Many of the problems of the individual Christian, and of the Church, are brought about by failure to understand our position in the world.
Soon to be separated from his disciples our Lord prayed for them. In that prayer are some significant statements, only too often overlooked.
In John 17:9 we read, “I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.”
In verse 14 we read, “I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.”
Again, in verse 16 we read, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.”
Arc we not foolish when we try to blur a distinction our Lord affirms, a distinction the validity of which is necessary if Christianity is to have real meaning?
Christ is unique and distinctive.
In like manner the distinctive status of the Christian makes him unique, and in a spiritual sense, apart from the world. As a new creature in Christ he is different from the unregenerate world in perspective, life and destination.
Then too, the Church as a spiritual organism is unique and distinctive. Composed of redeemed men and women it is entrusted with the message of salvation to those whom the Bible calls lost.
A God-revealed realism demands that these distinctions not only be recognized but maintained at all costs, for it was to this end that our Lord came. “Should not perish, but have everlasting life” depicts both the redeeming love of God in Christ and man’s lost condition without him.
When unregenerate and regenerate men are equated isn’t violence done to the redemptive work of our Lord? The new birth means nothing if it does not mean a supernatural change, newness of life in Christ.
This very difference is a witness in itself. Living in the world a Christian is a citizen of heaven and as such he is to exert a heavenly influence on his earthly environment. Our Lord said that salt is to be tasted and light seen. God forbid that we should lose our savor, or hide the light of the Spirit’s presence.
Paul wrote urgently about this. He warns against blurring the Christian distinctives by conforming to the world.
Some would confuse the place of the Christian and the mission of the Church in the world. We are here to witness, not to conquer, to give consistent and continuing evidence of the transforming power of Christ.
Nowhere in the Bible are we led to believe that all will accept Christ’s universal offer of salvation. The distinction between the two roads, the two gates, the regenerate and the unregenerate, between heaven and hell are never blurred. The “great gulf” is fixed but to all men everywhere Christ says, “Come.” The reality of “outer darkness” and the “joy of our Lord” are determined by man.
Nor can we bypass the individual element in our witness. One church leader has recently expressed the hope that the church should “adopt the principle of aiming at the conversion of whole societies, in contradiction to the traditional Protestant view of aiming only at individuals.” How this is to be accomplished without conversion of the individual is not explained. Christ came to seek and save lost individuals for it is they who make up society.
We may not like the concept that some are God’s children (through faith in his Son), while others are children of the Devil (through disobedience and unbelief), but such is the plain teaching of the Scriptures. Shall we deny the clear affirmations of the Bible because they do not fit our own ideas?
This very distinction makes it imperative that individual Christians and the Church itself shall maintain a clear and unimpaired testimony. The evidence of God’s operative grace should be there for all to see. To continue hampered by the impedimenta of the world spells personal and corporate defeat on the one hand and a lost witness on the other.
When we are inclined to bemoan the powerlessness of the Church in the world we would do well to examine the cause, not compound it. Power comes, not from worldliness in any form but from the Spirit of the living God.
Our Lord’s affirmation that Christians are not of the world, even as he is not of the world, precludes popularity either for the Church or for individual Christians. Ours is often a lonely road. Not for naught does John remind us, “Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you” (1 John 3:13). And then he speaks of the “false prophets” to be found in the world, “They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them” (1 John 4:5).
The distinction between the redeemed and the lost is as real as that between life and death, between light and darkness. Maintain this distinction and the Christian witness stands as a lighthouse for all to see, as salt with its saltness intact. Merge Christianity into the pattern of world conformity and instead of life there is the pallor of death.
Confronted by proposed compromises with idolatory Paul wrote the Corinthian Christians in no uncertain terms: “Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils” (1 Cor. 10:21).
The reality of our surroundings is highlighted by the Apostle John, “We know that we are God’s family, while the whole godless world lies in the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19, NEB).
How then can we witness effectively in a corrupt and dying world? In a spirit of self-righteousness or condemnation of others? God forbid! We are to witness to man’s lost condition with love in our hearts and praise on our lips. Wise as serpents and harmless as doves we grieve over the death-dues of sin while we magnify the gift of God which is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Nowhere is the winsomeness of Christian love needed more than right here. There should be a brokenheartedness in our approach, an urgency in our appeal, backed by the unassailable evidence of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in our own personal lives.
Our warfare is not of the flesh but of the Spirit. It is he alone who gives the victory, for we oppose forces against which no man can stand alone. For the Church and for the individual Christian the whole armour of God is a necessity. We are engaged in combat with the “unseen power that controls this dark world, the spiritual agents from the very headquarters of evil” (Eph. 6:12, Phillips).
Fight in God’s way, and with his weapons and the victory is sure. Compromise with evil, take up the weapons of this world, and the battle is lost.
