Doing Justice and Loving Mercy: Compassion Ministries, Mentor's Guide, MG16

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D O I N G J U S T I C E A N D L O V I N G M E R C Y : C O M P A S S I O N M I N I S T R I E S

relationship to the world, as strictly antagonistic, as transformative, as completely separate, and so on. Pay careful attention to the various kinds of models that theologians and church men and women have viewed as the relationship between the two.

As you explore the various church and world models considered in the first video segment, seek to help your students view this relationship both theologically and missionally , that is, in light of the doctrines of the Word of God, and our responsibility to engage the word by proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom, as well as demonstrating the good works comprised of love, mercy, and justice. Concentrate on helping your students grapple with the difficulty these questions have given believers of conscience for centuries, and suggest ways in which they may begin to form their own theological judgments about these important theological and ministry issues. The difficulty the Church has had in comprehending its precise relationship to the world has been solidly captured in the commentary of O. R. Barclay in an article of the biblical meaning of the world: In few biblical passages the word ‘world’ ( kosmos ) is used in the sense of mankind. In John 3.16, for instance, we are told of God’s love for ‘the world’ in this sense. When this is what is meant, then the Christian duty to love mankind is clear. It is in the other, and more usual, sense that there are problems. In this wider sense ‘the world’ usually means ‘the environment of humanity’. That is to say, it includes not only the natural environment and all its varied resources, but also the cultural and social environment brought into being by sinful humanity. In this sense, the devil is described as the ‘prince’ or ‘ruler of this world’ who was condemned and cast out by the power and work of Christ (John 12.31; 16.11; Eph. 6.12). ‘The whole world lies in the power of the evil one’ (1 John 5.19).

4 Page 118 Student Questions and Response

5 Page 118 Student Questions and Response

When these passages about the rule of the devil over the world are added to verses like 1 John 2.15–17, where we are warned to love neither ‘the world nor the things in the