Spiritual Distancing

Common Sense is… Uncommon

When the pandemic started, we were introduced to a host of ‘common sense measures’ to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. For many reasons, those ‘common sense measures’ were often not followed.

Common Sense Measures during COVID-19

Basic hygiene - washing hands, covering your mouth when coughing, etc

Use of PPE - especially in the early stages of the pandemic when we knew very little, using the same basic (and incredibly affordable) measures often used in medical settings made sense

Social distancing - if all else fails, don’t get all up in someone else’s business!

Why Common Sense Measures seemed to fail...

Political ideologies (the wrong person promoted it or criticized it)

Aversion to inconvenience (someone ‘simply doesn’t want to’)

Misdirected anger from people feeling their rights were infringed

Even as I go through this list, I have little doubt that there aren’t some among you who are cringing, or perhaps even getting a little irritated that I’m phrasing things as I am. This just highlights how personal so many took these measures even though… on the face of them… they aren’t too unreasonable.

We teach small children to wash their hands…

We have protected medical personnel for generations with simple face coverings…

We have told people to “stay home if you’re feeling sick” for an eternity....

Jesus Prays for Spiritual Distancing

There is a lot of parallelism between how people reacted to these ‘common sense measures’ and how people treat their faith.

Jesus prays about Spiritual Distancing on the Mount of Olives John 17:9-19

John 17:9–19 CSB

9 “I pray for them. I am not praying for the world but for those you have given me, because they are yours. 10 Everything I have is yours, and everything you have is mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by your name that you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I was protecting them by your name that you have given me. I guarded them and not one of them is lost, except the son of destruction, so that the Scripture may be fulfilled. 13 Now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy completed in them. 14 I have given them your word. The world hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I am not praying that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 19 I sanctify myself for them, so that they also may be sanctified by the truth.

Christ prays for the people; not the world

Christ’s goal are the hearts of people, not the reformation of what the world created

Heart-winners, not empire builders!

Acknowledges the world “hates them” for being different; but prays for protection from “the evil one”, not worldly restoration.

Key word… SANCTIFICATION.

Our calling is NOT Isolation

Our calling is NOT Complete Integration

Our calling IS being sent into this world while remaining sanctified by truth

Revisit the COVID-19 measures talk

Some attempted to completely isolate themselves.... not the answer (unsustainable).

Some attempted to completely ignore the whole thing… also not the answer (reckless).

Good common sense measures… don’t work for COVID or spiritual discipline (sometimes)...

Political ideologies —> Some are too consumed by their circumstances and the passions of this world to see the bigger truth God has for us.

Aversions to inconvenience —> Some simply don’t want it; aren’t receptive to the message

Misdirected anger and people feeling their rights were infringed —> How dare some ‘God’ tell me that I can’t enjoy the things of this world! If God loved me, He’d let me relish in the things I enjoy!

If I told you that the person who created EVERYTHING had given us a truth and that by living by the truth we could be more fulfilled and enjoy eternal life, you’d probably say it’s common sense to follow that person. Yet because of what essentially boils down to “me mentalities”, we miss out on the blessings Christ prayed for us on Mount Olive.

Christ’s prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane highlights God’s desire to sanctify us from this world. Read an excerpt from it in John 17:9-19. Sanctification doesn’t mean totally removing yourself from this world but it also doesn’t mean fulling integrating yourself: it means living according to the truth. What does it mean to live according to “the truth” (as opposed to living for “your truth” or “society’s truth”)? How might this drive you to make difficult decisions regarding how you use your time, what you do with your money, or how you prioritize actions within your families?

Sanctification’s Essential Role

Sanctification is a big deal because it’s fundamental to Christ’s plan to reconcile us with God.

Paul uses a Temple illustration to explain sanctification Hebrews 13:10-14

Hebrews 13:10–14 CSB

10 We have an altar from which those who worship at the tabernacle do not have a right to eat. 11 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the most holy place by the high priest as a sin offering are burned outside the camp. 12 Therefore, Jesus also suffered outside the gate, so that he might sanctify the people by his own blood. 13 Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing his disgrace. 14 For we do not have an enduring city here; instead, we seek the one to come.

Paul is referencing a part of the Levitical law which linked consecration with atonement of sins. Exodus 29:10-14

Exodus 29:10–14 CSB

10 “You are to bring the bull to the front of the tent of meeting, and Aaron and his sons must lay their hands on the bull’s head. 11 Slaughter the bull before the Lord at the entrance to the tent of meeting. 12 Take some of the bull’s blood and apply it to the horns of the altar with your finger; then pour out all the rest of the blood at the base of the altar. 13 Take all the fat that covers the entrails, the fatty lobe of the liver, and the two kidneys with the fat on them, and burn them on the altar. 14 But burn the bull’s flesh, its hide, and its waste outside the camp; it is a sin offering.

In this section, God is giving instruction for how to consecrate (similar to “ordaining”) a priest. A bull is sacrificed and ceremonially imbibed with the sin of those being consecrated.

Since it is sinful, it is taken outside the camp and burned.

Christ was also taken (literally) outside the ‘camp’ of Jerusalem and crucified.

Metaphor: For our hearts to be consecrated, we must be willing to also exist “outside the camp”… apart from convenience and personal desire which might compromise our willingness to follow The Truth.

Paul then outlines the effect of being sanctified… a life lived differently in Hebrews 13:15-19

Hebrews 13:15–19 CSB

15 Therefore, through him let us continually offer up to God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name. 16 Don’t neglect to do what is good and to share, for God is pleased with such sacrifices. 17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, since they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account, so that they can do this with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you. 18 Pray for us, for we are convinced that we have a clear conscience, wanting to conduct ourselves honorably in everything. 19 And I urge you all the more to pray that I may be restored to you very soon.

How different is this from how so many Christians live today? What would ‘authentic Christianity’ look like if it spent less time trying to figure out how to ‘fix the world’ and instead asked how they could do the work of a God who fixes hearts?

What if… just follow me here… instead of trying to make the world what we think God wants it to be, we let God do what He wants with His creation and instead we focused on the people God has placed around us?

Paul uses a metaphor from the Old Testament to explain sanctification in Hebrews 13:10-14, then explains the impacts of this sanctification in Hebrews 13:15-19. When you look at the impacts of sanctification, how different does it look than how many Christians choose to live today? Where do you personally struggle in living as a part of this world, but not being dictated by it? Christ lived as someone sanctified from the world so that people could see The Truth uninhibited by worldly perspectives. How can our testimony be compromised by how we choose to live, the things we prioritize, or the hard opinions we form based on worldly things?

Christ Also Prayed For You

It can be easy to see Christ’s words about sanctification and think those only applied to the disciples or those physically with him during his earthly ministry.

Christ also prays for your sanctification. John 17:20-26

John 17:20–26 CSB

20 “I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in me through their word. 21 May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us, so that the world may believe you sent me. 22 I have given them the glory you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one. 23 I am in them and you are in me, so that they may be made completely one, that the world may know you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me. 24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they will see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the world’s foundation. 25 Righteous Father, the world has not known you. However, I have known you, and they have known that you sent me. 26 I made your name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love you have loved me with may be in them and I may be in them.”

Jesus doesn’t want you to be “inspired” by Him.

Jesus doesn’t want you to be “motivated” by Him.

Jesus wants you, me, us, and Him to be one… living outside the camp.

The world is infected with a pandemic from which it will never recover.

One day Christ will come again to completely regenerate what has been corrupted. Until then, we must live spiritually distances from the things this world pursues; still living in the world so that they may know God more, but living FOR a better truth.