Disclaimer: These are some rambling thoughts from concern from what I see, and concern I be all that I should be, something I feel far from being. My statements may seem radical, but I believe are Biblical.... at least for the most part :-)
The Bible commands us to be in the world, but not of the world, to come out and be separate. The same Bible says this is a narrow way, to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him.
The separation thing can be taken to extremes. The Amish are a good example of that. Too many rules, too much focus on the outward, too much separation. If we are too separate from the world, and are too much of an oddity, how will be reach the world?
My church focuses a lot on outward stuff. Some "stuff" that I don't think is necessary, but I like my church for the most part, and I like my pastor. We may be too extreme on some things, but that doesn't mean I need to do everything the church says...... I'm more concerned with what God wants out of me.
We can get too extreme, have too many rules about outward....... but we can also go to extremes in the other direction..... and go with the idea that we are not under the law, but under grace, so we can do anything....... but can we? Yes, there is a danger of going to extremes in how we look and what we do.....in both ways.
Look at the church today. There is hardly any difference in Christians and non-Christians. We go the same places the world goes, talk like the world, vote like the world, dress - or undress - like the world..... how are we different? Must there be a chapter and verse for everything? Though that doesn't seem to matter. We have become masters of reasoning around Scripture to make it say what we want. It can be in black and white and many Christians go around it...... want an example? I'll give one:
1 Corinthians 11:14 says it is a shame for a man to have long hair, but people will argue til they are blue in the face. My favorite argument: "Well, Jesus had long hair" "How do you know?" "The pictures have Him with long hair".
I'm not going to argue about the verse, but if we believe all Scripture is given and inspired by God, then why not take that verse at face value? A popular argument is that it was a problem in that day and Paul was addressing a group of people.... know who else uses that argument? People trying to get past homosexuality being wrong......
What bothers me, is why do so many of us try to get by with as little as we can? Why do we get as close to the edge, try to live as close to the world as we can? Are we trying to be separate, or trying to blend in?
Here are some areas we all need to be more careful in:
1) Modesty. This can be taken too far, and we can argue about what modesty is and what it isn't. The Bible does say we should not do anything to offend our brother, and that can be taken to extremes, but dressing immodestly is one way to do that. A lot of modesty talk is aimed at women, and though men need to be careful, there is a reason for that: Men are more visually stimulated than women. More men than women are addicted to pornography, and more men than women fall into sexual temptation.
I'm disgusted when I see wedding and prom pictures. Why do Christian women want to wear strapless gowns and show off their breasts? How is that modest? And what man in his right mind wants his wife or daughter to show that much of her body? Why doesn't the groom dress that way? Why isn't he showing off his chest?
I'm not saying we have to have sleeves to our wrist and collars to our chin, but why do we want to undress as much as the world? How would you want a woman dressed that was going to be working around your husband every day.... would you really want her breasts hanging out? The very reason for showing cleavage is to draw attention to the breasts.... whose attention? Men's of course.... The very reason for wearing mini skirts or short shorts is to show off the leg.... to who? Men, unless you're a lesbian......
I don't understand fathers who allow their young daughters to dress like sluts and send them out with hormonal teenage boys...... and then they are surprised when the girls get pregnant? And no... clothes won't always stop that, but come on..... if a girl is dressed scantily with a teenage boy thinking about sex, is it going to help him or stop him?
I have no desire to see arm pits, legs up to the panty line, or cleavage...... so why do women want to show it? They grumble if a man's butt crack is showing, and would be horrified if his genitals were showing, but yet it is OK for their breasts to be showing, or part of them? Just think of men's butt cracks as our cleavage....... :-)
Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, had these guidelines for his 5 daughters. I think they are excellent for men or women:
1. If you have trouble getting into it or out of it, it is probably not modest.
2. If you have to be careful when you sit down or bend over, it is probably not modest.
3. If people look at any part of your body before looking at your face, it is probably not modest.
4. If you can see your most private body parts or an outline of those parts under the fabric, it is probably not modest.
2) What we listen to. Martin Luther said music is next to theology in importance. I don't know if he is correct, but it is important. What we listen to will affect us. I am amazed at how many Christians don't seem to care what they listen to, or who.
I grew up in a church that preached against secular music.... other than classical. I never got that... but maybe its because I am not a classical music fan. I disagree anyway. Secular music in and of itself is not bad, though I do believe there is a lot of music and artists Christians shouldn't listen to because of content, and what the artist stands for. Madonna, Michael Jackson, and Lady Gaga are good examples...... why would any Christian want to listen to them?
I asked a question once on Facebook that about got me lynched. I had noticed a lot of my Christian friends had secular bands listed as favorites, but hardly any Christian groups. I simply wondered aloud about it, and wow..... good thing lynchings are illegal.
I like country music, but not all. I have exactly 7000 songs on my Ipod/ITunes at the moment. Of those 7000, 271 are secular/Country. Of those 271, I actually listen to about 45 of them. The songs I like are clean, not the cheating and drinking songs. Songs like "Grandpa Tell Me About The Good Old Days", "Live Like You're Dying", etc..... but even at that, I rarely listen to them. As a Christian, I don't want a steady diet of non-Christian music. This may sound like a criticism or judgment, but I don't mean it to be. I don't understand why any Christian wouldn't want to primarily listen to Christian music.... it is encouraging, can draw us to God, help our focus be where it can be....... if you're on your way to a job interview, wanting God's help, which is better to be listening to, "Your cheating heart will tell on you, or Christ-centered music.
When I listen to secular music, there is something missing. It doesn't draw me. Even at my worst times spiritually, Christian music drew me, it was what I wanted to listen to, and I am thankful for that. It is probably one thing that has kept me from wandering too far.
There is such a wide variety of music available on the Christian market, there is no excuse for a Christian not listening to Christian music...... sure, there are some genre's and artists even there I wouldn't let my kids listen to, if I had kids, but whatever you like in the secular market can most likely be found on the Christian market. There should be some songs and artists Christians don't listen to...... just because the world likes it, doesn't mean we should.
3) Voting. Yeah, I have to get political. I am amazed at the amount of Christians who vote for pro-abortion candidates and pro-gay marriage candidates. The Bible clearly states homosexuality is wrong, and it should be obvious what God would think of abortion....... yet they keep voting for them. Oh, they have excuses. "Its a law, we can't do anything now", "it will never get overturned, so why vote for a pro-life candidate"...... and my favorite: "Its better than them getting it down in an alley with a coat hanger".
There is debate and even books about how Jesus would vote..... well, I can guarantee He wouldn't vote for anyone fighting for causes that the Bible says is wrong. He would not vote for a pro-abortion candidate, for all life is precious to Him. He would not vote for a pro-gay marriage candidate, for though he loves gay people too, He ordained marriage as between a man and woman and said homosexuality is a sin.... but Christians ignore all that and vote Democrat....... the party that is all for killing the most innocent of lives - babies in the womb. God should influence how we vote.
4) What we view. I was raised that TV and movies are wrong and should not be viewed. Once I started thinking for myself, I realized that isn't necessarily the case. It isn't the media that is wrong, but what is on it. I think we'd all be better off without TV, unless it is closely monitored and doesn't control our lives and time. But if we are going to view it and/or movies, we should be careful what we view and what we let our kids watch.
It is shocking how many TV shows and movies that are aimed at teenagers, have teens having sex, partying, and drinking...... parents let their kids watch that junk, then are surprised when that is what their kids do. If there is a TV and movies in the home, Christians need to be careful what they view, and how much..... a steady diet of movies and TV isn't healthy, no matter what, especially if it is pushing God out. We can't take junk in and not expect it to influence us spiritually. It will. We can't watch everything the world watches.
There are a lot of good, clean movies out there, Christian and non-Christian. Some Christian movies can be cheesy, but there are still a lot, and we should support them when we can.
The onset of the internet has brought a whole new development to the table.. we cannot be too careful with this wonderful, yet dangerous tool. It has the potential for so much good....... yet so much bad. I've read the statistics on porn searches, and the amount of money made from those places, and its staggering........ yet there is so much good too. Its just another area Christians need to be careful in.
5) What we read: This kind of falls into viewing, but different also. Again, I have been surprised at how many Christians, especially fiction readers, who rarely read Christian fiction. That doesn't make anyone a bad Christian, but there is so many good books available on the Christian market, and all kinds of genre's: suspense, romance, historical, western, science fiction... its all there. When I do read a secular book, its like something is missing. Jesus isn't presented as the solution for anything..... plus the language and sex, though language is creeping into the Christian books. Sad.
6) How we talk. There are few of us who couldn't be more careful in this area. We toss around slang words, that if you looked up are just substitutes for worse words..... yet we use them regularly. Look up "Gee"..... almost any dictionary, maybe all dictionaries, will say it is a euphemism for Jesus....... draw your own conclusions, but I've drawn mine.
Its so easy to let the world rub off on us in how we talk, what we talk about, who we talk about....... but is God pleased? Do we ever talk to Him and seek His will on our talk? The Bible addresses it, so it must be important to Him. We are not the world, we shouldn't talk like them.
This is not meant to be a harsh blog post. I have been doing a lot of thinking and soul searching lately. I have come to the place where I believe no church should tell its people what to wear, what to listen to, etc, yet I see the other extreme where people are no different in the world in how they live as Christians, and I don't want that extreme either.
I don't know the where the verse is, but Paul said something like "all things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable". There may be a ton of things we can't find a chapter and verse for, but are they things that will help, or hinder us as Christians. Are they things they will help our witness, or hurt it. Are they things that will make someone stumble?
Getting to Heaven is the most important thing that there is. Pleasing God should be our ultimate and most important goal in life. If we truly love God, we aren't going to live as close to the world as we can. We won't reason around verses to see how much we can get away with...... we should seek His will in all we do: How we dress, what we view, listen to, read, how we talk........ we should be different than the world. Its Biblical. May God help me to seek His will in all areas of my life, and not live for myself and my desires.
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