Theology of the Church, Mentor's Guide, MG03

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T H E O L O G Y O F T H E C H U R C H

c. We are to refuse to be silent regarding any inequality and discrimination against the weak or the poor which undermines their ability to live free, whole, and just, Deut. 27.19.

4. We work for just and fair dealings between people at all levels, persons, in families, between cultures, and among the nations.

a. No authentic worship and praise without genuine efforts toward justice and righteousness, Amos 5.23-24.

b. We are Christ’s ambassadors. In all things, therefore, we should seek to do justice in his name for the poor and oppressed, expressed in practical, concrete ways like:

As the ambassadors of the Kingdom of God, the Church is to display the Kingdom’s righteous rule through our works of freedom, wholeness, and justice.

(1) The administration of justice for them in our legal system, Amos 5.10-15

(2) In economic affairs which tend to exploit them, Lev. 19.35-36

(3) In ways in which our laws can easily ignore the needs of the most vulnerable, Isa. 10.1-4

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III. The Church Is to Battle as God’s Army, Doing Battle in the Lamb’s War, Proclaiming God’s Truth, Destroying the Devil’s Work, and Overcoming Evil with Good. Paying the penalty for our sin on the cross of Calvary, Jesus rose victorious as Christus Victor , and through his death destroyed the works of the devil and his minions, Col. 2.15, 2 Cor. 2.14. A predominant image of the Church, therefore, is the army of God, which battles not against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces in high places (Eph. 6.12-13). Though Jesus won the victory, we still must do battle in this present age, until he returns to consummate his work at the Second Coming. How are we to fight the good fight of faith in our age today?

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