Study Theme: “Outreach To The World”

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. (John 3:16-17)

God sent Jesus Christ, His Only, Begotten Son into the world so that the world, through Him, might be saved. As followers of Christ, we also have a divine responsibility to the world. Jesus says we are to be in the “light of the world” (Matt. 5:14) and “in the world but not of the world” (John 17:15-16). But what exactly does this mean considering other passages like 1 John 2:15, which say, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”? Unfortunately, misunderstanding of the word ‘world’, has confused believers on how we are to fulfill the Lord’s work as we engage people “of the world.”

This Term, we will examine how the term (kosmos) ‘world’ emphasizes two things:

1) The reality of our God-given desires as Human Beings, which cannot be fulfilled apart from Him

2) The reality of our Human Nature (Sin) that seeks to fulfill these desires apart from God, resulting in eternal death.

We will explore the natural desires that different groups of the world have and how we as Christians can bring the Good News of the Gospel of Salvation to them. As a “light of the world” we must let them know that, through faith in Jesus Christ, they can be delivered from eternal death and experience the fulfillment of any desire.