In his little book, Our Guilty Silence: The Church, The Gospel and the World, John Stott seeks to answer the question how Christians are to relate to the world. Speaking of Jesus’ identification with the world, he writes:
Of the Son’s ‘identification’ with the world into which He was sent, there can be no shadow of doubt. He did not remain in heaven; He came into the world. The word was not spoken from the sky; ‘the Word was made flesh’. And then He ‘dwelt among us’. He did not come on a fleeting visit and hurry back home again. He stayed in the world into which He came. He gave men a chance to behold His glory. Nor did He only let them gaze from a distance. He scandalized church leaders of His day by mixing with the riff-raff they avoided. ‘Friend of publicans and sinners’, they dubbed Him. To them it was a term of opprobrium; to us it is a title of honour. He touched the untouchable lepers. He did not recoil from the caresses of a prostitute. And then He, who at His birth had been ‘made flesh’, was in His death ‘made sin’ and ‘made a curse’ (John 1:14; 2 Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:13). He had assumed our nature; He now assumed our transgressions, our doom, our death. His self-identification with man was utter and complete.
Therefore when He says to us ‘go’, this is what He means. ‘As our Lord took on our flesh, so he calls His Church to take on the secular world’; otherwise we do not ‘take the Incarnation seriously’. We are to go as He went, to penetrate human society, to mix with unbelievers and fraternize with sinners. Does not one of the Church’s greatest failures lie here? We have disengaged too much. We have become a withdrawn community. We have been aloof, instead of alongside.
So what do you think? Is Stott right? Agree or disagree?
Maybe when Stott *wrote* the book that was the problem. I think the problem *now* is when churches and Christians mistake Holy Worldliness with Worldy Worldliness. Christians went out into the community and instead of transforming it, became transformed themselves.
Kate,
Your argument is definitely a valid one. One thing I have yet to mention is the distinciton Stott makes from identification to assimilation. We should identify (come alonside) but not assimilate (be absorbed) into world.
Two problems I see going on right now (at least in my mind). There are Christians afraid of identifying with sinners so as to not be “of the world” that they never actually be “in the world” to begin with. As Stott puts it, we are satellites sending signals without an entry into people’s lives. The second problem is Christians being “of the world” while still failing to be “in the world.” By that I mean that Christians so long to be relevant with our culture that they lose the counter-culture distinctive of Christianity, and the salt loses its savor. In such a case, a believer and unbeliever are indistinguishable, and this should NOT be.
So I agree with what you have said. My concern goes both ways, guarding against both ditches. One is alienation and hyper-seperatism; the other is assimilation and hyper-relevantism. Looking to Christ, I find my Savior as the Holy One who rubbed shoulders with the greatest sinners of his day. While never compromising his identity, he fulfilled his mission to save sinners (like me) who are not worthy of such unconditional, radical, tangible love (Romans 5:8). It is that love I hope to communicate to the lost world in which I live as I communicate the gospel of Jesus Christ.
My fear is that evangelicals have written off hugh sections of our lost world, planting churches in safe places and cultivating Christian mission in middle-class, suburban, white America. I could elaborate on this in greater detail, but this is just to say I have been guilty of sizing up sinners and going for the ones like me – and I don’t think I am alone in this situation.
Great posts (all three installments)! I agree that as Christians we tend to drop the ball when we go out into the world. I think one of the biggest reasons/problems is that we allow the world’s attitudes of indifference and even outright hostility to the gospel intimidate us. ‘They’ll just ignore me, or tell me off,” we reason. Also, we tend to hold onto our worldly desire to be well-liked and popular, and we assume (and rightly so) that folks won’t like us so much if we constantly preach the gospel at work and social clubs and such. We must let go of that need to be liked, and realize that when it comes right down t it, it only matters if Jesus likes us, and He doesn’t like us if we have such a precious gift as salvation and we sit silently on it! I think as new saints, we are so blissful with the feelings associated with salvation, that we are afraid to lose those feelings, and we figure if we let others in, the feelings will eke out. We must learn that witnessing keeps that glorious connection with God charged, just as prayer, fasting, and church attendance do. Something else I agree with is that other side of the coin, the super fanatical witness who puts the gospel on everything, before allowing the person to completely speak their piece! If we give the exact same stock responses to every situation that arises, people will begin to tune us out completely. We must strike a fine balance, without getting sucked into the world’s junk. Through prayer and communion with the Holy Ghost we can learn how to strike this balance.
Be blessed!
Thanks for sharing Marta! Yeah, one of the challenges I have come to realize is that, during my identification with my unbelieving coworkers and friends, it is easy to talk about everything else except Jesus and the cross. Yet this is what defines us! So as we identify with sinners in their need for a Savior, we need to show our “true colors” and identity being “in Christ” to continually point them to Jesus. May God give us boldness and courage, matched with humility and grace to be the attractive witness for the glory of God.