I was struck by today’s reading from Acts 28, especially verse 11:
It was three months after the shipwreck that we set sail on another ship that had wintered at the island—an Alexandrian ship with the twin gods as its figurehead.
These were the gods Castor and Pollux, Greco-Roman deities who, according to myth, were 
the offspring of Zeus (Jupiter) and Leda, the figures that eventually formed the constellation Gemini. (Read Yeats’s “Leda and the Swan” some time, but not if you’re easily offended.) They were depicted as great horsemen, but were also venerated as the patron-symbol for sailors, a talisman promising fair winds. This, of course, is pure superstition. Still, what Christian would want to be associated with such un-Christian symbols and ideas?
Sometimes Christians view holiness in a false way, seeking to separate themselves from unbelievers or the world in a spatial sense, like Colossians 2:20-23 says (The Message):
So, then, if with Christ you’ve put all that pretentious and infantile religion behind you, why do you let yourselves be bullied by it? “Don’t touch this! Don’t taste that! Don’t go near this!” Do you think things that are here today and gone tomorrow are worth that kind of attention? Such things sound impressive if said in a deep enough voice. They even give the illusion of being pious and humble and ascetic. But they’re just another way of showing off, making yourselves look important.
A really religious person would have refused to get on this ship because of the twin gods on it.* Just like that refusal, we sometimes think that God is calling us to “boycott” the world, use only Christian businesses, remove ourselves from any traffic and truck with worldly people, symbols, or anything “secular,” a stance which props up religion, but does no good for us or the cause of Christ.
Just like Jesus was accused of being worldly and irreligious (Matthew 11:18-19), the follower of Christ who pursues true holiness and is smack in the center of God’s will may sometimes be misunderstood. True holiness is circumcision of the heart: loving God more than anything, dying to yourself and living by doing everything as unto Christ (Colossians 3:3-11 / 12-25).
*(I know Paul, prisoner, had no choice, but the text voices no objection.)
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Obviously not. We’ll try again!
I know many Christian friends who tend to only hang out with other believers, always looking for and using the Christian business, won’t go here or there. While the Bible does call us not to yoked in unbelievers, we must use care not to end up living in our little protected bubbles. Doing so does not allow us to spread the news of God to those who need to hear. It does not allow His love to shine through us to those that He places in our path, whether in friendship, a cashier at the store, or some other way. Jesus himself hung out with the liars, thieves and adulterers, and through His love brought them to faith and Truth.
We will win more people and plant more seeds for the Kingdom by showing His love to the non-believer than we ever could living in a Christian bubble.
Reminds me of Matthew 15:11 where Jesus said “It’s not what goes into your mouth that defiled you; you are defiled by the words that come out of your mouth.”
Yep. The problem with isolationist versions of holiness is, as one wise mentor has said, that we forget “we always carry the world around with us in our heart.” Brings up the question of the Christian’s engagement with culture: is the goal to isolate, conform or transform? I favor the latter.
Now that is wisdom! Love it.