Do Not Be Conformed to the World

On By Lance MosherIn Kingdom Life1 Comment

The Life of Christ Challenges Us to Non-Conformity

When one becomes a Christian, it does not take long for reality to sink in. Living like Jesus is difficult. Pressure and instructions come from all places, yet the one place that is supposed to triumph all is the voice of Jesus Christ. That one voice is the one that the world tries so desperately to distort, ignore, or silence. How is the Christian supposed to live up to the old adage, “You are in the world but not of the world”?

Consider deeply the character of Jesus Christ. Do your very best to put the media’s image of Jesus out of your mind, and allow the word of God to paint the picture. How did Jesus respond to each situation? How did He act toward those who were sick? Those who were sinful? Those who were hypocritical? Those who were politically powerful? Those who were hungry? Those who were dead? Consider deeply the character of Christ. Did He allow the world to shape His thoughts and actions?

During Jesus’ three years of ministry on earth, how many people did He heal, forgive, rebuke, teach, feed, and raise? We do not know. Apart from the many times the gospel authors simply said “multitudes” or “crowds,” John helps us understand the enormity of Jesus’ impact on the lives of others when he writes:

And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written. John 21:25.

It is important that we consider the character of Jesus Christ before we commit to our passage at hand, which is:

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2.

Romans 12 Challenges Us to Non-Conformity

Prior to chapter 12 in the letter to the Romans, Paul teaches on the status of Israel in the eyes of God. After chapter 12, he teaches God’s view of the Gentile world and those who come into the kingdom as Gentiles. Both Jews and Gentiles are susceptible to the influence of the world. Though perspective is different, the temptation is the same.

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. 1 John 2:16.

The words of Romans 12 have been strategically placed between the address to the Jews and the address to the Gentiles, because no one is free from the temptations of lust and pride. Romans 12 and 13 teach that all people ought to not exalt themselves. We must utilize our gifts properly. We must love genuinely. We ought to be sympathetic with those in pain. We must never retaliate. We must respond to evil with the love of Christ. We must live obediently under civil law.

We know all of that is part of the Christian lifestyle. We would know that even if Romans 12 and 13 were never written. Jesus Himself both taught and exemplified all of these imperatives and more. So, why did Paul write them? Why did he take the time to command these Christians to do what they had already committed to do? It is because all of the commandments in Romans 12 and 13 go against the natural flow of life.

If a person were to simply follow the whims of his heart and body, he would not obey a single imperative in this passage. It takes no effort to be conformed to this world. “Do not be conformed to this world” should not be treated as a commandment by itself. Instead, it should be seen as the removal of stumbling blocks on a Christian’s path of transformation.

Why Non-Conformity Is Important

Why is it important that Christians do not look like the rest of the world? Is it simply to “make the world a better place”? No. It is because Christians are to belong in a different “world.” According to many scholars, the word for world (aiōn) in this passage is sometimes difficult to translate. It is translated as world seven times in the NASB. However, it is rendered as age 20 times. Consider Galatians 1:4.

who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father. (emphasis added).

With the coming of the kingdom of Christ, a new culture, a new society, a new age has been ushered in. Christians have been transferred from the domain of darkness (this present evil age) into the kingdom of God’s Son (Col. 1:13). It is as Jesus prayed:

I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. John 17:15-19.

Christians are living in the world and among worldly people. Yet, Christians do not assimilate into the world. Instead, Christians are transformed into the image of Christ by the renewing of the mind. Such renewal is often difficult, as the voice of the world is loud and demanding.

The voice of Christ says:

  • Make peace.
  • Return violence with love.
  • Feed your enemy.
  • Be compassionate.
  • Deny self.
  • Forsake possessions.
  • Above all, love.

The voice of this age says:

  • Revenge is sweet.
  • Hit your enemy harder.
  • Destroy your enemy.
  • Mind your own business.
  • Take care of yourself first.
  • Buy, buy, buy.
  • Love those who love you.

The will of God is to be like Jesus. To be like Jesus is to “prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom. 12:2). Being conformed to this age is easy and natural, but being transformed is disciplined and spiritual (see Rom. 7:14-25).

Avoiding Worldly Distractions

In addition to contradicting the will of God, what the world offers today is also distracting from a Christian’s duty as a soldier for Christ.

Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier. 2 Timothy 2:3-4.

Among those things that distract Christians from true service for Christ are those things that appear quite good on the surface. Many well-meaning Christians spend much of their free time concerning themselves with the politics and policies of this world. Entangling oneself with such things may help “make the world a better place” (then again, it may not), but one must remember that Jesus did not call Christians for that purpose. Legislating morality is not the same thing as making disciples. Righteousness can only truly be obtained by the righteousness of Christ, not the good deeds of a society. While it is true that “Righteousness exalts a nation” (Prov. 14:34), Christians must remember that “nation building” take priority over, or even distract us, from faithfulness. Good works done apart from the work of Christ is vanity. Even to the nation of Israel, God’s elect people, when they did not have the right frame of mind, Isaiah was able to say, “For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment” (Isa. 64:6).

Christians must remember that the world and the kingdom of Christ are and will always be two separate domains. It is not the Christian’s job to persuade the world to be conformed to the kingdom. It is the Christian’s job to call people out of the world and into the kingdom.

Conclusion

Again, consider deeply the character of Jesus Christ. How should the Christian measure up? How would he measure up if he closely followed the imperatives of Romans 12 and 13?

The world has many things to offer. Some of them are horrendous. On the other hand, some even seem good. However, Christians will always be called to be separate from the world. The disciple is to avoid participating and being distracted by the deeds and policies of this world. He is to look more like Jesus and less like the world every day. Doing so will “prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect” and “please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.”

Standing Up For Your Rights

On By The Christian ExileIn Uncategorized1 Comment

by David Lipscomb

The Gospel Advocate; July 6, 1882

A man who insists on having his rights, will frequently find more wrongs than rights in this world. This world is not the world where right rules; on the contrary, it is an evil world,—a world where Abel dies while Cain lives; a world where God’s servants are killed all the day long, and are accounted as sheep for the slaughter; a world where the wisest of men see that in the place of judgment wickedness is there, and in the place of righteousness iniquity is there,—and find their only consolation in the fact that at last God shall judge the righteous and the wicked, and so right the wrongs that nothing else will ever remedy. We may as well accept these facts at first as to learn them by bitter experience at last; and we may as well content ourselves to bear the iniquities, the falsehoods, the slanders, robberies and wrong-doings that occur in this world, for so surely as we undertake to right the wrongs that are perpetrated, we shall receive fresh injuries and be made the victims of still greater wrongs. Charity “beareth all things,” and though there may be times when iniquity de­mands rebuke, and wrong-doing requires exposure, still he who does this with the hope of securing his own advantage, may expect to be disappointed. For one’s own personal profit it is better to endure almost any wrong than to undertake to obtain redress. We are in an enemy’s land, and a man may find perils where he least expects them. Hence we are to arm ourselves with the same mind that Jesus had, and suffer patiently, over­coming evil with good. The Talmud has this saying, which illustrates the life of one who beareth all things in the spirit of Christian charity:—“He who says, Mine is mine and thine is thine is a just man; he who says, Mine is mine, and thine is mine, is a wicked man ; he who says, Thine is thine, and mine is thine, is a pious man. ‘Love seeketh not her own.’” This principle of yielding, bearing, and endur­ing is not merely the dictate of Christian forbearance and charity, but it is also, in an evil world, the dictate of worldly prudence and com­mon sense. Unless a man can make up his mind to a life of warfare and strife, which may in the end involve him in injustice and personal wrong­doing to others, through a determination to have his own way, he may well make up his mind to suffer injury trusting in God who, in the day of final account, shall make all things right and shall give reward to his servants the prophets, and to his saints, and to them that fear his name, both small and great.

“The Church of Christ and World-Powers” by David Lipscomb

On By The Christian ExileIn Christian's Relationship to Government, Restoration

The Gospel Advocate; January 9, 1866

In the Prospectus for the present volume of the Gospel Advocate, we announced our intention of examining the relation which the Church of Jesus Christ sustains to the World-powers – civil, military, and religious, by which it is surrounded and with which it often comes in contact. On this, as on many other subjects, we are apt to imbibe the ideas and adopt the habits of those by whom we are surrounded in childhood, without ever questioning ourselves as to whether those ideas and customs and correct – are they in accordance with the teachings of the great Master? Now Jesus Christ gave rules that will guide his children, safely and securely according to his will, if they will only diligently hearken to those teachings. All scripture given by inspiration of God, is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction is righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. God has given us direction, how we should conduct ourselves in all the relationships of life, as parent and child, husband and wife, master and servant, friend, enemy, neighbor and stranger, he has certainly not left indefinite our duty in that relation – which is so liable to be used to control the whole man, soul and body, time, talent and energy as the world organizations under which we live.

We ask you then, courteous reader, to calmly investigate with us the connection that Christ has established between His kingdom and the World-Powers, or institutions, that we may learn our duties with reference to them, and be prepared ever in this, as other matters to be found walking according to the will of the Master. But for the present we will content ourselves with merely stating the three leading positions of the religious world in reference to this subject.

The 1st and most popular idea, taking the whole professed Christian world into consideration, is that the church should form alliances with the world institutions, for the purpose of controlling and using those institutions for the advancement of its own interest. The member of the Church according to this idea, enter into these organizations not for the intrinsic value of these institutions, but that the interests of the Church may be advanced. With this idea, when the interests of the Church demand it, the identical institution will by the same power be destroyed. This idea we denominate the Roman Catholic idea. It is the ruling principle with the Roman Catholic Church. She approves no special form of human government, but allies herself with every form, as her interest may demand, or her influence thereby be extended. Her votaries worship at every political shrine, and espouse antagonistic causes, yet never disturb the unity of their mother church. The same motive prompts the French Catholics to sustain the cause of France against Austria, that prompts the Austrian Catholics to uphold the cause of Austria against France. The one object that moves each is the advancement of the interests of mother Rome, the augmentation of her interests by giving her control of each government. She in a sense peculiarly of her own, thus becomes all things to all men, Austrian to Austria, French to France, that she may gain both Austria and France to her support. This idea holds that there is nothing good or desirable in political institutions, farther than they may used for the advancement of the Church.

The next idea that we present, holds that political governments are of Divine origin, as such must be supported and sustained, for their own intrinsic worth, and because they are essential to the well being not only of the world, but the Church itself, and in many respects more essential to society than the church. This conception of the relationship existing between them, changes the positions of the two institutions, makes the Church subserve the interest of the State, makes the State first, the Church second. Church members enter into the contests, strifes, animosities and partisanships of the State because their first, highest duty is there, the chief interest of society is embodied therein. With this idea all Church harmony depends upon political unity. This condition of affairs makes the Church the tool of the political clique, at once the victim and fosterer of the sectional prejudice and a party to the national conflicts. We denominate this idea the Protestant idea. Protestantism has its birth in the rebellion of the political rulers of England, Germany, and Switzerland, against the assumption of Rome to control them for the benefit of the Church assisted it is true, by a religious reformation excited by Luther, Zuringle* [Zwingli], and Calvin. Each branch of Protestantism received its peculiar embodiment from the nature and interest of the national government with which it allied itself. English Protestantism differed widely from German, and Swiss from both. This view of the relationship of Church and State pervades all the denominations of Protestant Christendom. We may safely affirm that not one of these has ever been able to maintain its unity intact, its harmony of feeling and action undisturbed, when two nations in which that Church existed was engaged in strife, or even when political partisanship or sectional excitement ran high in any one government. Hence, when the United States separated from England politically, the Church of England in this country and England severed in twain. Also, in the sectional and political strifes in our own country, sectional animosity and bitterness ran fully as high in the religious bodies even before it did in the body politic.

There is yet another view of this relationship that we desire to present. A few individuals in all ages of the Church, from the days of Jesus Christ, to the present time, have maintained that the two institutions, the Christian and the worldly, were necessarily separate and distinct. That they could form no alliances. That each was necessary in its proper place and for its proper subjects. That God’s institution, or the Church, was perfect and needed no help or addition from human hands to enable it to direct the affairs of its own children. On the other hand, that God had left those who refused to submit to his government, to form a government to their own liking, to manage it according to their own views of propriety and for the accomplishment of their own desired ends. And with this, Christians have nothing to do, farther than God has connected them with it. The limit and bound of which connection is a quiet submission to its requirements, when these do not conflict with their obligations to God. In a word, that the Christians cannot become the partisan of any human government or institution. It is his duty to submit to all alike, and with fidelity as to God himself, comply with the requirements of whatever one he may be under, modified by his first duty to obey God unto death itself rather than any man-power, but it is not his province to become an active participator or partisan of any human government or form of government.

This idea prevailing in a church and being acted upon, will at once render that church free from discords and strifes on political grounds. It causes the Christian in England to submit to the government of England, not because he approves that government, but because God requires him to submit to it. It causes the Christian in Mexico to submit to the Republic of Mexico, when under the Republic, not because he approves a republic, or is a republican, but because God says to be subject to the powers that be. It requires him in turn to submit to the Empire of Mexico, when an empire is established; not because he is a monarchist, or a partisan of the empire, but because God says submit to the powers that be, not the ones that ought to exist, or that he prefers, but to the ones that actually do exist. These three ideas of the connection of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ with the world powers and institutions, with their modifications, embrace the faith and practice of the professed Christian world on this subject. These ideas direct the actions of their respective advocates, and exercise a wonderful effect upon the course and destinies of those churches.

Will our readers ponder these questions in their bearing upon the peace, purity, unity, and destiny of the Church of Jesus Christ and the well-being of the world, and with us examine the Sacred Scriptures to see which, if any one of them be true positions assigned the church by its Divine founder.

War by Tolbert Fanning (Abridged Version)

On By Tyler BoydIn Christian Non-Violence, Church History, Love for Enemies, Restoration

Editor’s note: The following article has been abridged to provide a brief overview of Fanning’s arguments. The original article first appeared in the Christian Review, March 1847, and can be read in full here.

Does the Christian Institution Permit Its Subjects To Engage in War?

We will submit such arguments to the candid, as satisfy us that Christians, as a nation, church, or individuals, have no divine authority for engaging in war, offensive or defensive, for fame, plunder, revenge, or for the benefit of themselves or their enemies. Under this head, we shall adopt the following order:

The Prophecies

The prophecies, in reference to Christ and his kingdom, clearly teach that, the whole tendency of the new institution, was to put an end to war. Isaiah said, when speaking, as all the world agree, of the gospel age: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore” (Is. 2:4). Again he says: “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Is. 11:9). To the same effect, he says: “Violence shall no more be heard in thy land; wasting nor destruction within thy borders” (Is. 9:18).

Ezekiel writes:

 And I will set up on shepherd over them, and he shall feed them; and I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them; and I will make with the a covenant of peace; and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land; and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods.

Ezekiel 34:23-26

Jeremiah writes:

Behold! The days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers; I will put my law into their inward parts, and write them in their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people; and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, know ye the Lord; for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive them their iniquities, and their sins I will remember no more.

Jeremiah 31:31-35

In Isaiah, 35th chapter, it is written:

And a high way shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those; the way faring men, though fools, shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there: and the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come unto Zion with sons, and everlasting joys upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Jeremiah 34:8-10

More prophecies would be superfluous.

We have been asked the question: “Why are we not authorized to go to war as well as Joshua, David, etc?” The times have changed. God has established a new dispensation, in which the subdued heart alone have an inheritance… Swords and spears were not to be the weapons of the citizens of this new dispensation. “They shall not hurt, nor destroy, in all my holy mountain” says the Lord.

We would now, most respectfully, ask the lovers of truth, if these plain and pointed declarations do not fully establish the point, that the reign of Messiah was to be one of universal peace? We believe all that is necessary to convince the world of the truth of the proposition, that – Christians are not permitted to engage in the bloody conflicts of the infidel nations, is to let those scriptures have their wonted influence upon the mind.

The New Testament Teachings

The New Testament teachings will next be considered. To get fairly at the point, it will be necessary to notice again, briefly, the Jewish polity. It was a national and worldly institution, to serve – “Till the seed should come”, and then it was to be rolled up, as a vesture, and laid aside. “The law of commandments” which tolerated war, was “the enmity” between Jews and Gentiles; but Christ “took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross”, and, according to Apostolic teaching, there was “a change made in the law.”

Again: we wish it clearly understood that, Christ’s kingdom was not to be propagated by flesh and blood relations…. The kingdom of Christ then, it will appear, was to differ very widely from the bloody church of Moses. Now it remains to be shown that the differences are so great in the two institutions, that war could be tolerated in the former, but not in the latter. Before, however, offering our arguments, we wish to say to those who may desire to find fault with us, we are not contending that war is never justifiable in the nations of the earth. Indeed, we doubt not, it is often Heaven’s policy, to regulate nations by the sword; but we wish our readers to understand us to say, that the Almighty acknowledges no nation as peculiarly his, at this day; yet he has “a peculiar people”, selected from the nations, and peregrinating “as strangers and pilgrims in the nations”, but who have nothing to do with national policy and revolutions.

Our remarks, then, upon war, we wish to extend no further than the boundaries of Christianity.

We proceed to give… a few reasons, drawn directly from the gospel, for believing that Christians have no right to engage in war.

Christ Did Not Appeal to Arms to Establish His Kingdom

If the spirit of war had existed in the government of Christ, we might reasonably suppose he would have appealed to arms to establish it. So far, however, from being the case, the Apostle applies the language of the Prophet to him:

He shall not strive, nor cry, neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he shall not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory.

Matthew 12:19-20

His laws were to be rendered triumphant and glorious, without the aid of earthly weapons. Not so much as a tender reed was to be disturbed, or the smoking flax quenched, for his cause to be victorious. The exhortation to the Apostles was: “Be ye wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.” The whole doctrine of Messiah was, to conquer the world by love. This was contrary to the experience and philosophy of mankind, and it is perfectly antipodal to the sentiments of the world, and even to nine-tenths of the religionists at present day.

Christ’s religion has extended to every nook and corner of the earth, where human beings have been capable of receiving it, and in his transcendent love, and matchless kindness, and he has done every thing without an appeal to arms.

Resist Not Evil

A distinguishing feature of Christianity is, the abrogation of the lex talionis, by the gospel.  The law said, “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth”: but not so in Christ’s kingdom. “If ye be smitten on one cheek, turn the other”, is the teaching of the New Testament religion (Mt. 5:38-39). How the command “Resist not evil” is to be reconciled with the spirit or practice of war, we are not prepared to see.

Love Your Enemies

In the law of Moses, and amongst most partisans of the earth, the doctrine and practice are: “Love your brethren, or party, and hate all the world besides”, but Christianity says:

Love your enemies; bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them who despitefully use you, and persecute you; that you may be the children of your Father who is in heaven.

Matthew 5:44-45

We observe that being children of the Heavenly Father, is put upon the condition of “Loving our enemies, and praying for those who despitefully use us, and persecute us.”

No people have engaged in bloody deeds, without transgressing this precept. Christianity is so unlike the religions of the age, that few of its striking features can be inferred from the institutions which are said to be modeled after it. We solemnly appear to those professed Christians, who think it is right, and obedient to the cause of God, for them to take the life of their fellows, to say if such things are done in love to their enemies? God has promised his protecting power to his saints, and when we take up arms to defend ourselves, we show very clearly that we lack confidence in our Father in heaven.

Do Not Avenge Yourselves

With regard to vengeance, the Apostle says in Romans 12:19, “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath; for it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord.” From this, it appears, that the idea of revenge, is wholly incompatible with the spirit and genius of Christianity. The doctrine of Christ is, “Overcome evil with good.” “If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink; for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head” (Rom. 12:20). The reader will keep in mind, that these things are to be observed towards enemies.

Follow Peace With All Men

We are commanded: “To follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which, no man shall see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14). Eternal life here, is placed upon the condition of following “peace” with the world, and “holiness” towards God.

The Fruit of the Spirit

The Spirit of “Joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, meekness, forbearance” etc, which Christians are commanded to cultivate, forever precludes the spirit and practice of war. The servant of God, should desire above all things, the conversion of his fellow creatures; and labor to “pluck them as brands from the burning”, but this cannot be done, with swords and staves.

A Kingdom Not of This World

Christ’s declaration, “That his kingdom is not of this world, for if it were, his subjects would fight for it”; is demonstrable evidence that Christian war had no countenance from the Savior. His kingdom was unlike all others: it was spiritual, and to be built and defended by spiritual men and spiritual measures.

Closing Remarks

Had we space, we would be pleased to answer all arguments upon the subject of Christian wars; but we must bring our remarks to close, without recapitulation… If we had taken the right view, Christians are in great error and must reform. If we are mistaken, we would gladly be corrected.