A Lesson From Church History

In his work on Christian History Bruce Shelley makes the following comment with regard to the differences between Christians and pagans in ancient Roman society.

    (The main cause of the hatred of early Christians in Roman society lies in their distinctive life style. "We have the reputation," said Tertullian in his Apology, "of living aloof from crowds." The word used to describe the Christian in the New Testament is highly significant. It is the term hagios, often translated saints. It means holy ones but its roots suggests different. So a holy thing is different from other things. The temple is holy because it is different from other buildings; the Sabbath day is holy because it is different from other days. The Christian, therefore, is a person who is fundamentally different.

    Men always view with suspicion people who are different.  Conformity, not distinctiveness, is the way to a trouble-free life. So the more early Christians took their faith seriously the more they were in danger of crowd reaction.  Thus simply by living according to the teachings of Jesus, the Christian was a constant unspoken condemnation of the pagan way of life. It was not that the Christian went about criticizing and condemning and disapproving, nor was he consciously self-righteous and superior. It was simply that the Christian ethic in itself was a criticism of pagan life.

    Fundamental to the Christian life-style and the cause of endless hostility was the Christian's rejection of the pagan gods. The Greeks and Romans had deities for every aspect of living--- for sowing and reaping, for rain and wind, for volcanoes and rivers, for birth and death. But to the Christians these gods were nothing, and their denial of them marked the followers of Jesus as "enemies of the human race."  Bruce L. Shelley Church History in Plain Language)

Romans 12:1-3 reads this way in the Message
1 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life-your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life-and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. 2 Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. 3 I'm speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it's important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you.  The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.

It reads as follows in the JB Phillips
1 WITH eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers, as an act of intelligent worship, to give him your bodies, as a living sacrifice, consecrated to him and acceptable by him. 2 Don't let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-make you so that your whole attitude of mind is changed. Thus you will prove in practice that the will of God is good, acceptable to him and perfect. 3 As your spiritual teacher I, by the grace God gave me, give this advice to each one of you. Don't cherish exaggerated ideas of yourself or your importance, but try to have a sane estimate of your capabilities by the light of the faith that God has given to you all.

In essence grace is not the freedom to fit into the worlds mold so we can avoid the inconvenience of being misunderstood or persecuted for being different. It is the power of God at work in us enabling us to embrace the difference that Christ brings into our lives and which sets us apart from the world and its values. It is this very life of Christ at work in us through grace which makes us stand out in the crowd. While others run to
excess and rioting and drunkenness and reveling we are inclined to avoid such practices not because we are holier than thou people who think we are better, but because eternal life through Jesus Christ has invaded our very souls and is washing us and renewing us day by day as we follow after Him.

If being around those who have decided to follow Christ seriously with their lives causes you to feel uncomfortable, the problem does not lie with the devoted followers of Jesus. It is likely that you are resisting the conviction of the Holy Spirit and your attempt is leading you to accuse the saints of attitudes and actions they do not own. Is it possible that your interpretation is being formed by the war that is waging within your own soul?