Be Different

2 Corinthians 6:17

As many of know I was raised in church and have heard about every sermon there is to be preached, and have heard every “Christian” bible-based cliché that has ever been spoken. Like, “Come out from among them and be ye separate”, “avoid the very appearance of evil”, “don’t be unequally yoked”, “don’t be like the world” and so on.

I was reading the Bible the other day and I just had a vision, or thought, or gas from the bean burrito I just ate for lunch … whatever it was I found it to be interesting. And here it is: When we read in scripture about being separate from the “world”, or “be different than the ‘world’”, or “don’t associate with the ‘world’”…what does that mean, in total context?

I haven’t taken the time to research it completely, but when I think of Jesus and His life, His social habits, He seemed to live contrary to that… at least in how I always thought it to mean. But it makes more sense; actually it makes total sense with the new way I am looking at that. And that is this; Jesus really had a difficult time with the “worlds” religious establishment of His day (Pharisees & Sadducees), and thought it full of hypocrisy and all other sorts of things … He encouraged people who were in that system to COME OUT from among it, be different, be real … GO YE into the WORLD … reach the lost ... take care of the widows and orphans. And this is the very life that Jesus exampled for us. There is no doubt Jesus stood on the outside of the religious establishment of His day, but yet had one hand IN it to shake it up a bit. Really He was trying to encourage them to see Faith for what it should be ... it's not about "looking" the part, it's about "being" the part.

So maybe there is a dual meaning here … God not only wants us to come out from among the world of sin, meaning “don’t live a life of sin”, but He is also calling us to come out from among our little Christian club life, our living comfortable Christian lives, only hanging with other Christians and get out in the real world and do something to reach this world … giving the world HOPE.

Random thoughts here … haven’t thought it all through yet, but I think there is something here for us to learn … salt doesn’t do any good remaining in the salt shaker!

Shalom!