Q. How do we stay in the Spirit when the world and people in the world seem to be doing the opposite of what the New Testament teaches? Being “in the world but not of the world” is very challenging.
The challenge you describe is one that faithful people in every time have faced, as the Bible shows us. The psalmists cry out, “How long, O Lord?” In the book of Isaiah, we hear the prophet lament, as the messages he brings go unheeded, “I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing at all.” And perhaps one of the most poignant examples is that of John the Baptist. When King Herod put him in prison, he was so discouraged and disillusioned that he sent messengers to Jesus to ask him if he was really the Messiah. John expected that when the Messiah came, he would make such changes in the world that evil people like Herod would no longer be able to persecute those who were working for what God wanted.
The response of Jesus to John should encourage all of us. He told his messengers, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.” In other words, the kingdom of God—the reign of justice, mercy, and peace that God promises—was coming through the acts of love and mercy that Jesus was doing. This kingdom is not one that overpowers other realms through force or violence. Instead, it is one that grows slowly but ultimately displaces them.
As Jesus said on another occasion, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.” Jesus also told this parable: “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.”
So I think, first of all, that it is helpful not to focus on the highly visible things that are happening in the present. Those actually do not indicate where the world is going. Instead, we should focus on the future that we know God has in mind. And then, with that focus, we should seek to become better and better able to discern the low-profile things that God is doing that are bringing that future about. From that perspective, we can recognize how we can be part—and indeed already are part—of that future now. We do that by joining in this work of God. As we live out each day what Jesus said were the commands that sum up the whole law, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” and “Love your neighbor as yourself,” we are helping the kingdom of God emerge silently and secretly but powerfully.
As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” It’s a marvelous paradox to speak about concentrating our vision on what is unseen. But what is unseen to ordinary vision can be seen by the eyes of faith. When we keep in view the future that God is bringing about, we can see how our seemingly insignificant acts of love and mercy today are advancing it and are already a part of it.
There was a saying at Berkeley in the 1960s: “If you don’t like the news, go out and make some of your own.” That’s what we should be doing as followers of Jesus. Except that what we do won’t be news. Not until it takes over the world.
Good Question 