Dr. Mike Jones

Q: How Can We Be In The World, But Not Of It?

Q: The Bible says we should be in the world but not of it: what’s the difference?

A: I believe that you’re quoting Romans 12:2, that tells us we are not to be ‘conformed’ to this world, but we are to be ‘transformed’ by the renewing of our mind. First, let’s determine what the differences are between the two words ‘conformed and transformed.’

To conform to a thing literally means to be a part of it. And to be transformed means to be changed. What the Bible is telling us is that we should strive to be above and beyond the standards of this degenerating and cursed world, not in the sense that we are to elevate ourselves in lofty status above everybody else, but that Christians are called to a more excellent way of life; and maintain that lifestyle, until we are called to our Heavenly home with Christ, and this world is renewed. We are to wear this world like a loose garment, and not get caught up into its corruption, while at the same time, being sensitive to the Holy Spirit in our evangelization of the lost.

The great German reformed-theologian, Martin Luther said it best: “There’s a normal pattern for Christian behavior. The person who’s converted out of the world spends his first days as a Christian in a tendency to completely withdraw from the world, as Paul went to Arabia, for example, or we might have a desire to be so far removed from the stains and the pollution of this world that we become monastic in our thinking—withdrawing, stepping out of the world altogether. A Christian doesn’t reach maturity until he reenters the world and embraces the world again, not in its worldliness and its ungodly patterns but as the theater and the arena of God’s redemption. That’s what Jesus did; he went into the world in order to save the world. This world is the world that God has committed himself to renew and redeem, and we are to participate in that with him.”