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

world’, there is a prima facie case for a negative attitude to both material goods and to man’s cultural and other natural abilities such as marriage. On the other hand, ‘everything created by God is good’, even in a fallen world. We are to receive all these gifts with thanksgiving if we ‘believe and know the truth’. A negative view of food and marriage, and even money and the things that it can buy, is roundly condemned by the NT, especially in the Pastoral Epistles (notably 1 Tim. 2.1–4; 4.1–10; 5.8–23; 6.17–19, and Titus 3.8–14). The church down the ages has wrestled with these two apparently competing emphases. ~ O. R. Barclay. “World.” New Dictionary of Theology . (electronic ed.) S. B. Ferguson, ed. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000. p. 279. What we must help our students understand is that this relationship has been contested by sincere and godly Christian thinkers down through the centuries, producing different results depending on the times in which the views were formed, and the emphasis of the thinkers involved. As emerging Christian leaders, they must carefully and critically come to terms with their own belief about the role of the Church in the world, and their role as leaders of the Church. What we are arguing in this module is that as those “in the world but not of it,” we must find ways to display the life of the Age to come in the midst of this present age . Jesus’ commentary sums it up well: John 17.14-19 - I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. [15] I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. [16] They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. [17] Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. [18] As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. [19] And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

It is now important for you to attend some of the particulars dealing with the administration of the course, especially those dealing with the assignments that the students must shortly begin to complete. 6 Page 143 Assignments