Troublesome Topic: Special Tools in God’s Hands

The second thing that the food laws taught the ancient Israelites was that they had been chosen as God’s special tool through which He would save the world. One could say that they had a special position and therefore they should live differently than the world around them.

Those who have been forgiven of their sins through the blood of Jesus and are striving to live for God with the help of the Holy Spirit are God’s instrument for reaching the world for salvation. We have a special position because we have a special role and purpose. Because of that special position we need to be different than the unsaved around us.

Those believers in Jesus who excuse their wrongdoing by saying, “Well, everyone is doing it,” have totally missed the point. They are like the guy with only two brain cells – one of those brain cells is lost and the other’s out lookin’ for it! These individuals demonstrate a profound ignorance of this important principle of God’s word – namely that you are God’s special instrument, therefore He wants you to be different from everyone else. Doing what everyone else does is exactly the opposite of what we should be doing, and it likely displays a spiritual sickness in the soul, a love for the things of the world, a heart that is not fully committed to God.

Does this mean that we should purposefully be obnoxious and rude? No, there are ways to present the gospel that demonstrate class, consideration for others, compassion, and wisdom without compromising one’s integrity and purpose.

In order to be the special tool that God can use to reach the world with His saving grace, we need to maintain a position that is unique in the world, a position called holiness, which means different, set apart for God. That requires that we be different from the world. This should be a top priority in the life of every believer.

So if we are not of this world, just living for a short time in it, why do we act so much like the world? Why do we allow ourselves to be influenced so strongly so as to want all those trappings of American culture, including those that bring negative and perverse images into our homes and minds?

Do people observe our lives and see something different? Or do they see us as just another employee or neighbor who happens to go to a church service on Sunday mornings? Jesus said: “This is the way everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn. 13:35). Notice that He did not say the obvious demonstration would be church membership or church attendance. We seem to have it backwards. I cannot tell you how many times I have said to someone, “Tell me about your relationship with God,” and their response has started with the words, “I go to church at …” Some people never get beyond that to anything deeper. I will often stop them and say, “I wasn’t asking about your church attendance, I was asking about your relationship with God. They’re different.”

The point is that if we are constantly absorbing a diet of bad language, violence, and sexually stimulating images, we cannot be as close to God as we need to be, and therefore we cannot live as He desires. If we are not drawing closer to God, neither are we being a good representation of who He is and what He is like, yet we blissfully wear Christ’s name–Christian. If you are a believer you are a representative of God; are you representing Him well?

The next lesson in all three series on Covenants is: Let God Teach You a New Normal