One Of The Lies Heard In Church Every Sunday

There are secular and sacred things in life

Firmly entrenched in most people’s thinking is idea that all of life is divided into two separate categories: the sacred and the secular. In the sacred or spiritual category are things like church, church buildings, prayers, rituals, clergy, the Bible and Bible reading. What’s secular or “unspiritual”? Everything else, which includes basically 95% of where ordinary people spend their lives and energies: marriage, parenting, work, possessions, hobbies, and interests.

Let me say it straight out: This distinction has no basis in Scripture. It is false, and in fact reveals a deep misunderstanding of the nature of the Christian life. This is not only one of the deepest misconceptions about Christianity, it is one of the most difficult to correct. It seems this type of thinking has roots in human cultures like oak trees — deep, tangled, and near-impossible to uproot. The message of the living Christ that went out into the world almost two thousand years ago was a frontal assault on this kind of thinking, and that is why the early Christians turned the world upside down. It was their overturning of this natural way of thinking that baffled and impressed their neighbors. Nothing like this had ever been seen before.

Yet, here we are all these centuries later, and we still have to reeducate every Christian generation to think biblically on this. People will attend church, hear a sermon and perhaps participate in worship, then go out and live just like their non-Christian neighbors. Sometimes you’ll hear people say, “When you leave church and get back into the ‘real’ world, here’s what you do …” It’s believed that you can experience “sacred” things in church, then you go live in the “secular” world according to different principles. This false distinction between sacred and secular is the root of this.


TAKE A FRESH LOOK AT THE SCRIPTURES

We know today that Jesus Christ is the risen, glorified, enthroned Lord of heaven and earth. That He be honored as such is completely right. We should remember, however, that this same Jesus spent approximately 30 years on earth living an ordinary human life — keeping in mind that “ordinary” for Jesus included complete sinlessness. That set Him apart, certainly, but human He was, nonetheless.

When Jesus was called to begin His mission, the Father spoke to Him at His baptism: "And behold a voice out of the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased” (Matthew 3:17).

Remember, those 30 years were all lived before He preached a sermon, healed a leper, or walked on water. So far as we know, Jesus never did a miracle before He began His public ministry under the leadership of John the Baptist. Most probably, He merely did what any eldest son would have done in that culture: He worked alongside His father Joseph in the family business — basically an independent contractor, working with stone, metal, and wood.

In other words, Jesus pleased the Father by the quality of His life in the “ordinary” spheres of existence — home, family, friends, neighbors, work. Recall what we’ve seen about the our identity in Christ.

"By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all" (Hebrews 10:10).

You are a holy child of God. The word holy means “set apart.” The words sanctified, saint, and sacred are all forms of the same word root in both Greek and Hebrew. People tend to lump all these terms in the “religious” category, the category of the “sacred” we talk about in church. But this is a far greater truth than that. All these terms refer to an object that has been set apart as God’s special possession, for His exclusive use. That’s why the New Testament refers to all believers, including you, as “saints” — “holy ones.” People who have been “set apart as God’s special, beloved possessions, intended for His exclusive use.”

CLARIFY YOUR THINKING

If that’s true, it follows that everything in your life has been made holy. There’s no such thing as secular and sacred. The opposite of sacred according to its real meaning is “common” or “ordinary.” And there’s no doubt about it, you are truly uncommon if the life of Jesus Christ dwells in you. Consequently your environment becomes an uncommon, sacred environment because you are there. Jesus didn’t fear what we would call the secular world. In fact he plunged himself headfirst into it. By his presence in those environments, he made sacred those things that had been considered secular.

The idea that there’s a difference between sacred and secular in the life of a Christian is not true. You live and move and exist in Jesus Christ. Consequently, everything about your life is sacred. Our role as believers is to allow “Christ in us” to move into every sphere of our lives, bringing His influence to homes, families, businesses, governments — even churches. Christ expressing Himself through you wherever you are is the real Grace Walk.

52 Lies Heard in Church Every Sunday will be available in January. To preorder your copy now and receive free shipping, click this link: http://gracewalkresources.com/item.asp?cID=0&PID=635