Christians in the World

Introduction

For the past several weeks, we have been looking at Scripture to answer the question, “what is the Church?” This has been an important questions to look at because what the church is and what it was created to be are less and less reflected in the world we live in day by day. Whereas membership of the church, both universal and local, requires consistancy, commitment, patience, and faithfulness to the body of believers, the world around us goes to great length to emphasize the individualism which our culture is so saturated in and mortally wounded by.

So far, we have seen that Christians are converted and baptised to become part of the universal, or eschatological, church. The church is the final gathering of God’s people at the end of this age to be the people of God, the New Jerusalem, forever. However, in this age of mercy in which God takes his time, not wishing any to perish, Christian partake in the universal church by participating in local churches which act as a microcosm of the universal church, an outpost or fortress of the coming Kingdom of God on enemy soil. In the last weeks we’ve looked at how these local administrations of the Kingdom are ordered, what offices exist, what our responsabilities are towards one another, and what activities should be emphasised as we wait and worship for this short time together.

But there is one more topic I believe would be helpful before we conclude our study of this subject, and that is the topic of Christians living in the world.

One of the most difficult parts of Christian living is knowing how to live as citizens of heaven in a world which is still, as Paul says, “following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.” (Eph 2:2) The Church is not some voluntary organization that is useful to society in filling people’s spiritual needs when necessary, it is the representation of a completely other world, a new citizenship to a nation which is mysteriously overcoming the world through the weakness of the cross and the seemingly foolish preaching of the Gospel. The Church is a secret society, hiding under a cover of weakness while the power of God is at work in the hearts of sinners until Christ comes to visibly and completely establish his reign on earth.

Until then, however, we are identified as sojourners and exiles, names that remind Peter’s audience of both the Exodus and the Babylonian captivity, it is clear that Peter does not consider Christians members of this world or any of its systems. How we are to live in this state is drawn up in four points in our text:

Live with Purity

Live with Honour

Live in Submission

Live Free

Live Pure in an Impure World

It may surprize us how Peter begins this text. First, he tells us to thinking of ourselves as drifters just passing through town on our way to a greater destination. When I was a teenager in New Brunswick, I always felt a little nervous when we drive through Quebec. There was just such a culture shock where everything is in french that I almost feel ashamed to try to see if the gas station worker knows enough English to tell me where the bathroom is. As silly as this awkward feeling was, I think it does give a taste of what Peter is thinking here. Because of our spiritual transformation in Christ, we no longer belong in any society that can be found here on earth.

There is immediately an estrangement as the values and allegiences of the world are no longer shared by us. We are in the world but not of the world. Commentator Karen Jobes writes,

“The moral estrangement Christians experienced in their society was a consequence of not sharing society’s values and customs.”

Christians are intrinsically different from worldly people and have a completely different agenda from anyone else in this world.

So the surprising first instruction for us to take in here makes sense, although it may seem on the surface to be irrelavant. The first way we are to live in this world as strangers is to not indulge our own flesh. Of all the dangers in this world, of all the temptations we will face out there, of all the suffering and persecution and tyranny of Satan it is our own flesh that we should be most concerned about.

“abstain from passions of the flesh.” These passions of the flesh are our sinful, thoughtless, animalistic, and unsanctified desires. I say animalistic because to follow our passions is to essentially deny our status as image bearers and pretend to be merely animals in this world, following impulses and hungers rather than reason and the special revelation of God. To indulge in the passions of the flesh is essentially to say, “I don’t care what God expects of me, I don’t care what I’m supposed to be, I will do whatever I want to do.” We may not necessarily say that, but whether or not we are able to abstain from our greatest felt desires will test and see the heart that is being conformed into the image of Christ and the heart that remains conformed to this world. Now Peter is not promoting a radical form of asceticism, giving up all natural enjoyments for the sake of holiness. Instead he is telling Christians to abstain from the passions of the flesh. These passions are those impulses inside that we may give into or we may refrain from with difficulty. These passions feel most natural to us, and give us heavy bias. Not all passions are sin, but all sin is the result of passions, and every passion not submitted to the Lordship of Christ is idolatry, whatever it may be. For Peter, this is a priority in how we live in this world. Why is this so important to our life among unbelievers?

Our purpose in the world: image-bearing.

The blasphamy of declaring God to be unholy

Deuteronomy 7:6 ESV

“For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

Romans 2:24 ESV

For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”

The impotence of an unchanged life.

1 Corinthians 6:9–11 ESV

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Live with Honour

Honourable Conduct Among the Gentiles

Romans 12:18 ESV

If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

Evil Anticipated and ashamed

The Result: Glory to God.

Live Submissively in this World

Be Subject

Every Institution

The Result: to Silence Ignorant Fools

Live Freely in this World

What does it mean to live free?

If you were to visit North Korea, you remain a free citizen of Canada whichever other country you may be a citizen of. You are free from the tyranny of North Korea, as long as you do nothing criminal.

In the same way, Christians are free from the citizenship of this world and the oppression that comes with it.

Servants of God

However, this freedom exists, not because we are autonomous, but because we are citezens of Heaven, and thus servants of God.

Evengelism: why those free from this world are still in this world.

Conclusion: Honour, Love, and Fear

Honour to all, especially to those in the world who deserve honour, so that no charge can be made against us.

Love the brotherhood.

Fear God