Living in the World

While entire books could be written on the relationship of the Christian to his or her life in the world, I would like to share a few thoughts that I have been considering lately. I have been thinking about how we, as Christians, view the world in which we live. I see that there can be a general trend among us to think of this world as just something we must endure until Christ calls us up to Heaven where we can sit around for the rest of eternity playing harps like the cherubs on Precious Moments greeting cards. I have been subject to this temptation and mode of thought as well. However, lately I have been reading several works by N.T. Wright and Dietrich Bonhoeffer and comparing what they have to say with the message of scripture. I am becoming more and more convinced that the "Precious Moments" theology I just described is something that needs to go.

When Jesus is praying for his disciples, he prays "I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world" (John 17:15-16). This prayer is in continuation with a constant theme that runs throughout John's gospel; Jesus came to save the world. The world Christ made is good, but broken. Christ has come to fix it. Read the first chapters of Genesis and then read the last chapters of Revelation and take note of how everything that went wrong at the beginning is ultimately rectified and restored. The world is important to God. He made it and loves it. Why then, do we often speak of how much we hate living in the world? The world is full of sin and evil, but we know how the story ends. Christ will return and fix it all. Christ has come to us in the flesh and through his resurrection has become the first glimpse of what this new creation will look like. God's work in the world is in progress and we are invited to participate in it! In the establishment of God's Kingdom on earth, we are God's "Special Forces." Just like the Navy Seals or British SAS might be the first to spearhead an invasion by going into the target zone and softening up the defenses, we are supposed to be preparing the world for the culmination of the new creation. Christ has won, but there is still resistance that needs to be overcome as much as is possible. That is why Christ prays that God will not take us out of the world. We are citizens of God's country; that is where our loyalties lie. However, we are in the world to spread God's Kingdom, not simply to just wait life out until we die. That means getting involved as much as we can, not just in our churches and in specific ministries, but in the secular realms as well. The Special Forces do not spend all their time working on their base, but in the midst of the enemy's territory. The mission Christ began and commanded us to fulfill, is one that is carried out by living as God's agents in our workplaces, schools, volunteer organizations, and governments. By infiltrating the day to day life of the world with our training in righteousness and our weapons of love, sacrifice, and reconciliation, we open up doors to tell the world Christ is king and has made available membership in his kingdom.

We are called to living within a paradox. On the one hand, we are commanded not to "love the world" (1 John 2:15). On the other hand, we hear that God has loved the world and is committed to saving it (John 3:16). How then do we do this? The "world" can mean to things in the Biblical text. In some cases it means it in a general sense of the creation and the people within it. In the other sense, it means the structure of evil within creation that is opposed to God's rule. When it says "Do not love the world," it means do not love and enjoy the sin and evil that is active and at work to oppose God. In our existence in the world, we are to remember we are of God's Kingdom and should live as God's citizens. However, we are to love the world in the way that Christ did. We are to bring the good news to it and pray for the salvation of everyone we meet. We are not called to despise our present state of being, but we are not to indulge the sinful nature either. Despise the evil and wickedness that is at work right now, but fight for the good and keep in mind the hope of the coming restoration of all that has gone wrong.