Separated but Not Isolated

My late father-in-law had a wonderful saying. When listening to a song on radio by some screaming rock-and-roller he would say, “If that man was convicted for being a singer they would be hanging an innocent man!” The saying is similar to the common preaching illustration, “If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?”

It is often said that as believers we should be in the world but not of the world, in other words, we should be different from those around us. Jesus said, “I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world” (John 17:14 ESV). And the next verse clearly shows we should rub shoulders with the inhabitants around us but not take on board their philosophies, attitudes, and culture.

Now some believers, like the Amish in the mid-West of the US and groups which have grown out of the Wesleyan holiness theology, for example, who want the difference to be obvious on the outside, such as the clothes people wear and the absence of cosmetics. Yet we know from the Word that what counts to God is whether there has been a change on the inside. “It doesn’t make any difference now whether we have been circumcised or not. What counts is whether we really have been changed into new and different people” (Galatians 6:15 NLT).

Today’s church seems to be light on truth. While we should use every modern resource to communicate our message (like this website, on the web since October 1995), we don’t have to mimic the world. For example, most larger churches are now multimedia which in itself is not a bad move, but audience participation with pew bibles and hymn books has decreased so much the service has become like a pop concert. The singers jig and sway while they swallow their microphones, and the style can be anything from rap (music without the melody) to big band and “Christian” rock, with everything staged and lit with moving lights.

You may argue that its the lyrics that count, but I can’t hear the words because of the loud music! And there is no melody running through my head that will encourage me through the week and reinforce the truth in the words to my mind. Then the preacher shouts at me like a football coach while walking up and down as if he’s a caged lion. Noise is never evidence of anointing. Whatever happened to “Tell me the old, old story… Tell me the story slowly that I may take it in… Tell me the story softly…” Perhaps your church is not like the above, but you get the point.

No, I’m not suggesting its time to go back to the 1950s but it is time to put to the Word front and center, to teach people who they are in Christ and how the Christ in them is the strength of their lives. “Sanctify [set apart] them in the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17 ESV).