Bearing Witness to the World or Becoming Like the World?

I would like to connect to a previous entry posted by Tim entitled Fighting the Culture Within (March 28), as part of an ongoing blog focus on the war against God and Biblical truth surging within our culture. In this entry Tim helpfully described a number of ways that the sinful spirit of the age can find expression in our hearts and flow out through our lives. These sinful characteristics are all forms of the larger problem that the Bible refers to as worldliness, and worldliness is a serious problem pressing in on the followers of Jesus Christ, perhaps in unprecedented ways in our day.

Deeply concerned about this issue, C.J. Mahaney, in Worldliness: Resisting the Seduction of a Fallen World, writes as follows:

Charles Spurgeon, writing 150 years ago, nevertheless speaks poignantly to the problem in the church today: "I believe," he asserted, "that one reason why the church of God at this present moment has so little influence over the world is because the world has so much influence over the church." The greater our difference from the world, the more true our testimony for Christ--and the more potent our witness against sin. But sadly, today, there’s not much difference. The lines have blurred. The lack of clarity between the church and the world has undercut our testimony for Christ and undermined our witness against sin. In Spurgeon’s words once again: "Worldliness is growing over the church; she is mossed with it."

Are the lines between Christian and worldly conduct blurry in your mind--and more importantly, in your life? To put it another way, is your lifestyle obviously different from that of the non-Christian?

Imagine I take a blind test in which my task is to identify the genuine follower of Jesus Christ. My choices are an unregenerate individual and you. I’m given two reports detailing conversations, Internet activity, manner of dress, iPod playlists, television habits, hobbies, leisure time, financial transactions, thoughts, passions, and dreams.

The question is: Would I be able to tell you apart? Would I discern a difference between you and your unconverted neighbor, coworker, classmate, or friend? Have the lines between Christian and worldly conduct in your life become so indistinguishable that there really is no difference at all?

If the difference is hard to detect, you may be in danger of drifting down the deserter’s path with Demas (see 2 Tim. 4:10). In front of the deserter’s path is a warning sign. It’s 1 John 2:15: "Do not love the world or anything in the world.”

As followers of the Lord Jesus Christ we are called to be salt and light in relationship to the fallen world around us. We should be a true counter culture community living out the reality of our relationship with the Savior, speaking the truth in love as we bear witness to Christ to a culture in rebellion against the infinite-personal God who is really there, and who has spoken to us in the Bible. However, like the Israelites, who were called by God to be a holy nation, but were so often not able to faithfully bear witness to the surrounding culture because they were so much like it, so likewise, today’s church is succumbing to the same malady: worldliness.

As I reflect on this a probing question comes to mind, a question posed by the Savior: “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?” (Luke 6:46).

Why indeed.