God & Systems

Holy Isn’t Only

“They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world”
John 17:16 NKJV

As Christians we have a tendency to overcorrect, so much so that that we tend to cut ourselves off from the people we are called to be in relationship with. We aren’t the first and we won’t be the last. In Jesus’ day, the Pharisee’s and many Jews intentionally separated themselves from people, such as, tax collectors, or even from the sick. In a quest to retain their purity and holiness they ran away from where God sent them. that you are called to be holy doesn’t mean you’re called to be alone or to distance yourself from those who God has called you to impact.

“Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.”
Matthew 10:16 NKJV

In theory we know that we are called to spread the gospel, but often we get lost in our religion and begin to judge and run from the ones we are meant to influence. The idea that we receive grace and then somehow forget that we were saved by grace and not by our doing. Getting lost in that, we become judgemental of those who are still lost in their sin and believe they are not deserving of encountering God, as though we deserved our forgiveness and His grace.

THE PEOPLE AND THE CITY

For this same reason, Jonah ran from God when He directed him to go to Nineveh. Jonah was convinced that the sin and brutality of the Ninevites did not deserve God’s mercy. Jonah knew God enough to know that though He was rebuking the Ninevites, that God was merciful and relent if they repented.

Jonah was more interested in running from the city because he feared the sin in it, but God was sending him to the city. God cares about the people in the city, but not just about the city but about what the city represents, the influence that exists in the city.

'So may I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than a hundred twenty thousand people who cannot distinguish between their right and their left, as well as many animals?”'
Jonah 4:11

In the final verse in the book of Jonah, God responds to Jonah’s anger, by telling him that He cares about the 120,000 people that live in Nineveh and are ignorant of who He is, but He doesnt stop there, He also says, “as well as many animals”. The animals in Nineveh represented the economy of the city, God cares about the people in the city but about the culture and the influence of the city. By Jonah going and witnessing God in the places of influence, like government, business, education, family, etc he isn’t just part of the culture but He sets the culture, it is a means by which places that have been used as terrors of darkness become weapons of His light.

As Christians we cannot run from the world we have been sent to, we can’t hide in the church and neglect our duty, because God cares about people, but He also cares about the systems.