Shepherd the Flock

There is most certainly a fine balance between abstaining from sin and avoiding situations where temptation may come, in contrast to being ‘in the world but not of the world’ to the extent that our influence on the world is still effective.

And there are always those who will seek to make excuse for their sin in saying that they are ‘trying to minister’ or ‘be a witness’ to the lost, while they indulge in practices and situations where sin in inevitable. In the same way, there will always be the legalist and self-centered professing Christian who isolates himself from the world to the extent that the Great Commission becomes impossible to fulfill.

I think Mike Horton gives a nice balance below, maybe with a few qualifiers. What do you think?

“Martin Luther, a former monk, was no friend of the monastic way of life. When he was released from the bondage of climbing the latter to heaven by piety, he saw his place in the world as one of service –not to himself, but to his neighbor. Instead of trying to save his own soul, he was now concerned with issues beyond himself…Godliness, Luther insisted, was not a self-serving, individualistic pursuit, but a means of glorifying God by serving others.”

“…We [modern Christians] have abandoned the world in our own pursuit of “holiness” –a style of holiness about which God could care less. Fleeing to our evangelical subculture, with its own music, symbols, bumper stickers, activities, and even Christian cruises, we are able to avoid at least some of the suffering and need of our unbelieving neighbors. Our “holiness” is individualistic and selfish, like the monks’ of Luther’s day, with the greatest attention given to the commandments of men (dancing, drinking, smoking, movie-going)…my abstinence from secular entertainment may help me, but what does it accomplish for my neighbor?”

“Biblical holiness is concerned with getting us to love God and neighbor in tangible acts of self-giving, not with entangling us in a web of worries and doubts over whether we have done our duty to a rule.”

The Law of Perfect Freedom, Michael Horton, P157-158