce them and reiterate them as you go. This devotion technically focuses upon the second commandment, Lev. 19.18, “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.” To live out and to experience a growing, intimate walk with God will demand that we do justice and love mercy, and express it in the lives of those with whom we come into contact. We express this neighbor love, this justice and mercy, in the context of specific, particular, and consistent acts of love and mercy to our brothers and sisters, our neighbors, and even our enemies. The idea of being our brother’s keeper lies at the heart of what it means to be authentically God-related. To ignore one’s brother (neighbor) is to be caught in the web of jealousy, smallness, and cruelty of Cain, who according to John’s commentary on the story murdered his brother Abel because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s deeds were righteous, 1 John 3.11-15. To embrace this vision of human interaction as the heart of all true understanding of God is the way to understand John’s recurrent refrain on the need to prove and display one’s love for God through a love for others (cf. 1 John 4.7-21; John 13.34-35; 15.12; etc.). As you discuss the truth of the Genesis story with your students, seek to help them understand the correlation of this ancient tale with the injustice and cruelty that is taking place in so many urban communities today. Our only way out of this fog of viciousness is to rediscover this fundamental characteristic of a truly God-conscious person: to be the keeper of one’s neighbor and one’s brother. At the heart of all true spiritual discernment, this is the central insight into living our lives as leaders who both act justly and demonstrate God’s mercy.

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