How should a Christian view themselves? 

This is an age old question that every believer faces because we live in this world, but are citizens of heaven, in fact we are raised seated at the right hand of the Father. 

The question raises issues of our participation and involvement in culture, and there are many articles on this website grappling with the issue. 

But it was raised again for me this week, as I sat in the Moore College chapel listening to Con Campbell teach us from 1 Peter 1:1-2. This started me thinking about a few things.

Firstly, Con was helping us think about what is to be scattered or an exile, although an even better translation is sojourner which has its roots in the idea of 'neighbour'. A sojourner is a person who does not live in the same house, but who is beside and rubs shoulders with another's abode and way of living. 

Secondly, the idea of sojourner is intimately linked with chosen in verse 1. It is not that Christians don't quite fit in with the world around us, and that is why we are neighbours, but that God in His eternal purposes has set apart and chosen Christians not be in the same 'house' as those around us. It also means that it is entirely inappropriate and incompatible with the purposes of God to be indistinguishable from the culture in which we live. 

Thirdly, Con made the startling comment that our word parish has the same root as sojourner - the idea of neighbour! While you must be wary of drawing theological conclusions from the history of words it is interesting to mull over the way that we so often think of parishes as a building or a group of people or an area that is separated from what is around us. That picks up the truth that we do not live in the same house, but is in danger of inadvertently causing us think that our parishes are exclusive clubs that have no engagement with our neighbours. This thinking makes us bad neighbours. 

And so we have again the tension of how should a believer and a church be involved with our society? Should we be called out and separate so that we are distinctive or should be embedded (to use the new journalistic jargon about warzone reporting)?

How are we to be in the world and not of the world? 

Some thoughts.

1. As congregations of God's people we must work together, as we meditate on God's Word together, to have our 'imaginations' captured by obedience to God. We need to be so captured by the reality of salvation and relationship with the Lord that we will be drawn to the virtues of citizens of heaven, and drawn away from the desires of this world.

2. As we are drawn to the ethics, motivation and integrity of people of the Lord we cannot help but be of great use, and involved in our world.

3. We must call each other to be wholeheartedly committed to being distinctive in our morality, while being flexible in how we structure our lives together. Structures that act as walls and barriers to our neighbours need to be dismantled.