Somewhere between hard and soft is “just right.” Between long and short, hot and cold, bright and dim lies that sweet middle ground where something is “spot on.” If the parable of Goldilocks taught us nothing else, surely it taught us that!

I find that very few things in my life are “just right” when turned all the way up or all the way down. There is an “in between” in most matters, a kind of balance, where we achieve comfort, pleasure, and fit. The “good” is often found there—in the “golden mean.”

“Come out from them and be separate,” Scriptures tell us (2 Corinthians 6:17 quoting loosely from Isaiah 52:11), encouraging a divide between the sacred and the profane. The root idea behind holiness involves “separation,” being “set apart” and “made distinct.” Israel is constantly encouraged to be different from her neighbors and constantly chastised for not being different enough. Doesn’t James tell us, “Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4)?

If the church is going to be extreme about anything, holiness would be a great place to start. We are called to different lives, to higher purposes, to a walk that is distinct and set apart. Crank up the holiness volume! When it comes to this, I want to be hot, bright, and long!

Going too Far

Ironically, the fundamental failing of Judaism was the temptation to take their separateness too far. They wanted to be different in everything. Different ethics, different customs, different culture, different dress, different politics. Eventually, what defined a Jew was not his holiness but his differentness. The trinity of first-century Judaism—Sabbath, circumcision, and purity laws—emphasized the distinctive practices that separated Jew from Gentile. The Jew rested while the Gentile worked. The Jew circumcised while the Gentile . . . well . . . didn’t. The Jew washed and watched what he ate and did not enter unclean homes—matters about which the Gentile couldn’t care less.

The result was a Judaism with little intimate contact with the world. Banded together in Jewish ghettos, intermarrying, unwilling to be contaminated by the pagan world around, Judaism managed to become separate—and proceeded then to become irrelevant.

Many Jewish Christians made the same mistake. “The gospel is for us, not for them. We are separate from them—different. Unless Gentiles first become good Jews, they cannot become Christians! Keep Torah. Accept circumcision. Keep a kosher table. Then the cross will save you.”

Striking a Balance

One of Paul’s greatest contributions to our faith and practice is the notion that we Christians must be separate from but still connected to the world, different from and yet associated with the world, set apart from but remaining beside the world. It is possible for Christians to be different from the world and still be intimate with it. Not only is it possible; it is absolutely necessary.

Paul calls us to be distinct from the world in the way we live and love. He turns the holiness knob to full volume. And yet, as you watch Paul’s holiness in practice, it is not a separating, distancing thing. His holiness permits him to become all things to all men. To dress like a Greek. To eat any kind of food. To enter any home. Paul’s commitment to holiness (and to the need for holiness in the lives of all men) was so powerful, it broke down every other distinctive and barrier Judaism had erected. Paul refused to be different in dress and food and work and friends and language, precisely because he wanted to call others to a separate kind of holiness.

Today, we face a similar challenge. Yes, Christians need to be different—separate from our world. But how? In what ways? If we cannot speak our culture’s language, if we do not read our culture’s books, if we refuse to wear our culture’s clothes or see its movies or listen to its music . . . if, in ways literal and metaphoric, we wash ourselves after every contact with culture and feel defiled by its mere touch and refuse to accept its hospitality or enter its home . . . then we have confused remoteness with holiness and substituted haughty superiority for humble witness.

How to be “in” but not “of” the world. Now there’s the rub. How to be holy and yet remain relevant. How to live differently, but in such ways that unbelievers feel inspired rather than judged. Paul managed to do this. Jesus did it in spades. Can we?

Somewhere between “holier than thou” and “living like the pagans” lies that sweet ground where life becomes “spot on.” |L

Dr. Tim Woodroof is senior minister of Otter Creek Church of Christ in Nashville, Tennessee.

OTHER COLUMNS:
November 8, 2009 - Why I believe in God
October 25, 2009 - Commuting in days of evil
October 11, 2009 - Poets and don’t know it
September 27, 2009 - How Hollywood proves abortion is wrong
September 13, 2009 - Significance
August 30, 2009 - Dance alternatives
August 16, 2009 - Gluttons for gossip
August 2, 2009 - Truth from Twilight
July 19, 2009 - Visitor-friendly churches
July 5, 2009 - The Shack
June 21, 2009 - When forgiveness fails
June 7, 2009 - Re-imagining Education (Part Six)
May 24, 2009 - We are not alone
May 3, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part five)
April 26, 2009 - Conviction
April 12, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part four)
March 29, 2009 - An evangelistic proposal
March 15, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part three)
March 1, 2009 - He makes me sick
February 15, 2009 - Re-imagining education (Part Two)
February 1, 2009 - Spiritual insecurity
January 18, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part one)
January 4, 2009 - Church and politics
December 21, 2008 - Heaven’s music
December 7, 2008 - The church and marriage
November 23, 2008 - God and the president
November 9, 2008 - A time for courage
October 26, 2008 - Likes and dislikes: the Prince Caspian movie
October 12, 2008 - What’s that noise?
September 28, 2008 - Modesty matters (part two)
September 14, 2008 - All it takes is some TLC
August 31, 2008 - Modesty matters (part one)
August 17, 2008 - What would you fight for?
August 3, 2008 - Staying through the credits
July 20, 2008 - Honor to whom honor
July 6, 2008 - Tyler Perry and the movies you’re missing
June 22, 2008 - The peaceable kingdom
May 25, 2008 - Another generation grew up
May 25, 2008 - Technology and the Bible (part two)
May 11, 2008 - Technology and the Bible (part one)
April 27, 2008 - What is truth?
April 13, 2008 - And the geek shall inherit the earth
March 30, 2008 - A charactered God
March 16, 2008 - The college choice (part two)
March 2, 2008 - Good news can be hard to hear
February 17, 2008 - The college choice (part one)
February 5, 2008 - Ten suggestions for a godly standard of living
January 20, 2008 - Expelled: that “Bueller” guy’s pro-God movie
January 6, 2008 - Choosing a lifestyle
December 23, 2007 - Teachable TV?
December 9, 2007 - Owners or stewards?
November 25, 2007 - Christians teaching Christians to change TV and film
November 11, 2007 - My money is God’s business
October 28, 2007 - Navigating under the radar
October 14, 2007 - The things God values
September 30, 2007 - Movie moments
September 16, 2007 - God’s economics
September 2, 2007 - The best books to read
August 5, 2007 - The art of reading
July 22, 2007 - Atheist chic
July 8, 2007 - Why books matter: the sequel
June 10, 2007 - Books: why they matter
June 3, 2007 - The non-impact of “The Lost Tomb of Jesus”
May 27, 2007 - The universal gospel
May 13, 2007 - Loving Muslims through culture
April 29, 2007 - Hope
April 15, 2007 - God in the dark
April 1, 2007 - The gospel goes to the movies
March 18, 2007 - What the Bible movies can teach us
March 4, 2007 - What will you hurt for?
February 18, 2007 - Why Heroes . . .
February 4, 2007 - Give peace a chance
January 21, 2007 - When fairy tales are true
January 7, 2007 - WYSIWYG lives
December 31, 2006 - What’s coming next?
December 17, 2006 - Mercy, mercy
December 3, 2006 - Proof of evolution!
November 19, 2006 - Hungering for God
November 5, 2006 - Violence and government, war and peace
October 22, 2006 - The mighty meek
October 8, 2006 - The Battlestar and the Bible
September 24, 2006 - Soap for the soul
September 10, 2006 - Right vs. cool
August 27, 2006 - The painful truth
August 13, 2006 - More Lies Hollywood Tells
July 30, 2006 - Christian counter culture
July 16, 2006 - The lies Hollywood tells