It is easy for us to continue missing the mark on both of these implications. Often our lives as Christ-followers look no different from the system of the world. We too often settle for a truncated holiness that has a shiny gloss of Christian spirituality, but is for the most part inoffensive to the world, while overlooking greed, arrogance, and injustice. John described the world’s system—the attitude that rejects God’s love, law, and leading—very clearly. After he implored us not to love that attitude in 1 John 2:15, he continues (paraphrasing): “For all that is in the people of the earth (the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life) is not from the Father, but is from the attitude that rejects God’s love, law and leading.” Verse 17 then confirms the eternal contrast: “The attitude that rejects God’s love, law, and leading is passing away, with its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever.”
But in this “world vs. world” dichotomy, we find a subtlety that often blinds Christians. On the average Sunday morning, there is as much of the world in the church’s building as there is in the world outside it. Why? Because “worldliness” does not reside in Tennessee, Canada, or Russia, i.e., the earth; it resides in human hearts and attitudes—in both believers and non-believers the world over. That is why separation from the world is not a matter of avoiding people, but a constant warring within ourselves against the attitude that would see us reject the love, law and leadership of God over our lives.
As the sent church of God, we must love the people who live on this earth with the love of Christ, expressed in words and deeds, while hating the broken and sinful systems of the world that war against the kingdom of God.
This becomes an important distinction in regards to contextualization. Contextualization reminds us that we genuinely need to be IN the world while not being OF the world.
I express it as being: biblically faithful, culturally relevant, counterculture communities for the kingdom. Or, for this conversation, we are:
-biblically faithful (driven by Scripture)
-culturally relevant (living in and among the world with people in cultures)
-counterculture communities (not being of the world’s system, values, or morality)
-for the kingdom.
As it turns out, John wasn’t confused at all—but the church often is.
Please feel free to weigh in, give your opinion, and discuss how the church is called to be in and not of the world—and how that relates to contextual ministry.