Les Henson
The place of God's people in the world today is to be one in which we are called to take the world seriously without buying into the world's values. We must interact with the world as it is in the concrete reality of everyday life. Instead of a mythical view of the world developed from within the Christian ghetto. We must take the challenge that the Apostle Paul announces in Romans 12:2 seriously, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect." Accordingly, we must work hard at discerning characteristics, foundations and worldview structures that characterise the world in which we now live. We must understand society on its terms, rather than our own. We must respond to the world in the light of Jesus Christ. Recognising that far too often in the past the church as conformed to the ways of the world.
God's people must not disengage from the world by retreating into their own enclaves or by living detached from the life of the world. Instead, we must live whole-heartedly in the world without being of the world. The world must not control our hearts, minds and lives; rather Jesus Christ is to be Lord of every area of our lives. Our function in the world is to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. As God's people, we are asked to be a 'sign' of the reality of God's action in the world. We are to preserve the world from falling deeper into sin. Revealing to the world the truth concerning its condition, and witnessing to God's redemptive purpose of which we are but a weak and inadequate human instrument under the guiding hand of God.
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