Telling the Truth

Guest (Male): Today, Stuart Briscoe continues his current series with part two of a message he's calling "When We Are Being Compromised." It's all about rising above the bad influences around us and centering our lives on God.

Guest (Female): So many people read their Bible, go to church, serve on mission trips, and go through the motions, yet still struggle to find God. Jill Briscoe has a surprising and deeply encouraging answer to this dilemma, which she shares in her three-message series, "Finding God."

In this inspiring series, you'll discover how you can stop spending so much energy on finding God and let Him find you. By slowing down and putting yourself deliberately in His presence, you'll recognize that He's already there, waiting for you. You'll be uplifted as Jill explains how God worked in the lives of men and women in the Old Testament and how He works in your life, too, even when you don't see Him and feel His presence.

Guest (Male): The "Finding God" series is our thank you for your gift today to help more people experience life through the teaching and resources of Telling the Truth. And if you're able to make your gift monthly, we'll also send you a special Telling the Truth travel mug to remind you that God is always with you. So request your resources when you give today: 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388. Or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now, here's Stuart with his message for today: "When We Are Being Compromised."

Stuart Briscoe: Now, how in the world can you have a compatible relationship between people who have mutually incompatible moral standards? You can't. And so, the Apostle Paul says, "Do not be yoked together with unbelievers because moral standards vary." What fellowship can light have with darkness? Well, obviously, when light comes, darkness disappears. When darkness comes, light disappears. We see this happen every 24 hours. They are mutually incompatible.

But when Paul uses the expression light and darkness, he is referring in a very specific sense to spiritual experience. In 2 Corinthians chapter 4, he says, "In the same way that God commanded light to shine out of darkness, so He has allowed the light of the knowledge of God in the face of Christ to shine into our hearts." Let's face it: there are some people who live in utter spiritual darkness. They have no sense of spiritual realities at all.

They have no sensitivity to eternal dimensions of experience at all. They don't think in terms of eternity. They don't think in terms of spirituality. They live in what the Bible calls spiritual darkness. But when persons are touched by the gospel, they see the light. They begin to think in terms of eternity. They begin to think in terms of deity. They begin to understand in a new sense their humanity. And when this begins to happen, guess what?

The whole of their lives are changed. The Apostle Paul says, "What fellowship can light have with darkness?" When there is a radical experience called conversion, when a person's life is turned through 180 degrees, then you cannot find two people walking in opposite directions having an intimacy of relationship. It just won't work. That's what he's saying. What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Belial is another word for Satan.

What possible relationship on an intimate basis can there be between a person who acknowledges Christ as Savior and Lord and a person who actually lives his life as if Satan is in control? You say, "Well, come on, just a minute. I know lots and lots of nice people, and I wouldn't say for a minute that Satan was in control of their lives." No, and I would hesitate to say that as well, except for one thing. Remember when the Lord spoke to Peter on one occasion?

He told Peter that he was going to go up to Jerusalem, and there he would suffer and be crucified, and on the third day, he would rise again. Peter began to rebuke him. Jesus' response to that rebuke was, "Get behind me, Satan." Now, why in the world did Jesus call Peter Satan? All he was doing was trying to protect Jesus. He was being a sincere, well-meaning person. I think the answer to that question is this: the work of Satan historically has been to hinder the work of God.

And it is possible for well-meaning people in spiritual ignorance, in a well-meaning, earnest, sincere way, hinder the work of God. Now, if you've got somebody who has spiritual insight, who understands something of the will of God, and they have an intimate relationship with somebody who hasn't a clue about it, then it's perfectly obvious that there's going to be a fundamental incompatibility there. So the Apostle Paul says, "Don't yoke the two together."

We cannot have a total identification between the believer and the unbeliever. There is a fundamental difference between the two. He goes on to say this: "What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?" In Corinth, in the first century, Paul had moved in and he had presented the gospel to an utterly godless society. They hadn't a clue about God. They hadn't a clue about the righteousness of God. They hadn't a clue about repentance. They didn't understand sin from a divine perspective.

They lived at a certain level. Some people got the message, and immediately their lives were transformed. And you'd have no trouble at all recognizing the believer from the unbeliever. They were very, very different. Now, it's much more difficult in our culture at the present time. We have at least 200, possibly a little more than 200 years of Christian history in America. That does not mean I agree with these people who say that America was a Christian nation.

It never was, and it never will be. But it does mean that there was a very profound Christian influence in the beginnings of this Republic. Not only that, there are still vestiges of a profound Christian influence here. So you can ask the average person, "Is Jesus God's Son?" He'll say, "Yeah." "Do you believe God created the heavens and the earth?" "Sure do." "Do you believe there's such a place as heaven?" "I certainly do." "Do you believe you'll go there?" "I think I've got as good a chance as you."

These are the kind of answers you get. In other words, there is sort of a low-grade belief in most people's lives even where there is no interest whatsoever in worship, no interest in sacrificial service, no assurance of salvation, no acknowledgment of the Lordship of Christ. So what do we mean by a believer and an unbeliever? By a believer, we mean somebody whose belief behaves. By a believer, we mean somebody whose faith works. We're not talking about a person who says, "Sure, I believe," but shows no evidence of the life of belief.

So the Apostle Paul is saying in effect to the Corinthians, "It's perfectly obvious that some of these people haven't a clue or an interest in Jesus as Savior and Lord, and some of you do." And in our culture, he would say it's perfectly obvious that some of you are deeply committed to Christ, and other people could care less about Christ. Now, then, there is a fundamental discord there. We see this all the time. The young couple get married—just a normal, decent young couple.

They want a church wedding. Maybe one of them goes from one church, and one goes to another church, but neither of them have been there for years. They can't decide which church to get married in, but they find sort of neutral ground. They get a minister to do the job, and then they ignore the church until some kids come along. Then they get a bit concerned about how the kids are going to be brought up, so the wife says, "I'd better get the kid back in Sunday school."

So she starts to go while the husband does more important things like watch the Packers or play golf, depending on the season. And then the wife comes and she starts getting into a young moms' group. And you know what's going to happen, don't you? She's going to get converted. And now she's going to begin to take seriously what she's discovered about Christ, and she becomes a believer and she's got this good, decent, unbelieving husband—just your typical guy.

But not interested in the things of God. Well, he says it'll pass, she'll get over it, leave her alone, don't worry. But unfortunately, as time goes on, she doesn't get over it; she gets worse. As time goes on, he begins to discover to his horror that she doesn't want to go where she used to go all the time before because she finds the company and the language and the attitudes and the philosophies distasteful. It becomes very difficult for them.

Then unfortunately, he can't believe it, but she wants to actually start giving money away. And he doesn't believe in giving money away; he worked hard to earn it, he's going to spend it. Why in the world should he give it to these preachers so they can drive Cadillacs? No way. These preachers are just ripping people off. And then would you believe it, that she wants to go to church on a Sunday morning instead of going up north? What's going to happen? You're going to have all kinds of tension. We see it all the time.

Now, the Apostle Paul, incidentally, is not just talking about marriage in this passage, although that is a valid application of it. And he gives them some specific instruction in 1 Corinthians as to how the unbeliever married to the believer should behave. He says as if the unbeliever chooses to stay with the believer, then the believer must certainly stay in that difficult situation and behave in a certain way. If the unbeliever chooses to leave the believer, then they're perfectly free to go, and the believer is no longer bound.

So if you're in that exact situation, check 1 Corinthians 7 and look in Peter's Epistle as well; there's information there for you. The point, however, is very straightforward. And Paul brings it to a consummation by saying, "What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols?" Now, the people in Corinth would know immediately that the temple where the idols were in Corinth, and all the connotations of that worship there, were so utterly incompatible with all that Paul was teaching concerning Christian morality and Christian lifestyle, they would immediately say there is no compatibility whatsoever.

So the Apostle Paul says, "Christians, you have got to face up to it that you are living in an environment that is not conducive to the development of your spiritual life. You are living in a situation that is not conducive to holy living. Therefore, do not be yoked together with unbelievers." You say, "Wow, what a case for isolation! Your dad was right." Well, was he? I don't think so. Because you see, there's another side to this story that is very important to us.

If it is true that identification with unbelievers is not acceptable, it is equally true that isolation of believers is neither desirable nor possible. Isolation of believers is neither desirable nor possible. Now, let me just touch on this rather quickly if I can, which is highly unlikely. John chapter 17, the Lord Jesus talking about His disciples, this is what He said. "Father," He said, "I'm going to leave shortly and I'm coming back to heaven." But then He turned to His disciples and He said, "But I'm going to leave you in the world. I'm going to leave you here."

But He said, "You're not of the world." But remember that you're sent to the world. Now, there are three critical expressions here. The Lord Jesus speaking to His disciples, He says you're left in the world, He says you're not of the world, and you're sent to the world. I am convinced that the big tension for the believer living in the contemporary society is to balance those three things. Please notice that the Lord Jesus had determined that the environment in which Christianity is lived is a non-Christian environment.

That is a fundamental that we cannot and must not overlook or forget. We were left in the world, and the world that He was talking about was a world that rejected Him and crucified Him. A world that He said hated Him and would hate His followers, too. And Jesus said that is exactly where you are going to operate. Now, then, having said that, He said, "But you're not of it." Now, to interpret that as meaning I must be isolated from the environment in which I've been placed makes nonsense out of what He said.

Why leave us in it if we were to be isolated from it? No, the whole point of being left in it is to do something about it. But you do something about it by demonstrating a certain distance from it, certain distinctives about it, a marked differentiation between it and yourself. So isolation is not acceptable. Not only that, the Lord Jesus said we were sent to it. In other words, we're left in it, we're not of it, but we're sent to it in order that we might become in His power, through His grace, the means of turning things around.

Now, then, if you're totally identified with it, there'll be no distinctive; you'll have no impact. But if you're totally isolated from it, you'll have no intercourse with it, and there'll be even less impact. Somewhere between the two, there has to be this acceptance that when Paul talks about "Do not be yoked together with unbelievers," he's talking about the kind of identification that will be morally destructive and will impinge upon a distinctive witness. He is not talking about an isolation from the situation.

Now, in order that we might be very clear about this from Paul's own writings, let me please remind you of what he said in 1 Corinthians chapter 5. He is correcting a misapprehension concerning a former letter. Verse 9: he says, "I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. Not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral or the greedy or swindlers or idolaters; in that case, you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but who is sexually immoral."

In other words, there was a major problem in the Corinthian church. People who claimed to be brothers were engaging in gross sexual immorality. Paul says, "Excommunicate them, have nothing to do with them." People had misunderstood that and thought he was saying have nothing to do with sexually immoral people, period. Paul says, "No, that's crazy! You'd have to leave the world to do that. The world's full of people like that and you're in it, but not of it, but sent to it." He is not preaching isolation, but he's saying you cannot get into total identification.

There's a balance between the two. In fact, he even goes so far as to say in 1 Corinthians chapter 9 that he says, "I have become all things to all men that I might by all possible means save some." So what conclusion do we come to? Isolation is neither possible nor acceptable. Involvement with unbelievers is absolutely imperative. But identification with them so that there's no distinctive is totally unacceptable. Now, you may say, "Well, I thought I understood that till you clarified it."

And I'll say to you quite frankly that this is an area that requires very careful thought. And I suppose the concern that we have to have is that in these areas, many, many people do not demonstrate careful thought at all. And so they simply lapse into an unthinking isolation that is based on fear with little concern about a dying world, or they simply identify with a world and there's no discernible difference between them and the unbeliever. I want us to pause here for a moment and think whether we ourselves have seriously looked into the difference between being totally isolated from or totally identified with a world that is not conducive to a life of holiness, and if so, where we would find ourselves in this situation.

Guest (Male): Stuart, explain again what Jesus means when He says that we should be in the world but not of the world.

Stuart Briscoe: Jesus certainly gave us a challenge when He said that His disciples were to be in the world but not of it. The world that He was talking about was not the physical universe, obviously. The physical universe is the environment in which we live. So there's no way that we can live as human beings and not be in it and of it. We breathe its air, we eat its food, etc. The world He was talking about was not the physical universe.

What He was talking about was the world of humanity, and with particular reference to that aspect of humanity that is fundamentally opposed to God being God. And it is in that environment created by individuals who resist God, that have produced institutions that are antithetical to God. It's in that environment that we are called to live. And there's no escaping it, and there's no reason we should desire to escape it. We are called to be a bright and shining light there, but we are to live distinctively from it. And that is the essence of living in it but not of it.

Guest (Male): Stuart, why is it important that we as believers don't isolate ourselves from non-believers?

Stuart Briscoe: There is considerable confusion in some sections of the Christian community on this subject of what the Bible calls separation. I'm afraid separation degenerates into isolation in the minds of many believers. Now, conversely, many people have no interest whatsoever in separation, so they are indistinguishable from those who are unbelievers. The simple fact of the matter is this: that Jesus said we were to function as salt.

And salt that loses its saltiness doesn't do any good. It doesn't taste of anything. It doesn't produce a savory taste. It certainly doesn't preserve anything. If I live among people who are not believers, and my job is to bring a degree of saltiness to that situation, clearly, if they don't know me, clearly, if they don't have the chance to observe my life, clearly, if they can't see the difference in my life, then quite frankly, I will be utterly useless.

I will be like tasteless salt. I will fail to function as a believer is intended to function. By the same token, we are called to be the light of the world. Jesus said you don't put a light under a bucket, do you? If you put a light under a bucket, what happens? The oxygen runs out, the light goes out, and the people who are supposed to benefit from the light don't get any light at all.

So it's a no-brainer. If we're going to be salt, we've got to be sprinkled where we're trying to be salty. If we're going to be light, we have got to make sure that we're not hiding our light from the people who need to see it. Or to put it in very, very simple terms, we have to be separate from in the sense of living a different lifestyle from unbelievers, but we're not to be isolated from them because if we do, we would fail to function in the specific categories that we have been called to function.

Guest (Male): Thank you for being with us today here on Telling the Truth. We pray today's message encouraged you and helped you experience life in Christ.

Guest (Female): We thought you'd be encouraged by this note we received from Teresa, a listener in Indiana. Teresa writes, "Thank you for spreading the Word of God all over the world. Also, you've helped me to understand God's Word and to live a life that's pleasing to Him. Praise the Lord!" We're so glad to hear how the Lord is working in your life through Telling the Truth, Teresa. Thanks for sharing.

Guest (Male): So many people read their Bible, go to church, serve on mission trips, and go through the motions, yet still struggle to find God. Jill Briscoe has a surprising and deeply encouraging answer to this dilemma, which she shares in her three-message series titled "Finding God."

The Finding God series is our thank you for your gift today to help more people experience life through the teaching and resources of Telling the Truth. And if you're able to make your gift monthly, we'll also send you a special Telling the Truth travel mug to remind you God is always with you. So request your resources when you give today: 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388, or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org.

Stuart returns next time with another message from his "Knowing God Personally" series called "When We Are Becoming Careless." It's about rising to the challenge of being a disciple of Christ instead of running away from it. So be sure to tune in for this powerful message right here on Telling the Truth with Stuart and Jill Briscoe.