I may have
grown up on a farm in rural Kentucky, but I had a father who constantly
reminded my older brother and me the world was a lot bigger than the farm or
the county which we rarely left. A bookcase in the guest bedroom was filled
with books in which were written the words “Lamkin Library”. A set of
encyclopedias was always available. The biggest book I had ever seen sat on the
middle shelf, Webster’s Unabridged
Dictionary. We got a couple of farming magazines, but we also got the
National Geographic. It was well read before it was passed on to another family
or the local school.
My parents
made sure my brother and I knew a greater world was out there. My father would
have loved to have seen one of his sons take over the farm, but he was still
proud of one becoming a geologist and the other a minister. He never wanted us
to feel the context in which we were raised was a hindrance to our fulfilling
our dreams. Compromise did not come easily for him. He didn’t want it to come
easily for his children.
That is much
the point Jesus was making for his disciples when in his high priestly prayer
he says, “I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am
coming to You. Holy Father, protect them by Your name that You have given Me,
so they may be one just as We are one. While I was with them, I was protecting
them by Your name that You have given Me. I guarded them and not one of them is
lost, except the son of destruction, that the Scripture may be fulfilled. Now I
am coming to You, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have
My joy completed in them. I have given them Your word. The world hated them
because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.” (John
17:11-14, HCSB)
Two phrases
stand out in this passage from the prayer of Jesus. The first is “they are in
the world”. We cannot deny the context and condition in which we live.
Believers and non-believers alike must move through this world one day at a
time responding to it based upon their value system and willingness to
compromise. The second phrase is near the end and says, “they are not of the
world.” Through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the believer’s obedience to
him, we have been changed, new creations (II Corinthians 5:17).
These two
phrases taken together form a mantra for the Christ-follower. We are in the
world, but not of the world. As such we cannot make compromises with the world
just to be accepted. We cannot make compromises with the world to get our
message of the gospel accepted. We cannot make compromises with the world to
save our own social positions or possibly even our lives. We are no longer “of
the world”.
There are
times when we choose to go along with the rules and expectations of society.
These are times when there is no conflict with the rules and expectations of
the Kingdom of God. We must live in the world, but we cannot live as the world.
Every believer
faces these types of decisions. Every church faces these kinds of decisions as
it seeks to impact the world. Do we go along with the world so we can be
accepted? Do we adopt the priorities and mores of the world so we can increase
our numbers? At what point in our compromise do we stop being at heart a fully
devoted follower of Christ? At what point in our compromise do we stop being a
church who has one priority and that is to glorify our God?
We must live
in this world until God calls us home. Until that moment arrives, we must
remember that we are children first of a divine family, citizens first of a
divine Kingdom, and servants first of the King of kings and Lord of lords.
