Come Out and Be Separate

[A_PoMo]

Originally Posted by Dora

They shall know you are Christians by your love one for another.

Are we known for the love and respect we show to our fellow Christians and to our neighbors? Are we known for the good we do in our community?

Or are we known for disdaining others who do not hold a particular man-made standard?

I agree with Dora. It's more about being what you're for, than what you're against. If we seriously apply the central teaching of Christ then our outward behavior and attitudes will be markedly different than the world's and this difference will be so obvious that it cannot be missed.

What is 'the world'? It's a worldview or philosophy and a set of values that come out of these. The world values power over other people, Christ said to love people and to serve. That's a radical command. The world values material things, Jesus said to lay our treasures up in heaven. That's a radical command. Just imagine the impact on society that Christianity could have of more of us really put just these two doctrines to practice in earnest? We'd definitely have come out from among 'them' and we would certainly be 'separate'.

I hate to mention it because I can't remember the actual citation, but I read recently where a US President (I think) once said that if Christians really did what Christ said to do then the economy would collapse and the country would be overrun. That seems like a pretty radical result of applying radical commands.

Overall we've adopted ourselves to our culture in ways much more dangerous and insidious than outward moral issues like immodesty and intemperance. To often we accept anti-christ worldviews too easily into our worldview and it puts us at variance with God. In the West I'd point to our view of material goods, political power, individualism, and various forms of hedonism as being the larger culprits in contemporary Christian worldview. The other areas of 'holiness' that get harped on are mites compared to these others that are generally accepted as 'good' and 'American'. In this area we tend to strain gnats and swallow camels.