If you’ve been a part of the church of Christ for any time at all, you’re certainly familiar with the classic hymn “This World is not My Home.” We’ve all sang over and over that we’re “just a-passing through.” And it’s true. As Jesus prayed in John 17, we’re not of “the world.”
But do we mean it?
As American Christians, we’ve developed an expectation that the government and the public should honor our Christian beliefs and show some kind of outward respect for them. We’ve conditioned ourselves to expect a friendliness from the very people that Jesus said would hate us (John 15:18), a belief that would baffle Christians throughout the rest of the world.
One example: you may have seen the image going around social media comparing New York City from the 1950’s to today. The first image depicts the city’s skyscrapers lit up with crosses for Easter weekend in 1956, while the second shows One World Trade Center tower lit up with pink to celebrate New York’s new abominable abortion law. This has many wishing that we could return to those previous days.
While I don’t disagree that our nation had far more churchgoers in years gone by, and that the nation was far more friendly to Christian values, two questions arise.
First, are we wishing for this world to be our home? The Bible tells us over and over that suffering is part of the deal when you follow Jesus and that we should rejoice in it (Romans 5:3-5, 2 Timothy 3:12, 1 Peter 4:12-13). When we see the nation turn against Christian values, we must train ourselves to be ready to suffer rather than demanding favor from the world.
Second, were things really better? That 1956 photo mentioned above came 3 years after Playboy magazine began circulation. The nation was largely segregated with racism being an established way of life, even among many churches. The sexual revolution and the exploding drug culture were just a few years away, and Roe v. Wade wasn’t too far in the distance, either.
Essentially, we had a whitewashed nation. It looked good and moral on the outside, but on the inside the decay that led to today was well underway. Unfortunately, it’s not a stretch to suspect that many Christians would be perfectly content and consider our job done if our nation went back to having Bibles and prayer times in schools, marriage and drug laws to our suiting, and Christian symbols commonly accepted once again. We want a quick, mass solution – make a new law, write a new policy – when A) That isn’t our mission and B) That’s not real change.
I’m not one of those who will tell you that Christianity “always does better under persecution.” North Korea and Saudi Arabia aren’t sending out many Christian missionaries, for example. However, I do believe that history has shown us that when government and Christianity intertwine, weakened Christianity results, starting with Emperor Constantine granting Christianity favor in 4th Century Rome. The account of Gideon vs. the Midianites and plenty of other biblical accounts show us a God that has no interest in relying on human might.
Though I’m not advocating we stay out of politics, it’s important that we realize that we haven’t been called to make the world Christian by law. That simply can’t be done. We have to win hearts one at a time and live faithfully for God through whatever challenges may arise from our increasingly hostile culture.
We would do well to familiarize ourselves with the exilic prophets. Daniel and his friends showed us how God’s people can seek the peace and prosperity of the cities where we are exiled (to paraphrase Jeremiah 29:7). They didn’t try to force the Jewish religion on their captors or expect favor from people who didn’t know God. Instead, they steadfastly went about practicing their devotion to God, and they used the opportunities God provided them to tell others about Him. In this, God was able to show His power as He saw fit.
However, if we’re going to live like Daniel and friends, we have to start by viewing ourselves as exiles. We are not of this world, our treasure is not in this world, and our security is not in this world. Let’s make sure we mean it when we sing “this world is not my home.”
