The Christian in Society

We all know Christians are in the world, but not of the world. Jesus said it, and when we walk closely with Him, we sense it. We know in our spirits that the priorities of the world are not our priorities, that the perspectives of the world are not our perspectives, and the goals of the world are not our goals. Especially in the modern-day evangelical church, we can become pretty adept at focusing on the "not of the world" part of Jesus' teaching.

What we often struggle with is the "in the world" part. When we awaken to the fact that we aren't to be like "the world", often we just want to hold out until Jesus comes and takes us away. The concept of separatism has been around as long as Christianity, and over the centuries various groups have emphasized separatism as what should be the norm for believers. From the Anabaptists during the Reformation to many fundamentalists today, the message has been "Be separate."

But God leaves us in this world after we are saved for a reason. He could immediately take us to heaven and make us perfectly holy. Yet He doesn't - He leaves us here, in this messy, fallen world, and asks us to walk with Him along with other believers on this journey. He tells us to love Him, love one another, and love others in highly practical ways. And over the centuries, biblical Christians have interpreted that to mean that we have a role to play in the societies in which we live -- a role of salt and light, a role of messenger, and sometimes a role of change agent.

Being "not of this world" is the fuel that keeps us going when our efforts to love are rejected, when we are battle-weary, or when everyone else abandons a situation. Prioritizing love means we stay in the race to the end. It's why Christians were the ones rescuing babies abandoned in the desert during the Roman Empire, nursing the sick as the Empire was hit by plagues, ministering during the Dark Ages' bubonic plague, defending the rights of the Indians against opportunists, forming abolitionist societies despite the economic benefits of slavery, fighting to see Jim Crow laws and South African apartheid overturned, challenging Roe v. Wade. It's why Christians aren't abandoning Burma and are taking the lead in relief efforts in China after the earthquake. It's why we fight in prayer, winning battles on our knees, but also stand at the ballot box to exercise the free will God gave us to make a difference. We love, so we act, and we keep acting because we are not of this world. Yet we are in it, and so we care.

We don't parallel the Israelites in the dessert, wandering and waiting on the Promised Land. Instead, we are like the Jews in Babylon, who were given these instructions from God in Jer. 29:4-7:

4 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. 6 Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. 7 But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare."

Granted, we are not left here for judgment like the Israelites were sent to Babylon for. But neither are we left here to twiddle our thumbs while waiting on Jesus to return. And Biblically, while we are certainly to prioritize evangelism, we are also to express our love in very practical ways. And our love is directed not at the government or institutions, but at people.

We get disheartened when we look at what little we feel we can do, and the magnitude of the problems. But the bottom line is, the church has a role to play in society, not just us as individuals. The Gospel and our lives should preach the same message. Looking beyond our individualistic worldview, we can see that it's not just me making a difference in one life, it's us making a difference in our lives and the lives of those around us. When evangelicals step back from society, theologies that minimize God and His Word prevail. What a loss when we have the chance to lead but instead step back and retreat rather than engage.