Tuesday, March 2nd, ‘10

Tuesday, March 2^nd, ‘10

IN OR OUT?

“For what have I to do with those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside?” (1 Corinthians 5:12)

Paul didn’t categorize men horizontally in various tiers of lower, middle or upper classes. Rather, he drew a curtain and said they are either in or out. Later in Corinthians the definition was either “in Adam” or “in Christ”. Those boundaries can’t be distinguished by some ecclesiastical measurement. I mean, you could be “in” the Protestant or Catholic or even Charismatic camp and still not be “in” with God. Again, one could be a denominational outsider and be very much in the spiritual “in” crowd. Christ is the door (John 10:9). “In” means there has been an entrance. Part way in is not “in”. Commitment must be total and final. The old-timers spoke of in again, out again, gone again Flanagan. Christianity isn’t a fad. There are those who one day are “in” to Goth then heavy metal then country then classical. Actually, they were never “in”. They just tested water temp here and there. In poker to be “in” requires an investment, not just the ante but a calling of the going bet. “Are you in?”

A person can’t be two places at once. If I’m in deep do-do, I can’t also be in the pink at the same time. Trying to be in and out at the same time is a miserable existence. Picture the guy hitchhiking down both sides of the highway at once. Talk about anti-progress. Someone advised, “Get in, get out or get run over”. With entrance comes change – “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation…” (2 Cor 5:17) Wading is not the same as being “in” the ocean. People all the way in can no longer touch bottom. Out is the boring lifestyle, out of work, out of money, kicked out, locked out. “But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie” (Rev 22:15).

In today’s text Paul questioned, “What have I to do with those who are outside?” A bit hard to reconcile in and out. That is not to say believers are separatist or segregationist. He clarified that if we were to stay clear of “the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters” then we would have “to go out of the world” (vs 10). The thought is not isolation from the world but insulation in the world. We are in it but not of it (John 17:15,16). “In” without being “of”; big difference in genealogy. An adopted son is in the family as legally and surely as a natural born son. The courts confirm status. Have you felt like an outsider? “The Lord God which gathers the outcasts of Israel saith, Yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are gathered unto him” (Isaiah 56:8). The door is wide open…come in. None of us who have come in feel worthy, but we do feel welcome, and that’s what matters. And being “in”, we have already begun residency in heaven.