A New Culture

"Love must be sincere.  Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.  Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.  Honor one another above yourselves.  Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.  Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.  Share with God's people who are in need.  Practice hospitality."  (Rom. 12:9-13)

I read this illustration the other day, and thought it was the perfect representation of how we are born as new creations and how, as hard as it is, we are to give our all to God: A man went to live in a foreign country.  He loved it.  He wanted to apply for citizenship, and having to real ties to his former country, he began to live "like the natives."  He adopted the dress and habits of his new culture.  He began to learn the language.  He refused to eat food from his former diet and dined exclusively on the cuisine of his adopted homeland.  He wanted no visual reminders of his past and embraced all the customs of his present and future.  He established a new identity.

That's what God tells us to do.  We have left the kingdom of darkness and been adopted into the Kingdom of light.  We are to put off the clothing of the old nature and live in the Spirit of the new.  We are conforming to a different culture and being shaped into a different nature.  The old has passed away; all things have become new.

When Paul tells us to hate what is evil and cling to what is good, he is not giving us friendly advice.  He is using the graphic images to define our transition.  We are to "turn in horror from wickedness" (v. 9, AMP), loathing any semblance of ungodliness.  The deeds of darkness are no longer appropriate in our new Kingdom; they do not fit into this culture.  And then we are to cling to what is good - embrace it, desperately grab hold of it, never let it go.  It is to be our obsession, of a sort.  We are to pursue godliness with unbridled zeal.

Few Christians make such a dramatic transition, but those who do can testify to the rest of us that it's a greater blessing to make radical changes than to make slow, imperceptible ones.  Sanctification is a lifelong process, but blessed are those who are on the fast track.  They are quicker candidates for usefulness in the Kingdom, they are greater testimonies to the power of God, and they are less likely to fade away into the abandonment of lukewarmness.  Real godliness is radical.

We all go through spiritual ruts every now and then.  Hate what is evil and cling to what is good.  Let sin horrify you, and embrace the culture of the Kingdom of blazing light.  Total immersion is always the best way to fit in.

"He that sees the beauty of holiness ... sees the greatest and most important thing in the world."  - Jonathan Edwards