It always has been a challenge for a Christian to live in the world and yet to not be of the world. As technology advances, communication exposes us to many more options, while the increasing moral degradation becomes more open and accessible. These new opportunities to witness for the Lord with the aid of modern technology coupled with the need of safeguards to keep us from the pollutions so prevalent in the world raise the question as to what kind of a lifestyle Christians should have. How can we take advantage of the technological opportunities without compromising holiness and godliness? The Lord clearly laid out what is needed in His prayer for His disciples in John 17. He was about to leave this world. The disciples would be left behind to represent Him in the ungodly world. We believe we are living very close to the time He will return to take us home, but until that moment, our place is to represent Him in the world.
Sanctified and Sent
Two main features of the Lord’s prayer for His disciples are that they be sanctified and sent. “I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth. As Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world” (John 17:15-1815I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. 16They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 17Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. 18As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. (John 17:15‑18)). The importance of this cannot be overemphasized. First there is the need to be set apart — sanctified. Without sanctification through the reading and washing of the Scriptures (the truth), there is no power to resist the evil or witness for Christ. The daily habit of reading a chapter of the Bible in the morning before facing the world is a must. It has a sanctifying effect on us which will keep us. It keeps us from becoming like the world; it gives us power to overcome the world (1 John 5:44For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. (John 5:4)). If we attempt to go into the world without maintaining the practical holiness that marks us as belonging to the Lord, the power to witness to the world is lost, and we will become like Lot who eventually needed to be rescued from Sodom.
The Lord’s Sanctification for Us
In addition to our sanctification through the application of the Word, the Lord Himself provided another kind of sanctification regarding our being sent into the world. “For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth” (John 17:1919And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. (John 17:19)). The Lord Himself promises that when He left this world, He would set Himself apart — sanctify Himself — to look after those the Father had given Him. Thus, when He prayed for them, it was with the desire that they be kept from the world. How good to realize that He is caring for us in that way! He did not pray for the world; He prayed for those in the world that the Father gave Him. It should give us assurance of our ultimate preservation from the evil of the world and to know that as long as we walk with Him in obedience to the truth, our witness will have its desired effect in the world. We need not be afraid of the world, for the Lord Jesus has overcome the world and is in control. But if we think we can go into the world, mix with it and have power to change it through our own strength, we are sure to fail. Not only will we fail to change the world, but we also will most certainly be dragged down and destroyed in our life testimony.
The distinct action of being sanctified and sent into the world keeps us from the two extremes of assimilation into the world and isolationism from the world. The Lord did not leave us a specific code of Christian conduct, dress or ethics to practice, but all these outward things are ways that our faith in Christ can be shown. Rules without adorning the “hidden man of the heart” lead only to legality, while, on the other hand, unbridled immodesty without any care as to outward demeanor renders any testimony of the “hidden man of the heart” indistinguishable before the world. May the Lord help us to keep our focus on Him and His Word. It will conform us to the image of His likeness.
Three Witnesses of the World
Paul, the man with a keen mind and who, in service, surpassed the other apostles, said, “Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Rom. 12:22And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. (Romans 12:2)).
Peter, the energetic man of action who was restored to usefulness, said, “According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (1 Peter 1:3-4).
John, the man who knew most of the Lord’s love and lived the longest, said, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever” (1 John 2:15-1715And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables; 16And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise. 17And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. (John 2:15‑17)). He also said, “Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 John 5:55And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. (John 5:5)).
D. C. Buchanan