As people trying to follow Jesus and grow spiritually, mentally, and emotionally in the modern world, we often encounter worldly temptations, pleasures, and ways of thinking and acting that can lead us astray into ruin and darkness.
This is why the Bible mentions that those following Jesus should live in the world but not be of it.
But what does this mean? And how is it possible to live in the world but not of it?
Let’s discuss this issue and how we can do this, while still being with and loving others, and maintaining our spiritual boundaries.
What is Living in The World But Not Being Of It?
Let’s first understand what this means.
When it is said to live in the world but not be of it there are a few things that this implies:
- That the modern world we are currently living in promotes actions, behaviors, and a way of life that is not healthy, good, or truly loving in an enduring quality. That the world promotes and encourages behaviors and views that lead to destruction, addiction, harm, and results that are not good leading to sickness and spiritual death.
- That there is an alternative way of living (following Jesus) that leads to enduring love, goodness, health, and spiritual flourishing.
- That we can still effectively participate in the world but conduct our actions, behaviors, and views in a way that is different than what is promoted.
That being said, living in the world but not of it means that we will still work, live, and be in relationship with the normal world.
The difference is we will decide that we want to follow Jesus and make different decisions, have different behaviors, and view the world in a different way that we believe is better for everyone.
This also means that living in the world and participating in normal worldly affairs is necessary and good. It is where we can serve, contribute to making the world better, and share our love for God and others.
It just means that the world we live in currently is not yet a place where truth, love, and goodness have overcome evil and darkness.
Worldly Ways and Temptations
So what is mixed up about the world we live in? Why do we want to live in a way different from what the world promotes?
The simple answer is that if we are honest, we will notice how much suffering, hatred, corruption, greed, darkness, and addiction to harmful activity remains in our world today.
While each person has their view of what is good and bad in our world, I will highlight just a few things that the bible notes are pathways to spiritual death and which our world sometimes promotes as cool or good.
Media That Ignites Hatred and Division
The Bible emphasizes truth, unity, and love, contrasting sharply with media that stirs division or spreads falsehoods.
The media has a huge influence on our worldview and how we judge and treat other people. It also creates division between people on a large scale, which creates violence, hatred, and civil hostility between different groups.
Unfortunately, media companies make money based on the number of clicks and views they get from their content, so they are incentivized to ignite emotions and create tension between people.
This leads to a world in which people are trained not to love their neighbor and not to associate with different types of people.
Jesus said that if we are to follow him, we must love our neighbors, our perceived enemies, and God with all our heart.
Promotion of Dehumanizing and Harmful Sexuality
The Bible teaches that sexuality is a sacred gift meant to reflect love, commitment, and covenantal faithfulness. When distorted, it leads to exploitation, dehumanization, and societal harm.
Our internet is filled with porn and kids are exposed to perverse and hardcore pornographic content from an early age now.
While I have watched porn before and believe a healthy sex life and sexuality is an important and pleasureful part of life that God has given us, the types of content, addictions, and view of sex that is being developed at such an early age is a major cause for concern.
People are being trained to get aroused by increasingly more hardcore and perverse genres of pornography to the point where a healthy, loving, sexual relationship is not even fulfilling.
The types of content that people are getting addicted to can teach people to dehumanize females, develop perverse fetishes, and cause trauma and harm to the people involved.
Not to mention the divorce rate, the lack of commitment to God in marriage, and the promotion of adultery.
Business Practices That Harm People For Pure Profit
The Bible condemns systems prioritizing profit above ethics, fairness, or care for others.
Entrepreneurship and the freedom to build a company that serves others are among the modern world’s greatest inventions, but there is still a large amount of pure greed in the system.
When monopoly companies focus on making the most profit they can without regard for their employees or customers, this can lead to corrupt markets and harm to people and society.
Good business still makes a great profit but does it in a way that serves the customers and has a fair conscience for their people and surroundings.
If certain business practices are harming the environment, people involved who are unaware, or the employees, the right thing to do as a consumer is to avoid buying from them and go to another ethical and fair business. This way the business declines.
Healthcare That is Controlled by Huge Food & Drug Companies
The Bible condemns greed and exploitation, particularly when it harms the vulnerable, such as the sick and poor.
Unfortunately, we live in a world where large drug and food corporations fund much of the scientific research and influence both our medical doctors and society at large.
There’s nothing wrong with drugs or even the drug companies in general. Drugs are a necessary and life saving medical advancement that have helped lots of people live better lives. Drug companies are doing research and working on cures that will change lives. This is good and important.
It’s the way that these companies and substances are promoted.
The issue we deal with is honesty and the way we create our studies, medical opinions, and other health advertising.
A lot of the advertising and promotion is focused not on teaching people to live healthier lives and prevent illness but on keeping them reliant on chemicals and foods once they are sick.
Corruption in Leadership and Justice
The Bible highlights the damage caused by corrupt leaders and unjust legal systems.
Ways where our leadership and systems become corrupt include:
- Bribery for power and monetary gain over the good of the people
- Leadership that prioritizes personal power over the good of the people
- A lack of honesty and transparency to the people
- A legal system that turns away from proper punishment for wrongs and doesn’t execute fair justice that is agreed upon by mutual parties
Corruption starts to occur when people in power abuse their power and turn from doing things for the good of the people to doing things that they selfishly think is best to attain power, money, or selfish desires.
The issue is that when people in power start to become corrupt, they often don’t even realize or believe that they are corrupt. This shows the need for a commitment to higher power (God) and a system that holds people accountable.
Idolatry and Worship of False Gods
Societies often replace worship of God with idols like money, power, people, or fame.
It has become cool and popular to mock and trash God in certain parts of our society and this usually leads to turning away from truth and inflating our ego, pride, and arrogance.
Ultimately, idolatry diverts society from God’s truth and purpose. When this occurs unfortunately we don’t experience the love and unity of God here on earth as much.
Lack of Care for The Earth
The Bible commands stewardship of God’s creation, yet humanity often exploits it for profit.
The environment and earth we live on allow us to have a healthy and beautiful life.
If we damage or treat it with disrespect we are only harming ourselves and all the plants and animals that live on it.
This means it is critical that we first take care of the planet we live on while then finding ways to do good and profitable business that does not damage this health.
What Does it Mean to Not Be Of The World?
Now that we have gone over a few of the worldly ways and temptations that all of us are guilty of participating in to one degree or another, let’s discuss what it means to do our best to live in the world but not be of it.
Simply put, this means that we still live in the world, but we decide to honor our commitment to God and Jesus by doing the best we can to avoid the harmful and spiritually dark actions and behaviors mentioned above.
This means that if we work at a company that promotes harm to the environment, we seek to find another job that does not contribute to this problem.
It means that if it’s looked at as cool to cheat on your wife or girlfriend or to treat girls in a way where you manipulate them to gain sex you turn away from this and find other people you can become friends with who align with your spiritual values.
It means that when you vote for your city and national leadership even if certain people would allow you to gain more wealth or personal power you turn to God and decide to vote for the people you believe best represent the good of all people and society, not just yourself.
It means that you don’t buy into the media persuasion that tries to convince you that people of different views and cultural backgrounds are bad and should be hated. Instead, we should seek to understand, love, and find common ground with differing opinions while staying true to views we believe are good.
To live in the world but to follow Jesus (and a more eternal life-giving way of being) we need to be able to love people who are lost and misguided while not partaking in the behaviors and activities that we know are creating harm and spiritual death.
To do this it requires a strong faith and desire to follow God, an understanding of God’s character and goodness, a humble and honest assessment of our sins and flaws, and a trust in God’s love that says “I love God too much to participate in that”.
Challenges and Encouragement to Follow Jesus in Our World
On a closing note, we need to acknowledge that we are all flawed and participate in worldly ways that may not always be good.
What’s most important is that we become humble enough to allow God to show us our sins and to help us make better decisions and habits that produce good fruit instead of contributing to spiritual death in our world.
Each of us needs to decide that truly following God over continuing to repeat our selfish desires is better for us and the world.
Only God knows how long and when this will happen.
As mentioned above, it takes a true desire to follow and know God, a growing understanding of God’s goodness and love, a humble assessment of our flaws, and a trust that God has our back when we decide to commit to him over our self.
