The World – God’s World: They Are not Opposites

Most of us have grown up with, or at least, heard that that “we are in the world but
we are not of the world” it is a Biblical statement but does the context fit the rest of
the Bible, furthermore it may not fit the basic His Story that is contained therein.
Paul’s context in writing the verse was to a community which was being enticed,
make that tempted, to divert from their true path. He had to make this statement to
separate their thinking from the stuff that was around them, and back to the true life.
He did not say to get out of the city but to stay clean in the community in which they
had their roots.
In actual fact it is almost an impossibility to engage in evangelism or outreach of any
kind, apart from TV and radio, effectively. Anyone can use the scattergun, or
bullhorn, strategy and may get some converts. There is very little reflection of the
style of Jesus and His Old Testament predecessors in this method. While John the
Baptist preached to the masses his challenge was to promote the arrival of a new
way of doing God.
Jesus is recorded as having taught the masses only twice. He was looking for
personal investment, in each case where Jesus meets a follower He does it one to
one and face to face. His was personal outreach, intensely so. Zachaeus was called
down from a tree in the middle of a noisy street crowd who wanted to keep him quiet
but Jesus knew he was there. The woman with the flow of blood only wanted to
touch His clothing to be healed, however in the middle of a jostling crowd where
many would have touched Him, not just His clothing; He knew the moment that she
did get close enough to reach out to Him.
The old testament Jews were intended to show forth the one true God but they
institutionalized their religious observances and did not attract the other nations to
JHWH except for those events recorded in the pages of the old covenant. We have
inherited the mandate of those ancient Jews. Our primary function is to announce
the Kingdom of God as it is now expressed by faith in Jesus.
As we are representing Jesus to promote the Kingdom of God, then He should be
our model, in the way that we deal with others who we desire to introduce to Him.
This also brings into focus the theme of this article. We are not to consider ourselves
as somehow apart from the humanity around us who still need to meet our Saviour.
We are only different to them by a fluke of timing in that someone else introduced us
to Him earlier. In like manner we need to relate in a way that is valid to the people
with whom we are dealing.
The Samaritan at the well is an example of Jesus doing just that, relating in a
personally appropriate manner. Jesus asks for a drink of water, something that no
right thinking Jew would do: - not from a Samaritan. But ask He did and this
provokes a discussion that goes way beyond His request for a drink to living water
and more to her need to begin a new life.
So Jesus seeks out those people who need His special touch and meets them in the
area of their need. What then must we do? Can we do any less than He did, even to
the point of breaking with His own social norms? If we are in the world but not of it
then to be effective for the Kingdom we need to be close enough to experience the
smell of humanity and feel the pain of its suffering. Are we ready?