Today the Lord reminded me of some things I'd learned, and clarified them for me. I thought they might be relevant to you as they are to me. They have to do with our interactions with people in the world, and with fellow Christians.
First, it is most important that we do what we say. The issue of living what we preach came up first; often that's going to take crying out to God for help in order to do so. Without that kind of integrity, we lose our good witness and end up ashamed. God comes through with aid when we're committed to actually doing the Word, not just reading it and talking about it.
The issues of "intermarrying with pagans" and "sexual immorality" got a lot of attention: these are obviously really important to the Lord. With the Old and New Testament passages juxtaposed like this, I got a clearer understanding of what the Lord is trying to say, at least to me right now. I think as Christians, we mostly know we're not to marry outside of Christ, or have sex outside of marriage. But I think we can apply this to ourselves in a deeper understanding of intimacy and partnership. We shouldn't be birthing anything of mixed spiritual seed (children of the devil birthing something together with children of God; birthing something that's partly of the devil and partly of God). We shouldn't even take the risk of that kind of illegitimate relationship -- it creates all sorts of trouble.
On the other hand, the Apostle Paul made it clear that the Lord wasn't telling us to go around judging the world for its idolatrous and sexually immoral behavior, or for all the rest of the things he listed (and there is so much more)! God's got it covered. He said he wasn't even telling us to avoid contact with the people in the world, "since then you would need to go out of the world." How could we be a witness in the world if we're not allowed to hang around with people in the world?
If you'll think about it for a minute, Jesus came down out of a holy heaven and entered into a very sinful world, in human form, to hang out with us sinful people. It wasn't because He loved the sin! Obviously He doesn't! He came because He loves people, and He wanted to share God's good news with them. He wanted to give them a way out of the sin, and a way to escape the corruption in the world and the judgement of the world that is to come. He is the Way, and He made it possible for us to see that.
Now it's up to us to do the same. He never engaged in the sinful behavior, however. He was always Himself, yet He made Himself accessible. He was engaging without compromise. Jesus is the best example of how to do godly social networking. Not only that, He's given us His Spirit to help us do it right.
Paul brought up a major issue about how to deal with people who call themselves Christians and don't live like it (and it seems to me that he is talking about habitual lifestyle, not just mistakes, since he called them "evil people"!). As I said before, we should not be one of those. But here we see that we shouldn't even hang around with one of those! Does this seem contradictory? Hang out with the sinners in the world, but don't hang out with the sinners in the Church.
Well, think about it. First, there's the possibility that it might be an imposter (poser, infiltrator), possibly a wolf. Or it could be a person under the influence of a Jezebel spirit. Any of these types are stalking around looking to lead people astray and devour them. Someone doing immoral things within the body of Christ ends up leading others to do the same, usually the lambs. It despoils the testimony of the Church, and it grieves the Spirit of God. The Church is about oneness with God and each other. God will not be one with evil! There may be other reasons besides these. Whatever the reasons for God saying it's a big deal, Paul makes it clear that it's dangerous and that we are to take action. Yes, we are to judge it. We are to disengage from fellowship with them, and we are not to associate. [If you have read further in the letters of Paul, you will see that this choice is to be redemptive always].
As you can see, the things we read in Scripture are very relevant and applicable to our daily lives. I received some clear instruction today, and some things on which to seek God further. I hope you did too.
Questions to ponder:
How committed are you to obeying what the Word of God teaches?
What do you do when you are up against a compromising situation?
Have you ever gotten too involved with an unbeliever? How did that turn out?
How much say does God have in your own social networking practices?
How does God's Word affect how you relate to people in the world? people in the church? Is He calling for any change in these areas?
Have you ever had to give up a Christian friend because they were living a sinful lifestyle? What would tell someone facing that type of choice?
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