March 2001
Recently I have been informed that 60 percent of the students at a Bible School dye their hair. I had a frank discussion with the student about the world being opposed to God. He kept insisting there was no scripture which addressed the issue,. therefore it was extra-biblical; a matter of liberty. At one point, I pointed out the fact that the Bible does not address tobacco, pot, or cocaine; does it mean, since it is extra-biblical, it is a matter of liberty? Nearing the end of the conversation, I pressed him to answer whether dying the hair was from the world or the church. He failed to answer the question, and in doing so has admitted that the church has lost its point of reference: we are light, the world is darkness:
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. (Eph.5:8-11)
The church has compromised its position. It no longer question whether something pleases God, rather it asks what is wrong with it? If we seek to please God then we are proactive; but if we question our actions on its intrinsic merits we are reactive. To seek to please God is light, but to consider the level of evil of any action, leads us into dusk. Yes, we can see, well sort of, but not clearly. The Bible polarizes actions:
Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people." "Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. (2Co.6:14-17)
The greatest handicap for young Christians in discerning between God and the world, is having just come out of the world, our logic will be flawed and our opinions will be biased from that worldly view:
So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more. You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. (Eph.4:17-20)
We must not longer live as the world, for the world is always of the past if we are Christian:
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. (Eph.2:1-2)
The Greek word for "church" is "ekklesia" which means "that which is called out." A Christian is always called out of the world, for Christ was not of the world:
I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. (Jn.17:14-18)
If we judge our partaking in worldly fads on the basis of moral value, then we have lost our point of reference. We do not belong to the world:
If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. (Jn.15:19)
The moment I come to God through the cross, I have been removed, more than that, I am crucified to the world and the world to me:
May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. (Ga.6:14)
Crucified or death has a finality to it, and its with this finality that we have died to the world and its principles of conformity; no longer swept away by the flow of humanity, caught in the tide of relativism:
Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: (Co.2:20; Ga.4:3)
By asking the intrinsic moral value of our actions, we open our lives to humanistic reasoning which source is the world, and not Christ:
See to it that no-one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. (Co.2:8)
When we consider partaking in the fads of the world, it is not a question of what is wrong with it, rather what is right with it. How will this bring glory to God and further Christ’s kingdom? Remember polarity:
You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred towards God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. (Ja.4:4)
Being a friend of the world makes us an enemy of God, while becoming a friend of God causes us to be hated by the world. If we equate spiritual polarity with electrical polarity in the area of car batteries, the lesson becomes obvious. If my battery is low and you offer to attach booster cables from your battery to mine, then I by accident cross them by placing the positive cable on the negative post and the negative cable on the positive post, we will have more than a lot of sparks. The fads of the world have no place in the church as they offer nothing to Christ:
Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. (1Pe.2:11)
Our actions are either taking us closer to God and away from the world, or closer to the world and away from God. The spiritual forces in the heavenly realms are in spiritual battle for your soul:
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Eph.6:10-12)
Our involvement in the things of the world is "either/or" and not a "besides/and". The world of its own merit is diametrically opposed to God. Participation in its fads cannot be any less than resulting in leaving us open to sin or in minimizing our witness for God:
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does-- comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives for ever. (1Jn.2:15-17)
Everything has its point of origin, either from the world or from God. For this reason, even though at one time we were of the world, we are no longer of the world, hence our inner transformation of character must make an outward expression in our actions:
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Ro.12:1-2)
Our failure to conform to the likeness of Christ, while maintaining being influenced by the world, is a reflection of more than our spiritual immaturity but is the question of spiritual life itself:
Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly--mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. (1Co.3:1-3)
Our Christianity, or Christian religion, must go beyond a set of traditions, it must reflect a distancing ourselves from the world:
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. (Ja.1:27)
Everything we have or everything we do must be based on the merit of its benefit to the kingdom:
What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none; those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away. (1Co.7:29-31)
In the same way, a career must be weighed whether "we live to work" or whether "we work to live"; everything must be weighed as to whether "it distracts us from serving God" or whether "it enables us to better serve God". Does it distract glory from God and unto man, or does it distract glory from man rendering it unto God. May we boast with Paul:
Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, in the holiness and sincerity that are from God. We have done so not according to worldly wisdom but according to God's grace. (2Co.1:12)
Life in Christ is like being in a canoe on a river, either you are paddling up river to God, or you are drifting back into the world. To go back to the world we need do nothing. We will find ourselves back from wince we came; yet to go to God we need to constantly weigh the merit of all things, making wise choices by God’s grace.
Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. (1Jn.4:1)
Yes, 60 percent of a student body at a Christian college may dye their hair, but when has God told you to follow the majority? Test the spirits; it is not the question of whether the Bible speaks against it, but does the Scripture support and encourage it.
Now, brothers, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, "Do not go beyond what is written." Then you will not take pride in one man over against another. (1Co.4:6)
The question is not what is wrong with it but rather where has God commanded it, and what does God get out of it?
"Everything is permissible for me" --but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me" --but I will not be mastered by anything. (1Co.6:12)
Therefore to compromise oneself with the world is of the devil, as the devil is prince of this world. We know:
everyone born of God overcomes the world. (1Jn.5:4)