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March 15

In the World; Not of the World

Christians are fully a part of the world. They too work and play, make things and rest. They too are born and die. But they are also strangers and pilgrims, for they have set their face

towards the heavenly city.

Just as a person who has lived cross-culturally no longer fully belongs to his or her homeland nor to the host country, so Christians do not

belong wholly to this world nor have they as yet entered heaven. They are in-between, or more correctly, in-both. They have already tasted something of the age to come while they are called to live in and serve the world for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.

The early Christians knew something about this strange status. The author of the Epistle of Diognetus writes, “They share their food, but not their wives. They are in the flesh, but do not live according to the flesh. They live on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven.”74

This in-between and in-both status means Christians can never fully give their full support to a particular political or economic ideology. It also means Christians are able to relinquish things rather than cling to wealth or power, as if these are the whole meaning of life. Further, it means Christians are out of step with the dominant values of a society. Therefore, they are the true subversives, for they see a different world—the world to come—beckoning and groaning towards fulfillment.

And they are to live in the present, anticipating and praying and waiting for what is yet to come.

Thought

To be out of step with the world’s agenda is not the place of security. It is a place of insecurity. But it is a step towards a new world.