"Now, the yearning for righteousness, Christlikeness, and a devout life is an admirable longing; indeed, it is an essential longing of discipleship. But the great mistake is to somehow embrace this as a call to individualism and self-obsession. It is not. As the French theologian Jacques Ellul said, “The yearning for holiness is not at odds with the desire for relevance. For while holiness sets us apart unto God, it is God who calls us into the world.” Christians are called to God and sent by God into the world. Os Guinness captures the necessary tension between our need to pursue holy lives as individuals and the desire to connect meaningfully with our culture and those around us. He speaks of “prophetic untimeliness” and the sense that the man or woman of God lives by the eternal in time. Likewise, Richard John Neuhaus, former editor of First Things magazine, suggested we are to be “in the world, not of the world, but for the world.” The danger for many of us is to live the extremes in either direction. I so love the world that I embrace its ways, values, attitudes, and delights uncritically—thus, losing any sense of distinction and prophetic edge for the gospel. Or I so withdraw from the world that my life may seem pure (to the audience of oneself), but exists in splendid self-obsession; thus I may end up (perhaps) morally distinct, but socially irrelevant. Must we embrace such a dichotomy? Surely the example of Jesus in his incarnational ministry is far superior? Or the model of the apostles and the early church who took to the streets, the forums, and the places of civic discourse? They lived, loved, and preached in all of these diverse places and were themselves the better for it. They lived, loved, and preached in all of these places not because they were consumed with themselves but because they were filled with the love of Christ and hence a love for the world around them." Slice of Infinity
Posted on: Thu, 03 Oct 2013 11:47:22 +0000
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