Set Apart

Ronald J. Sider, author of Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger (a book that deeply impacted me) just released a new book titled The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience. In it, Sider paints a pretty disturbing picture of the Evangelical Christian, asserting that the average Christian lives exactly the same as their non-Christian neighbor. Specifically, Sider argues (backed up by information compiled by the Barna Research Group) that Evangelical Christians have similar rates of divorce, premarital sex, domestic violence and use of pornography than non-believers, and are actually more likely to hold racist views than other people. Sider says, "by their daily activity, most Christians' regularly commit treason. With their mouths they claim that Jesus is their Lord, but with their actions they demonstrate their allegiance to money, sex, and personal self-fulfillment."

God gave the Isrealites the Law not so they would have rules to follow and be able to achieve worthiness, but so that they would be set apart, so they would be different from others.

"But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." 1 Peter 2:9

Is personal moral purity wrong? Obviously not, but we can quickly become so focused on our own purity that we miss the message Jesus spoke. We begin to reduce the Gospel to a formula for the forgiveness of sins and the saving of our own personal soul, Bonhoeffer called it "cheap grace." Rather, Jesus called us to a life of transformation "out of darkness into His marvelous light," one marked more by action rather than reflection. Once again, is reflection wrong? No. But if all we do is reflect inwardly on how to become a better person and how to follow Jesus more precisely, we will simply become pharisees.

"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?

Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
"If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.

The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.

Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.

Isaiah 58:6-12

If we spend ourselves on behalf of others, our own personal moral purity mysteriously appears. Our salvation is not earned through works, but our complete restoration is achieved through works.

Evangelical Christians have a problem, we are so focused on our own personal walk with God that we don't see our neighbor's need (and unfortunately they see our hypocrisy) and miss the opportunity to incarnate the Good News. This was recently on a friend's blog that I found remarkable:

We have become so fixated on personal (and very political) issues that we have missed our true calling as followers of Christ. We are more defined by what we are against rather than what we are for, who we don't like rather than who we love. The sanctity of life is a huge issue, but what about the sanctity of the lives' of children (or adults for that matter) in Iraq, or the 30,000 children that die every day from hunger and poverty?

Sadly, most Evangelical Christians have bought into "cheap grace." If we are going to be the Church that Jesus intended us to be, we must be a community set apart, not individuals living moral (or as the study shows not-so-moral) lives separately. We must live out the upside-down nature of Jesus' message by listening to His Spirit and following His call together, in the opposite direction of the culture. Most of us have been, to paraphrase Shane Claiborne, admiring and worshiping Jesus but not following Him and actively doing what He did. . . . We adore His cross without taking up ours.

We don't simply need to be believers, we need to be converts, converted from conforming to the patterns of this world.

We need to be set apart.