Walking the Wire: "In the World" But "Not Of It"

We Christians have been given a commission by our Lord to “go into the world and make disciples of all nations.” Jesus chose to use two metaphors to describe how this invasion would take place. He said we are to be “salt and light in the world.” Like salt, which ancient people rubbed into meat in order to preserve it, we are to penetrate and permeate the world, bringing zest and flavor to everything we touch. Like light, we are to shine in the darkness, giving hope and direction to those without either.

Obviously, in order to be salt and light in the world we must seek to remain distinct and different (“salt and light”) while actively participating in our own culture (“in the world”). We do not want our salt to lose its savor or our light to lose its brilliance. This will happen if we fail to be distinct from our culture and if we fail to engage with our culture.

Two Extremes

In order to preserve our uniqueness in the midst of the world we must carefully maintain a difficult balance – we must walk a narrow wire suspended high in the air (and thus with significant consequences if and when we fall).

How can we engage our culture without marrying it? Or, put another way: How can we love the world without worshiping it? How can we maintain a positive influence in our culture without losing our identity? We all know the old adage that “he who marries the spirit of the age ends up a widow.”

There are two extreme responses to the challenge of fulfilling our Lord’s commission – separatism and syncretism. Advocates of separatism are opposed to any Christian involvement in human culture. Human culture is viewed with disdain and suspicion. Out of fear of worldly accommodation, separatists create their own Christian sub-culture – usually consisting of safe and sanitized versions of its secular counterparts. On the other end of the spectrum, syncretists naively engage culture without criticism. Human culture is openly embraced and celebrated. Syncretists baptize their culture and uncritically accept it.

There is a middle way between these extremes. Instead of completely rejecting or completely affirming culture, we can lovingly but critically engage with culture. It is this stance that I will flesh out in the second half of this article.

Separation From or Separation For

At the heart of successfully navigating this issue is our understanding of the nature of holiness. If we assume that holiness primarily refers to separation from the world, then we will express holiness through cultural disengagement – keeping a distance from the world and its concerns and interests. However, if holiness primarily refers to separation for the world, then we will express holiness through loving cultural engagement – through incarnationally embodying Christ’s love and compassion to the world.

I strongly advocate the latter perspective of holiness. I believe it is more congruent with God’s expression of holiness in the incarnation of Christ. This is important to underscore at the beginning of this essay because many evangelicals assume the first meaning (separation from) rather than the second (separation for). Thus, the vast majority of Christian “holiness” is expressed through maintaining a distance from the world. I believe that this is misguided.

Let us be clear from the beginning: To be holy is to be like God. God is love. God is not simply “loving” – God is love itself. God’s holiness points to God’s absolute otherness. In other words, God’s fierce and tender love is completely other – totally separate – from any other expression of love we have ever known or experienced. We are called to be holy as God is holy. To be holy is to love as God loves. God’s love is a holy love – a set apart love, love of another kind! When we love as God loves – manifested most clearly in the creation-affirming and world-loving mission of God in Christ – then we fulfill our Lord’s deepest desire which is expressed in his final prayer for his disciples in John 17.

Jesus’ Prayer for His Disciples and the World

In his high priestly prayer, Jesus draws a clear contrast between his disciples and the world. His disciples are distinguished from the world as a love gift from the Father to the Son (17:6, 9). They have a special relationship with God (they “know God”) in contrast to the world (that “does not know God”) (17:14, 25).

Jesus makes a request to the Father on behalf of his disciples. His two-fold request is directly related to his mission for them: “Do not take them out of the world” (17:15), but “Do send them into the world” (17:18). This is the basis for the oft-heard call for Christians to be “in the world but not of it.” Christ’s disciples are to continue Christ’s mission in the world in order that the world may believe in Jesus (17:21, 23; cf. John 13:34-35; 15:26-27; 17:18).

In other words, Jesus’ disciples are set apart from the world for the world. Jesus’ disciples are to be in the world but not of it. As Christians, we do this because of whose we are. We have been separated unto God in order to be sent into the world. This is Christ’s prayer – Christ’s deepest passion and desire. When Jesus prayed this prayer, he was well aware that he was facing the final hours of his earthly life. Under such excruciating circumstances, he prayed for what he desired most. He prayed for what his whole life and mission had been about – to be separated unto God for the sake of the world. In his high priestly prayer, Jesus passed on this mission to his disciples. They will continue to embody God’s reign in this world through their life and witness.

It is our Christian duty and privilege to fulfill Christ’s prayer. It involves navigating a great tension – being in the world but not of it is not an easy feat. And yet, this is the reason we have been “set apart” – made holy – unto God. How, then will be perform this? The remainder of this article involves reflections upon how to walk this narrow wire.

A disclaimer is in order at this point: The tightrope we cross is dangerous. There are numerous threats on both sides of the wire and serious consequences in falling. The following reflections represent my best attempts at navigating this difficult task. They may not accurately express how you will personally walk this tightrope but perhaps they will give you some direction. I would much rather walk the wire with all the risk it involves than pleasantly park myself in the ditches on either side. I realize that this makes me an easy target from both sides, but I press forward regardless. Be merciful to me as I try to embody Christ in a fallen world. It’s hard enough to maintain my personal balance without having to dodge stones thrown from the ditch.

Reflections on Living “In the World”

As simple as it may sound, we must begin by affirming that there is really only one world to live in – the one we currently dwell upon. It is a beautiful ruin and a glorious mess. It is full of natural beauty and moral goodness. It is also full of the ugliness of war, disease, terrorism, rape, exploitation, hunger, and other moral ills. There are two kingdoms in conflict in this one world, but there is still only one world! Whether we like it or not (and we are always torn between the two), this is the world we live in – this is the world we are called to love and reach. This is the world God entered in Christ to love, heal, and save. It is not a picture-perfect postcard world but it was salvageable enough that Jesus left glory in order to restore it to pristine beauty. Even if we personally lean toward separatism, we should thank God that Jesus wasn’t a separatist. All the sin and evil in the world could not stop him from loving it!

Because there is only one world – a beautiful ruin of a world – we are to live life in the midst of this fallen world to the glory of God and for the good of the world. We are to have the self-denying, self-giving mind of Christ and “[d]o all things without grumbling or complaining; that [we] may prove [ourselves] to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom [we] appear as lights in the world” (Phil. 2:14-15).

Jesus wants us to live life “in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.” He told his disciples, “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; therefore be shrewd as serpents, and innocent as doves” (Matt. 10:16). Believe it or not, Jesus does not want us to mainly reside in the comfortable sheepfolds of safe green pastures. No, Jesus wants us out among the wolves. Is this difficult? Yes. Is it uncomfortable? Yes. Would it be easier to avoid this if possible? Surely. Will it involve cunning shrewdness on our part? Yes. Does this negate our need to be a good witness? Not at all. Indeed, the concept of being in the world but not of the world is contained in Jesus’ counsel to “be shrewd as serpents [you have to, you’re in the world], and innocent as doves [but you still remain mine].”

Some people seek to escape the sharp edges of being in the world by feverishly trying to deny the reality of evil, pain, and suffering. I call this the ostrich-syndrome. However, no matter how deeply one sticks his head in the sand, it is impossible to fully escape evil in this world. Paul makes this clear in his first letter to the Corinthians,

I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people;I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters; for then you would have to go out of the world. But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he should be an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one.” (1 Cor. 5:9-11)

There is nothing untouched by evil in this world. At the same time, there is nothing that doesn’t have some element of good in it. For example, as good as the church is, it is riddled with power struggles, petty fights, and loveless backstabbing. As evil as the devil is, he still possesses good things like intelligence and skill.

Some people write off the whole world by declaring it “garbage” and then repeating the mantra, “Garbage in, garbage out.” No one denies that there is garbage out there, but is the whole world garbage?

The better solution is not to keep the garbage out (which is impossible) but to deal with it, process it, pick through it, keep what is salvageable and reject what is rotten. This obviously demands more patience, discernment, and wisdom than simply staying clear of the garbage, but we are called to have this level of discernment in our Christian lives. “Those who are spiritual discern all things” (1 Cor. 2:15). “But solid food is for the mature, for those whose faculties have been trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.” (Heb. 5:14). Are you discerning all things? Are you maturely discerning good from evil? Do you examine, analyze, think through, discard, and retain as you walk through this world? We may find that as we sort through life’s rubble we find treasures untold. Indeed, to live this way is to truly apply Paul’s command in Philippians 4:8: “Whatever is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good reputation... if anything is worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.” This verse is not about finding so-called “Christian” things and thinking about them, but about seeking to find the good, lovely, and true in all things. This is not a separatist verse but a treasure-hunt-in-the-garbage verse – trying to see the good in all things when possible (and it is possible more often than we admit).

In order to truly live like this we must stop running at the first appearance of evil. For example, some Christians refuse to put themselves in any position where they may have to hear profanity. One little curse word (or a stream of them for that matter) sends some Christians spiraling down in a tailspin. I know one Christian who appreciated Saving Private Ryan as a tale of courage and sacrifice but was put off by all the profanities in the movie. What did they expect in the middle of the hell of war – “Hi Bob. Pass the ammo please”?

I once worked with a pastor who labeled Titanic – the biggest grossing movie of all time – as pornography. Why? One scene involving nudity. To him, the one brief scene made the entire 3 ½ hour movie pornography! Now, I could have done without the scene (but I do understand how it contributed to the unfolding storyline). But it is frustrating to hear a brother in Christ negate the positive value of something simply because of one scene. What about all the touching and disturbing scenes showing how different people face impending death? Doesn’t this have any positive value? What about the goodness of Jack’s love for Rose? Even if one takes issue with their act of premarital sex (and I certainly do, although I understand that many films include this not for gratuitous reasons but for the sake of cementing two people’s love relationship), the fact that Jack is willing to die for Rose is commendable – even Christlike.

We need to realize that this mindset – running at the first appearance of evil – makes Satan’s job easy. Show a little buns and the whole movie becomes evil. Say an off-colored word, and the whole thing is bad. A good rule I learned from Dr. Mark Coppenger is this: 90% of everything is crud. So, be thankful for what is good. We cannot take a rocket launcher to everything in culture. There are bad songs and there are good songs. There are bad movies and good movies, bad books and good books, bad people and good people. But the reality is that most everything – and everyone – is a mix of both. To reject something or someone at the first sign of evil is unlivable and unloving.

“But Rich,” you say, “we’ve lost the ability to blush.” Perhaps we have. Perhaps at times we may be too coarse or insensitive. But some Christians blush so easily they cannot function in normal society. They go into a tailspin over sin!

Years ago, a parishioner sent me a copy of an article that she mass-mailed to everyone on her email list. It contained a story meant to teach a moral. The story was about a salad that contained just a little bit of dog poop (strange, but true). The point of the story was that no matter how good the salad was, the little bit of dog poop was enough to cause any reasonable person to reject it. Transferred to the moral realm, the point was this: Just a little bit of evil in anything is ample reason to reject it wholesale. I wrote a letter to the entire email list stating how completely unlivable and ultimately unloving this perspective was. If one were to seriously hold this view, one could not participate in anything – including the church!

Whether we realize it or not, our managed, comfortable environments make us weaker rather than stronger. Let’s face it, Left Behind is simply Christian horror – Stephen King without the cussing and occultism. Most Christian romance novels are “safe” – all the thrills of romance without lurid scenes of sex. Most Christian music is simply “safe” music – music without sex, cussing, or womanizing. There is nothing wrong with this “safeness” – unless it makes us unable to interact with the real world. And for some, this is exactly what has happened:

A pure environment doesn't necessarily make pure people. Avoiding movies, burning records, staying away from dances, or turning off the radio does not make anyone spiritually strong. In fact, these actually tend to produce the opposite effect, developing fragile Christians who must live in a controlled, censored environment—much like people who are so sensitive to germs and chemical pollution that they have to live in sterile rooms and breathe only filtered air. (Fischer, Real Christians Don’t Dance, 153)

Jesus calls us to be in the world, which simply means, if nothing else, that we cannot run from the world. And yet, what John Fischer labels fromming is one of the biggest (and most profitable) things Christians are caught up in.

For many, fromming is the reason why we have Christian schools, Christian movies, Christian nightclubs, Christian music, Christian aerobics, Christian TV. In fact, seemingly ever aspect of popular culture and contemporary life sooner or later sprouts a Christian counterpart… Christian television protects concerned viewed from the evils of sex and violence on network television and a host of movie channels… Christian aerobics allow a Christian weightwatcher to fight flab without having to fight off Tina Turner’s sensual rasp at the same time. Christian schools enable parents to send their children into a classroom free from the godless monster of secular humanism and the jaws of Darwinian evolution. Contemporary Christian music allows hip Christians to roll without straying from the Rock. Christian videos provide wholesome entertainment safe from vulgar language, from vulgar living, and from a vulgar world.

It’s not hard to see why fromming has become so popular. There’s an awful lot of downright evil, horrible, dirty, and unsafe things in the world. The art of fromming develops the basic justification to from into reactionary thinking, negative fixation, fear motivation, and the avoidance of a higher calling...

Let’s face it, there’s power in fromming. Have you ever noticed that it’s easier to get people to march against something than to get them out for something? It’s easier to point out a problem than it is to provide a solution. It’s much simpler to condemn a pornographic magazine than it is to convey a positive, healthy attitude toward sex. It takes less effort to run away from the world than to be a positive answer in the middle of the world…

But what a boring way to live! All these froms are so depressing. Just say “from” and think about the shape of your face. Say it several times – from, from, from, from, from. You can’t even smile when you say it because from and frown are cut from the same mold. (Fischer, Real Christians Don’t Dance, 140-141)

We must see the hypocrisy in how we live. We often demand to be heard by the world while refusing to listen to the world. We leave the world, wanting nothing to do with its music, movies, art, news reports and then expect it to take us seriously. We shout to people in the world that the things that matter to them do not matter to us, and then we expect them to be interested in what matters to us!

We must care as Jesus cares. Whether we admit it or not, when we refuse to engage with the world we are perceived as “holier-than-thous.” Whether we intentionally try to communicate this or not, our lack of interest demonstrates this. If we think our interaction in the world makes us dirty and contaminated we must reconsider Jesus.

Jesus was a friend of sinners. “The Son of Man has come eating and drinking; and you say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man, and a drunkard, a friend of tax-gatherers and sinners!’” (Luke 7:34). He earned a reputation: “And many of them were saying, “He has a demon and is insane. Why do you listen to Him?” (John 10:20). This is remarkable when we consider that Jesus was sinless! “If anyone had the right to be 'holier-than-thou', it was Christ” (Fischer Real Christians Don’t Dance, 144).

“When we search the Gospels, we never find a place where Jesus was offended by a sinful person. But there are repeated accounts of His being offended by the self-righteousness of so-called holy people who set themselves apart from the rest of humanity in their own eyes.” (John Fischer, True Believers Don’t Ask Why, 97)

At the heart of being “in the world” is our understanding of holiness. Just recently a former parishioner sent me a letter. In it, he wrote, “From what I’ve been hearing, it appears that living a holy life is not as important to you as other things.” It is not true that I don’t care about holiness – I surely do. However, I do not share this person’s understanding of what holiness looks like. Put simply, we have competing visions of holiness. For this person, holiness is about separateness of life from the world. For me, holiness is about a separate love – love of another kind – for the world.

There is only one world – one sinful, broken, sloppy, messy world. And God loves it! God loves it so much he gave everything for it. Even though it rejects, hurts, and even kills him, God loves it anyway.

We are to do the same. We cannot do this from a distance. We can only do it when we, like God in Christ, live incarnationally – engaging in the world and culture. It is impossible to be labeled as a glutton, a drunkard, a friend of sinners, and even a demon-possessed person when one is a separatist. Our call is not to maintain a spotless reputation in the Christian subculture but to be a shining light in a dark world.

It is much harder to maintain the middle way – to balance on the high wire of “in the world but not of it.” It is easier to be a separatist. It is easier to be a syncretist. Only the middle way builds a bridge without selling the farm. However, like all middle ways, those who walk on it will be attacked from both sides. A firm commitment to living out Jesus’ prayer must carry us when both the world and the church want to crucify us. And yet, this position is no different than Jesus’ – whose love for the world and the hostility he experienced from the church of his day led to the crucifixion of his “in the world but not of it” love.

© Richard J. Vincent, 2004