Doing Justice and Loving Mercy: Compassion Ministries, Student Workbook, SW16

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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

affirmation that all human beings (even guilty ones) are made in the imago Dei ? Should it make a difference in what we think about capital punishment?

Give Me Time, I’m Still Growing

While few would contest the clear biblical injunction to love others as Christ loved us as the identifying sign of all true discipleship (John 13.34-35), many do argue about the ways in which that love ought to be shown, as well as when it needs to be shown. A new Christian who had been socialized his entire life to hate people of a particular race was not strictly exhorted to change his feelings and ideas towards them. His conversion and faith in Jesus Christ seemed in every way to be both sincere and authentic, but his ongoing suspicion, hatred, and distrust of others of another race lingered on for months, and the new convert did not hide his disdain and disgust for “those people.” While some believed that his lingering attitude was a sign of his failure to convert, others viewed the residue of his past as merely an area for him to grow. All newborn babes in Christ, they argued will have areas in their lives that require time to put off the old man, be renewed in the spirit of their minds, and put on the new man created after God in the image of true holiness and righteousness (cf. Eph. 4.20ff.). What do you think of this situation–is failure to love in this case a situation of normal Christian growth, or a sign of a failure to repent? How might the leaders in such a situation find out which one it really was? As creator and maker of the earth, our God is concerned about the world and those who live within it. Traditionally, Christian communities have taken various positions to the world, including withdrawal from it, living in tension with it, or accepting responsibility to transform it. The Church is both the locus and agent of the Kingdom of God in the world but not of it . As such, the Church affirms that God is the God of all nature as well as the God of salvation, the God of creation as well as the God of covenant, and the God of justice as well as the God of justification. In its own ministry as the representative of the Kingdom of God, the Church is called to display and announce freedom to the world, called to express God’s wholeness in the world, and stand for God’s justice throughout the world. The ground for doing justice and loving mercy among the poor in the city is the affirmation of the imago Dei in every boy, girl, woman, and man. Every person is worthy of care because they share in God’s unmatched, unique, and irreplaceable imago Dei . Because all are made in God’s image, all humankind is unique and

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Restatement of the Lesson’s Thesis