How I Live In But Not Of

"Live in the world but not of it." That is the call every Christian must answer to. Today's society makes us wonder if Jesus recognized the difficulty of such a task! Stuart Briscoe responds to the arduous nature of follow Christ while being a part of the world. He says with authority:

          The society in which you and I live is becoming increasingly secularized. Europe has already become totally secularized, and has gone even further. [Europe has become] aggressively secular in its attack on all that is eternal, infinite, and spiritual and divine.  America better wake up to this. But the easiest thing in the world is to become so enamored in the culture to which you live that you find yourself being pressed into its mold. And God says, ‘If you love me, you won't go that way. You'll stand firm.'  And that's why you need to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, because it takes moral and spiritual strength to stand against it. 1

No doubt Briscoe's words bring light to the seriousness of the call to holiness. Yet even though the task of maintaining steadfastness in living the Christ life requires utmost diligence, tenacity, and faith, the decree still remains. God has called us to live lives of wonderful purpose and abundance. However, he made it an imperative to live set apart as his chosen people. For me, this means ensuring a lifestyle of uprightness and integrity to protect me and lead me to Heaven.

To keep myself from being consumed by the secularism of today's age, I must maintain a high level of purity in heart and mind. This particular effort takes the form of two disciplines: censorship and confession / repentance. First, I consider carefully the media that I willfully expose myself to. I guard vigilantly my eyes and ears from inappropriate, distasteful, or impure material. I only watch family friendly movies, stream non-offensive music from my Ipod ear buds, and view wholesome television programs. Not only so, but I also guard what I read.  With leisurely reading material, I pay attention to the words on the page and filter the messages they are communicating. In the case of magazines, I avoid them altogether (with the exception of USA Gymnastics).

For many serious believers, this type of action is obvious. Eliminating dishonoring propaganda from our lifestyle is a no-brainer, an immediate response, an easy answer to how we are to live above reproach. This idea may even seem superfluous to some, hardly worth the space on this page. Nonetheless I stand firm in my belief and contend to this audience, filtering what we watch and hear makes a difference. It cannot be any simpler. And yet, I insist that we often do not tend to this difference like we ought.

Because I recognize that the way I fuel my entertainment engines has a strong influence on my relationship with the Lord, my attitudes towards others, and my own heart, I make intentional choices about what I see and hear. Even though at times this type of decision is almost effortless, I face challenges in staying committed to this discipline every day. After all, living purely requires many painful, heart-wrenching sacrifices. At a practical level, this translates into screening Father of the Bride for the tenth time instead of the latest new movie release, resisting the temptation to access all eight episodes of MTV's reality show The Hills, even though Lo and LC feel like close friends, and selecting Jars of Clay or Bach instead of Justin Timberlake when I am designing my Pandora radio station, no matter how smooth his beats are. No doubt, my seasons of Full House and Boy Meets World are invaluable to me and never get old!

At other times in my life, especially during the formidable teenage years, I tasted pop culture at its finest. As an MTV fiend and faithful Kiss FM radio listener, I remember well how delectable all of this culture food is. This is precisely why it is a battle to turn off the TV or change the radio station when something inappropriate comes on. And yet, even it requires great patience and fortitude to convince myself I am making a significant choice, I do it because I have confidence that the little choices I make in day-to-day life matter. I tend to the "whatever you dos," as the apostle Paul might call them, and watch the major decisions in life carefully.

I have said it already, and I will say it again. The small choices I make matter. Frequently, however, the choice is not mine. Bombarded with hundreds of thousands of cultural messages every minute of every day, being alive in society in 2010 is war. Evangelists are not just in our churches these days. Ingenious marketers, prolific writers, and creative producers sell their own agendas in everything they present. Some of these "sermons" are overt, like the fast food slogans that say you can have it your way. Others are more surreptitious.

Television commercials, radio ads, billboards, company jingles, magazine covers, sitcom themes, store displays, movie previews, and tabloid headlines represent only a small portion of the thousands of sources of these messages. The influx of such information becomes reality the second I step out the door and is virtually inescapable. I don't look for it, but it's there. It's not even simply present, but in my face, at my fingertips, all designed with a very specific purpose in mind-to catch my attention. And without giving it any permission, it does so. I am changed.

In this instance, maintaining purity means constructively criticizing the messages preached. The only ways to really find refuge from the snakes of our culture is to live underground or become a hermit, neither of which are options for me. So because it is nearly impossible to live a healthy, fulfilling, purposeful life without being in the world, my only feasible course of action is to expend effort thinking about what's out there. During the times when I catch a glimpse of a scene I rather would not have seen, a photograph that makes be blush, or a headline that stirs self-defecating or judgmental thoughts, I do the work to process what it is that I have just encountered. I name what I saw, pinpoint its message, infer what it is intended to communicate, and consider how this influences my perceptions or feelings. Most of all, I consider what God thinks of this particular piece of satire. I often conclude these mini cultural dissections with the Lord's Prayer, asking his Kingdom to come on this earth, in that situation, in that person's heart. This is particularly the case with stories of the rich and famous who live in a world where darkness reigns. My heart breaks for them.

Exposure to sinful material is inevitable in this world. Not only so, but because of the Fall I came into the world preferencing my own way. So temptation seeks me out. There are times when I ignore the consequences of my choices, even though foundationally, I believe they matter. And when these times come and I find myself enamored in the representations of reality culture throws at my feet, I confess and repent. These supplications are an integral part of the life of the believer, and I am learning more of their significance as I age and mature. In this culture, they are not an option, but a necessity.

During the acts of confession and repentance, the sense of discernment is strengthened and the movement of the Spirit becomes more recognizable. The more attentive I am to the Spirit's guiding, the more conviction I will feel when I am involved in something that offends it. Thus, the more we turn to the Spirit in prayer, the better we are able to love what God loves, to turn from what God hates. Consequently, if we do not pay attention to the Spirit's leading, following his steps will become increasingly difficult, our hearts and minds become stained. Before we know it, our discernment is completely dulled and we are virtually unable to tell the difference between what is sacred and what is secular. Sound familiar? The state of this culture in its morally and spiritually sensitized state ought to alarm us and take us to our knees. As Christians, we must stand against this and in this fight is where I am today.

Culture will define who we are and how we live, if we let it. Ravi Zacharias says we are a generation "that listens with its eyes and thinks with its feelings." ² Conditioned to structure reality through what we see and what we feel, as Christians we have the greatest challenge before us. Culture does not have to consume us and if we are serious about our faith it must not. Again, we are to live in the world but not of it. We cannot forget that today, 2,000 years after Jesus walked the earth, the call still remains. No matter how difficult, it is our duty and the only proper response to live lives worthy of the Gospel. This means staying Christian in a secularized society. This means loving our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Notes

1. What Does Loving God Look Like? By Stuart Briscoe. Elmbrook Church, Brookfield. 20 Nov. 2009. Performance.
2. Zacharias, Ravi. "Secularization: It's Control and Power." Let My People Think. Atlanta,  Georgia, 2009. Radio.