Engaging Our Neighbors...Normally!

Last evening at our church we began working through Tim Keller's Gospel in Life series. The first session dealt with our relationship to the city, the present world where we live. The biblical text was taken from Jeremiah 29. In this passage we find God presenting instructions to the exiles as to how they should live in Babylon. He tells them to live normal lives among their new neighbors while maintaining their unique spiritual identity. Keller makes the point that the exiles are torn between assimilating into the Babylonian culture and listening to the false prophets, men who decree that the exiles would be best served by preserving their spiritual identity through withdrawal from the city. Yet God tells them to live among the Babylonians, praying for them and serving them, all the while keeping their distinctions intact while living a normal life. They were not told to surrender their identity to the opposing cultural. And they were not told to withdraw from the people of Babylon. They were told to live out their faith where God had planted them. And I can find no exception for us today. Let's love our cities and the people in them. Let's serve them and pray for them, knowing that in doing so we are bringing honor and glory to our King.