Christians Called to be Different

"And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect."  --Romans 12:2 

Being outside has provided me with the blessing of seeing and experiencing many of God’s creatures. There is a great joy when I walk out to the pasture in the morning and see that a calf was born over night. It still amazes me to see how a first-time mother knows how to care for her calf. Only God could have taught her that. Or when I see a humming bird at the feeder and think about how small he is but how many thousands of miles he travels every year. God is surely a creative God.

Now I want to move onto another of God’s creatures that many of you, myself included, had rather not see or experience: snakes. Recently, I was walking across the yard when I saw something different crawling across the mulch. It was a green snake. I see quite a few snakes each year, particularly around the chicken house, but it is very rare for me to see a green snake.

After seeing it, I did a little research and found out that green snakes are one of the more common snakes in North Carolina. I thought that odd, since I had seen so very few of them. The problem is they blend in. When they are crawling through the green grass or through a shrub, they are hard to spot because they blend in so well.

Many Christians have the same problem; they blend in with the world. They have conformed and no longer stand out or stand up for Christ. As Paul is writing to the Church in Rome he is encouraging them to be different, to be Christ-like. The problem wasn’t a shortage of Christians. The problem was that Christians were acting, talking and living like everyone else!

God has called us to be different. Once we have Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, there is suppose to be a change in us. This change not only affects the inside of us but the outside as well. We are called to be light and salt to this world. We are supposed to stand out and make a difference.

This is one of the reasons that our society is in the bad shape that it is in: too many Christians are living like the world. If we ever want to see our community change, it is going to take God’s people living the way Jesus did, standing up for what God says is right, helping the needy and reaching out to the lost.

Ask yourself this: Can the people around you tell that you are a Christian? Are you living differently than the world? Paul encourages us to not conform to this world but to be transformed through Christ.