Chapter 13: Am I of This World? A short while ago, we looked at Jesus' words to Pilate: "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight so that I should not be delivered to the Jews, but now my kingdom is not from here." If there had been any doubt in Pilate's mind about the revolutionary nature of Christ's kingdom, there should have been none after he heard those words. It was a kingdom that would not, in fact could not, be defended with the sword.
Pilate had nothing to fear from Jesus. Jesus' kingdom was not going to overthrow the empire that Pilate served, at least not in his lifetime and not with earthly swords. Jesus' kingdom was not of this world. It depended solely on supernatural power for its preservation, not on earthly might. Not only is Christ's kingdom not of the world, but his subjects are not of the world either.
Shortly before he was arrested, Jesus had prayed about his subjects: "I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth.
As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world." So, if we're going to be subjects of Jesus Christ, we have to be not of the world. Does this mean that we retreat to some inaccessible mountain peak or desert sanctuary? Not at all. For Jesus said that he was sending us into the world, not away from it, but into it. So if we have been sent into the world, how do we avoid being of the world? John explains: "Do not love the world or the things in the world.
If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it. But he who does the will of God abides forever." So being not of the world means that we live in the world, but we are dead to all of its attractions. We are simply pilgrims passing through the world, but not making it our home.
As John tells us, there's no point talking about how much we love Jesus if we love the world. We gain nothing by plastering Jesus stickers all over our cars and homes if we love the world, because if we love the world, we don't love Jesus. As James puts it: "Adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?
Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." For this reason, neither Jesus nor his disciples ever talk about such a thing as a Christian nation. The term is actually an oxymoron, like the phrase "thunderous silence." The word "Christian" of necessity must always apply to persons and things that are not of this world. On the other hand, unless we are referring to God's kingdom, the word "nation" necessarily refers to something that is always of this world.
Throughout the New Testament, God gives his people instructions on how they are to act in various spheres of authority. He gives instructions to both husbands and wives. He gives instructions to both masters and servants. He gives instructions to both parents and children. He gives instructions to both pastors and to members of the flock they shepherd. However, when it comes to earthly governments, it's quite different. The New Testament gives instructions only to Christian subjects, never to Christian rulers.
If God had intended for there to be Christian rulers, why were no instructions given to them? Of course, every church claims it loves Jesus. No church advertises that it's a friend of the world. But words are easy. It's not what a church says, but what it does. On Judgment Day, Jesus will commend us with, "Well done, good and faithful servants," not with, "Well spoken, good and faithful servants." Many banks use dye packs to help foil robberies.
If a robbery occurs, the bank employees surreptitiously place thin dye packs in each bundle of cash handed over to the robber. About ten minutes later, when the robber is fleeing the bank, the dye packs explode, spraying red dye all over the stolen cash and usually on the robber. In 1999, in Wilmington, Delaware, a not-too-clever crook held up a local bank fleeing with a considerable amount of cash.
However, moments after the robber left the bank, the dye packs exploded, spraying dye all over the money and all over the robber's right hand. The crook made it only a few blocks before he noticed a policeman in hot pursuit, so he leaned up against an apartment building, put the money sack behind his back, and stuck his hands in his pockets. He was standing there nonchalantly when the police officer came running by, searching for the bank robber.
The thief immediately recognized the policeman as an acquaintance, so he took his right hand out of his pocket and waved to the officer. Oops, that was the hand with the dye, and that was the end of his brief criminal career. Just like that dye pack, the world leaves an identifying mark on its friends. When friends of the world lift their hands to worship Jesus, what he sees are the red dye marks left by the world. Regardless of how loudly a church protests otherwise, that mark is there to identify it.
How can we tell if the church we attend is stained with the dye of the world? When a church is stained with the world's dye, whatever social mores, attitudes, and movements go through the world will likewise move through that church. In contrast, Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. His attitudes, values, and commandments never change. A church that is not of the world will have the same values and live the same lifestyle as the New Testament church. Its moral standards don't change every decade or two.
However, ever since the time of Constantine, the institutional church has been locked in step with the world. For example, it had been acceptable to the Romans to burn people at the stake, so it became acceptable for the church to do so. The ancient Romans saw torture as a perfectly acceptable way to obtain evidence from accused criminals. So the church accepted torture. The Romans had looked down on various barbarian people groups, so the church did so as well.
The post-Constantinian church continued to profess its love for Jesus Christ, but its guilty hands were covered by the world's dye. The church loved the world, so it adopted many of the world's values and mores. And typically, the church has continued to practice these evils until the world finally recognizes them as wrong. For example, when the world lost its stomach for burning people at the stake, so did the church. When much of the world finally recognized torture as a hideous evil, the church quit using it.
Fifty years ago, here in the South, white persons who belonged to the world wouldn't eat in the same restaurants, sleep in the same motels, or socialize in the same auditoriums with blacks. Did the church take a different stance? No. White Christians acted no differently from the world. They even refused to worship alongside blacks. But today, Southern whites eat in the same restaurants, sleep in the same motels, and sit in the same auditoriums with blacks. The world finally recognized racism as wrong.
And guess what? Now most churches recognize racism as wrong. In most, but not all, Southern churches, blacks can now worship alongside whites. But the world had to change before white Christians were willing to practice loving those of a different skin color. Somehow, Jesus' teachings never pierced the hearts of white Southern Christians, but the world finally got through to them. Earlier, we talked about divorce. Seventy-five years ago, virtually every church prohibited divorce. Today, hardly any church does.
What changed? Jesus certainly didn't. No, the world changed, and the church with its dye-stained hands changed right along with it. One of the most significant social movements of the past forty years has been feminism. As feminism began to influence nearly every institution of the world, it likewise began to influence the institutional church. Suddenly, the church became ashamed of what Jesus Christ and his apostles taught concerning the two genders.
As a result, the church has reinterpreted almost every passage of scripture pertaining to men and women. Although feminism mouths the slogan of equality, in reality, it has promoted an enormous double standard between the sexes. If persons say anything that could even remotely be interpreted as derogatory to women, no matter how fair and accurate, they are immediately shouted down, disregarded, and labeled as sexist.
However, persons can freely denigrate men, whether it is fair and accurate or not, and that is perfectly acceptable. Even so-called Bible-believing Christians have adopted wholesale the world's double standard. Male bashing in sermons is now quite typical. What's more, virtually every passage of scripture that contains a special commandment for women has been neutralized or abrogated. In contrast, every passage of scripture that contains a special commandment for men has been emphasized and often amplified.
For example, few pastors today talk about wives submitting to their husbands in everything, as the scriptures teach. Or, if they do speak about it, they interpret it in such a fanciful way that the commandment means nothing. However, many pastors typically preach at length about husbands loving their wives, and they interpret that commandment in such a way that it's a heavy, nearly impossible burden to fulfill. Another example is the scriptural teaching on the head covering.
Every man praying or prophesying having his head covered dishonors his head. But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, for that is one and the same as if her head were shaved. For if a woman is not covered, let her also be shorn. From the early days of the New Testament church up through the mid-19th century, virtually every church obeyed the Holy Spirit in this matter. Men took their hats off when praying or when in church.
Women covered their heads with a veil when praying or when in church. But then the first feminist movement of the 1800s swept through society and through the church. In many churches, women quit wearing any type of prayer covering. In most churches, women still wore coverings, but the coverings changed from veils or bonnets to stylish hats. Until the '60s, women in many churches still wore hats when in church. But hats quickly disappeared with the new feminist movement of the '60s.
The irony is that virtually all churches today still apply the first part of Paul's instructions, the part where he says that men must pray with their heads uncovered. Men still are told to take off their hats when they come into church or when a prayer is being offered. I remember being at a prayer meeting once, and a couple of men came in with hats on. The preacher immediately called them down and told them to take off their hats.
Yet, I've never seen a preacher tell a woman to cover her head in church or before prayer. The world has a new double standard toward the sexes, and so does the church. At first glance, it may seem that today's church is doing women a great favor. However, in truth, they are practicing the worst form of sex discrimination against women possible. I used to work as a corporate attorney, answerable directly to the president and other officers of the corporation.
Those officers depended upon me to correctly inform them on matters of law. What sort of a lawyer would I have been if I had told the officers that certain conduct was lawful when in fact it wasn't? When they ended up in jail, would they have thanked me for not being straightforward with them? I think not. It's exactly the same with Jesus' laws. The laws and teachings he has given to each gender, either in person or through his apostles, remain the same yesterday, today, and forever.
When Christian authors and preachers tell Christian women that they don't have to obey Jesus, they are setting these women up to be disqualified from the kingdom. Many Bible-believing Christians today pride themselves in being separate from the world because they reject today's liberal views on homosexuality, abortion, and other social and political issues. They somehow imagine that following a right-wing Republican agenda is being different from the world.
But the Republican Party is the world, or at least part of it. In fact, it tends to be more militaristic and more supportive of war than the liberal parties. Its political platform is no more built on the teachings of Jesus than is the Democratic platform. However, to its credit, the Republican Party is usually slower than the Democratic Party to throw out traditional and biblical morality. Jesus doesn't care which segment of the world we're friends with. If we're friends with any part of it, we're his enemies.