There's a fundamental difference between serving the world and your own desires in a Christian manner, and serving Christ in a way that leaves no room for anything else and reaches out to the world from that foundation. This is a distinction that i think many American Christians do not get, nor do they want to get. Because it's a reality that is not easy to swallow. It may be a subtle distinction in our own eyes, but it is one that goes to the very core of who we are.
I'm realizing more and more just how clever we Christians are at deceiving the world and ourselves. We are very capable of looking and acting like we're serving Christ, when in fact we can be submitting to the world's demands on our life, adding in the pursuit of our own desires. We have been so twisted up and turned around that the world's demands become our desires, and we don't realize the difference. It's easy to say that the world is bad, especially when we see on the news reports of disease, war, greedy CEOs, starvation, rape, murder, etc.--you know, the big stuff that is obviously the result of sin in the world. But we miss out on the little things--the more dangerous things--because we don't realize how great an influence the world has on our lives.
I'll give an example, on that has been frustrating to me recently. (By the way, i'm just as guilty as anyone of all this, so i can't point the finger without four pointing back at me (cheesy, but i like that image. It works.)) Last week on our campus, we had a Living Single for the LORD emphasis week. Some monks, with whom i got to go up and live last January, came and talked about this Biblical alternative that is given to us in order to more fully devote ourselves to Christ and the ministry He has given us. Being a typical Christian campus, i think the majority of the students shut it out after the first message, and were frustrated that these guys were telling us that we couldn't get married if we wanted to be good Christians, and saying things along the likes of, "I just don't feel that that calling is for me, and I'm really looking forward to getting married, and GOSH DARN IT, I WANT TO HAVE SEX!"* I would argue that the people who reacted this way, although completely allowed to do so, have completely missed the point. If we are to be followers of Christ, true disciples, we have to be willing to put Him first, ahead of all things, which means that we have to be willing to give up all other things if He were to ask us, including marriage and sex.
That's one example, but this applies in so many areas of life. How we act and what we say are so often determined by an analytical look at what is socially acceptable in the world's eyes, how we pray with each other is done in a way that avoids awkwardness, and how we live in community is done in a way that is comfortable and encouraging for us, but doesn't leave us too vulnerable. All these things make us slaves to the world's standards.
We have become worldly Christians, rather than Christians in this world.
We have been set apart (read: made holy) to have a new identity, separate from the world, and to have a new purpose, a new mission, and a new Master of our lives. This does not mean we withdraw from the world, but we invade it, secure in our identity as the Church of Jesus Christ our Lord and Master, unwilling to yield to any other lord or submit to any other way of life that might tempt us. We are foreigners in this land, and we do not belong to it. We must submit our lives only to the Authority and Lordship of Jesus Christ. Nothing else must have our devotion. Nothing else is worthy of our devotion. This world is passing away, and so we grab on to and commit ourselves to the only Eternal One who will serve as the foundation of all that we are and will be.
Our Enemy is very good at making us like accidental traitors in this war. People that in reality serve the world when they think they are serving Christ. People that claim to be "sold out" for Christ when they have no notion of what that term means. People that proudly do their own thing and call it Christian while ignoring the call that God has placed on their lives. People that serve the world's purposes, disguising them as "Christian."
Looking back at what i've just written, it is harsher than i set out to make it. But i'm not convinced it was unnecessary. I am convinced though that we need more table-tossing and whip-cracking in our Christian communities. Those that fit the profile that i've gone through include my brothers and sisters in Christ, and i the chief among them. I want to see, in myself and in the community i live in, a renewed devotion to our Lord Jesus. I want to see a renewed passion for the Gospel. I want to see purpose and intention in following Jesus. I want to see the Holy Spirit ruling and directing our lives. I want to see Christians reclaimed for Christ.
*Not a real quote.
As a quick aside, we Christians are probably the horniest people on earth. We just repress it to the point where it manifests itself in other ways, like getting married way too young and then adding to the highest divorce rate of any faith group.
Amen and Amen! Keep stirring the fire! I was disappointed as well with the reaction that the Singleness emphasis received. I am, however, glad that it didn't catch on to the point that it became another fad, another cool thing to add to our attire, another WWJD bracelet, if you will. Something we can check off our list but we're not serious about.
ReplyDeleteAbout your aside. Its probably more of a correlation to age of marriage that the divorce rate is so high. I would think that more of a cause is due to, as Bergler would say, the juvenilization of America (adolesence is expanding in both directions, older and younger, causing the rate of maturity to slow almost to a halt at this stage.) So when people used to be mature-adults by 25 back in the 50s, that same maturity level is probably around 35. (Please note this is a broad generalization and is not true of every specific individual but is a prominent trend with American youth. Bergler wrote a book on it.) Anyways, I'm just saying that it is more of a maturity issue rather than an age issue. Now there is definitely a correlation between maturity and age, we just need to think in terms of correlation and not causation, a mindset that holds the two (age and maturity) at a semi-flexible and fluid level where is has room fluxuate. Besides, the Bible does say that it is better to get married than to burn with passion. So the problem isn't young marriage, it is immature people that cannot follow through on their commitment. Thus, the root of the problem. Let us concern ourselves with the deeper issues and hack away at the root.