Editorial October 21, 1985 Issue

Jesus' mission to mankind, and ours

CAROLYN B. SWAN

No one else has ever shown humanity man's likeness to and inseparability from God as clearly as Christ Jesus did. It was his mission to be the Exemplar. He said, "I am from above: ... I am not of this world."^{John 8:23.} Yet he didn't live in an ivory tower.

Though Jesus wasn't of the world, he was very much in the world. He preached the Word of God in the marketplace, in the temple, in people's homes, on the beach—wherever he went. The New Testament says of him, "We have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin."^{Heb. 4:15.}

Jesus overcame the world; but he did not overcome it by hiding from it or by minimizing the tragedies of others and excusing himself from responsibility to help them. He healed the sick and dying, raised the dead, and saved sinners. The way of life he exemplified differs conspicuously from the commonplace; but it was certainly not asceticism. He exemplified both man's inseparability from God and the Christian's mission in the world to teach, to heal, to save—to overcome the evil and to inspire spiritual regeneration among even those who consider themselves highly moral.

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