In But Not Of

“In but not of…”

It’s easier said than done.

How can you be “in” and surrounded by what it is made of and what it lives for without
“it” touching and influencing you at every moment of your life?

Of course the “it” I’m referring to is the world we live in… and it seems to me that with
the proliferation of media at every level of our lives we are being drawn every moment
into what Jesus meant when He prayed for us to be “in” but not be “of”… i.e. the same
substance as the world.

Here is part of His high priestly prayer…

“I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil
one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth;
your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.
And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth” (John
17:14-19).

Honestly, I think every Christian needs to pray this prayer for themselves every day.
One of my readings this morning was in the alarming Genesis 19.

Lot had raised his family in Sodom, and even though the sinfulness of the city “greatly
distressed” Lot (2 Peter 2:7), he appears to have been unable to, with his family, live
separated from the unrighteousness.

• He was reluctant to leave the city, even with the threat of imminent destruction.
• Under pressure, he offered his daughters to the sexually-driven mob.
• He had no godly influence over his sons-in-law.
• His wife longingly turned back to Sodom mid-flight from its destruction and was
overcome.
• His daughters used drunkenness and manipulation to get him to sleep with them in
order to have children.

What an alarming picture of being in the world and of the world!
And we are naive if we think the very same thing isn’t happening to us and our children
right now.

Today’s Christians need to carefully evaluate the influence of what we watch, what we
read, and the ways in which we are allowing the values of the world to permeate our
lives.

Then, we need to pray John 17 daily over us and our families for the Lord to help us be
in the world but not of the world… like Lot and his whole family.