Introduction:
God calls his people to remain distinct from our culture. To be distinct is to be different in nature from something else, more than just being different. Often say that we are to be different from our culture and this is correct. However, there are many individuals and groups that are different from the norm but they are not different because they are living for God.
Reminds me of the Muppets Take Manhattan where the son of a Broadway producer wants to produce Kermit’s show. The son keeps saying that we wants to do something different for his first show. The father says, “If you want to do something different, then put jello down your pants.” That is different but that is probably not what God would want us to do.
In another Muppet Movie, Kermit is talking with Gonzo. Gonzo says that he is so different that he is a freak. Kermit tries to comfort Gonzo by saying that Gonzo is distinct. Gonzo replies that he is not distinct but rather extinct. Good point here. If we do not maintain our distinctiveness from the world around us we will be extinct in a short time.
Thesis: Let’s talk about the call to be distinct
For instances:
The Call to Distinctiveness
A community set apart
The roots of God’s call for His people’s distinctiveness stretch back into the OT. Discussed how God was creating a people for his very own through the covenant with Abraham. This idea develops further through the covenant with Moses and the Israelites after they leave Egypt. One important aspect of God’s idea of community involves the distinctiveness of His people from the surrounding culture. Read Exodus 19:5, 6
Its covenant with God required Israel to be distinct from the normal social, cultural, and ethical patterns of the day.
A distinctiveness based on allegiance to God.
God sought believers devoted solely to Him. This devotion would set the Israelites community apart, be different in nature from all the other nations.
God desires much the same today concerning the church. From Ephesians we see that Paul addresses the letter to the saints (holy ones) in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus (1:1). Paul explained that Christ loved the church to make her holy (5:26). Christians live in a distinct manner because, in Christ, we have put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness (4:24).
Similar to God’s call to the Israelites, His call for the distinctiveness of the church grows from our identity in Christ. Because we serve God and Him only, we stand out from the culture.
Like the Pharisees Jesus confronted, who sought distinctiveness by setting numerous boundaries that set them apart from the culture, churches today often seek to stand out by keeping extra biblical rules that draw lines between them, society and even other churches. Churches define themselves by how they dress, what style of music they listen to, or what petitions they sign. More than all of this, our distinction should come as a by product of living and functioning as a Christ like holy community. Our sole identity should not be, “We are the church that boycotts such and such,” but “we are the church who seeks to reflect Christ in all we say and do.”
The Implications of the call to distinctiveness
Now we are not minimizing the external distinctives we are just making sure we understand why we are distinct. While the church’s distinctiveness grows from an allegiance to God rather than from outward expressions, the church’s allegiance to God certainly holds great implications for external behavior and moral stands.
Distinctiveness in the OT Law
God’s call for the OT Israelites holiness required them to guard themselves from the pagan behaviors common to their surrounding culture. Numerous OT laws grow from this understanding. Just look at one instance
Leviticus 18, 20. Here God outlines several prohibitions concerning sexual behavior. Not going to look at this in detail because it is not polite to discuss in mixed company. Question: Would not the command to remain faithful to marriage be enough? Why would God outline such specific prohibitions? He tells us why. Read Leviticus 20:22-24, 26
God gave specifics on all of this (even though it is gross) because the pagan nations “did all these things.” To maintain purity, the Israelites must set themselves apart from these things of the surrounding nations. God calls his community to be holy. Holy means separated, set apart, or consecrated. Holiness has to do with setting boundaries and making distinctions: some things are acceptable to God, some things are not. Holiness, which grows from allegiance to God, necessarily includes purity in external behavior.
Another particular issue that receives much emphasis in the OT relates to the intermarriage of the Israelites with those of surrounding pagan nations. If the Israelite families grew intermeshed with these pagans, the relationships would dilute the holiness and distinctiveness of God’s people. Read Deuteronomy 7:1-4
Centuries later, when Nehemiah and Ezra helped the nation rebuild after the Babylonian exile, the two leaders showed particular concern from this issue of intermarriage. Why was this important? Because without these instructions there distinctiveness would be diluted and they would be no more in a short time.
Distinctiveness tangibly expressed. The NT continues the OT emphasis on the holiness of God’s community. Read 1 Peter 1:15, 16 then 1 Peter 2:9. Paul often refers to believers as the saints, the holy ones. Paul also spent time in his letters to communities of Christians talking about the holy distinction they must maintain from those around them.
When God’s people blend in
God, through the Law, attempted to keep his people distinct from the surrounding pagan nations. That community failed often and miserably. Describing the Israelites just a couple of generations after they came into the Promised Land, we find in Judges 2:11-15.
Even in the midst of their disobedience, God did not forget His people. He raised up leaders for them- judges- who led them to repentance and restored the peace. Notice, however the cycle that kept getting worse each time. Judges 2:16-21
By blending in with their pagan neighbors, the Israelites shattered their community centered on God and the distinctiveness through being set apart to God. The very behaviors from which God had attempted to protect the Israelites through the laws reappear frequently in the OT. God’s call for distinctiveness faded into the fog of compromises.
By many counts, sadly, the same can be said of the American church. In unChristian, David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group, discusses some disheartening research concerning the failure of Christians in our day to remain distinct: “In virtually every study we conduct, representing thousands of interviews every year, born again Christians (talking about people who say they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that they say is important and that they believe they will go to heaven at death because they have confessed their sin and accepted Christ as Savior, much more than people who just claim to be Christians) fail to display much attitudinal or behavior evidence of transformed lives. For instance, based on a study released in 2007, we found that most of the lifestyle activities of born again Christians were statistically equivalent to those of non born again people. When asked to identify their activities over the last 30 days, born again believers were just as likely to visit a pornographic website, to take something that did not belong to them, to consult a medium or psychic, to physically fight or abuse someone, to have consumed enough alcohol to be considered legally drunk, to have used an illegal nonprescription drug, to have said something to someone that was not true, to have gotten back at someone for something he or she did, and to have said mean things behind another person’s back.” Today’s church, like OT Israel, too often fails to exhibit the moral distinction God demands.
The consequences of blending in
The OT prophets attempted to lead the nation back to its roots of holiness, but to no avail. As the unrepentant people continued neglecting their covenant with God, God brought down wrath as enemy armies until they were exiled. Don’t know what will happen to the American church but God does not change His character. God takes his call to holiness seriously, and He expects us to take that call just as seriously.
Daniel Overdorf- I recently heard of a church who established as its mission statement, “Our mission is to blur the lines between church and community.” Probably done innocently. Kernel of truth here. We must cease to hide behind stained glass windows, insulating ourselves from those whom God has called us to reach. However, I would encourage such a church to show greater care with its terminology. When God’s people have “blurred the lines” between themselves and their culture, such a blurring has not pleased the Almighty and disaster awaits them.
In contrast to this church’s mission statement consider this comment of J. K. Jones, professor at Lincoln, “We are best for our communities when we are most unlike our communities.” Ironically, our very distinctiveness enables us to minister most effectively to our culture- a world adrift in relativism seeks an anchor of truth; a society of aimlessness seeks purpose; a community burdened by relational manipulation seeks relational authenticity. God’s church offers what the godless world seeks. If we lose our distinctiveness, we lose our ability to evangelize. If we offer the world only those things the world already has, we lose our reason for being. To effectively reach our world, we must hold to and never diminish the covenant- based, truth honoring, Christ exalting holiness which sets us apart.
