Shower Before the Pool?

   This past summer I worked at a camp where we swam daily in a large pool. I liked to shower after the pool, ridding myself of any bacteria, smell of chlorine, and knots in my hair. But now I know I did it wrong. Shower before the pool.
   Lots of Christians are nervous if not afraid of culture (myself included). This is with reasonable cause. Culture is full of sin, lawlessness, and disrespect for God. But as Christians, we don't want that, we can be afraid, and try to avoid interactions with unbelievers and culture. We want to be safe.
   Think of culture as a pool. It starts relatively neutral (if the life-guards have been balancing it with the proper chemicals). However, soon young and old, thin and rotund people storm into the peaceful waters. They spit and pee in the waters. The grease from their skin covers the walls and diving board. Kicking about, the grass from the fields flies off and thickens the bowl-like underground pool.
    Try to ignore the analogous implications of chlorine as a bacteria-fighting agent, and go along with the metaphor. The pool is dirty, and if I swim as a Christian, I become more dirty. Being in a dirty pool makes me dirty. Or does it?
  Like the world when God created it, the pool starts perfect and free of sin. But in came the sin of the multitudes. Well, it started with Adam, but by the time of Noah, God was ready to give the whole earth a shower. And he did. Like a pool whose lifeguards (caretakers ) have abandoned it, so the world lies in-attended.
    The flood is long past, but all men are still sinners (Rom. 5:12), and the world is being condemned (I Cor. 11:32). So the pool (world) is dirty, and if I swim as a Christian, I might become a dirty Christian, and have to wash off. Thus, I would logically choose the shower after the pool. Really though, is the point of being a Christian to avoid sinful/pollutant things and people?
   In Mark 7, Jesus says, "There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him...For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person."
     So you jump into the pool, after a game of barefoot Ultimate and before you could hit the bathroom. You find yourself making life worse, and not being as positive of an influence. You see that you are one of the people who is ruining the purity of the pool for everyone else.
     Take the speck out of your eye, confess your sin to God, get right with your neighbor, evaluate your intentions: shower. When you have purified yourself in God's eyes, dive in. Swim! You may get "dirty," but you won't get dirty really. It is true that "Bad company ruins good morals" (I Cor. 15:33), but you won't compromise your morals and faith if you living are humbly and holily (I think I just made that word up) before God's face.
    There is an old phrase that is to be "in the world but not of it." This comes directly from John 17. In John 17:11, Jesus says, "they are in the world," and in verse 14 he says, "I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world."   So how do we reconcile the two concepts? How do we live in the world but not of it? 
     I think the real question is why are we in the world?  Jesus lists in the verses reasons for the placing of the disciples in the world: Jesus prays for them to be kept in his father's name to be 'one' (17:11), for His joy to be fulfilled in them (17:13), for them to be kept from the evil one (17:15), and to be sanctified (17:17). My favorite verse in this passage, and perhaps in all the New Testament is John 17:15, "I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one." Think about that. Jesus is basically saying to His Father, "Don't take them from the trenches, just protect them from the bullets." We are here to be safe from evil, yet to be refined in Christ, or sanctified so that the world can believe that Jesus is from God (17:21).
    Jesus dove into culture! He hung out with lecherous prostitutes and greedy bankers. But he spent lots of time praying and disciplining as well. God wants us to be holy, but we don't become holy by avoiding sin. We don't remain holy by showering three times a day and staying away from pools, lakes, rivers, spas, and oceans. We must dive in to be holy.
    How do we live a life seeking holiness and perfection? Jesus says in Matthew 5:43ff,
    "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." Love, as I learned in camp, is an action. It is not passive.
     Jesus is talking in Matthew five about the blessings for good living (Beatitudes), about obeying form the heart, Christ's fulfillment of the law, honesty, mercy and the impartial love to all, exemplified in things such as greeting strangers (5:47). Why does Jesus say this? See verse 48, "You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly father is perfect." Wow! We journey to perfection, or, holiness. through interacting with our neighbors. Get in the pool now.
    Holiness is a status we have in Christ, a process, and a goal. First, it is a status. Peter says in I Peter 2:9, "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." We are holy because we are in Christ, and have His righteousness imputed to us (Phil. 3:9).  That is our identity. While holy means "set apart," we aren't set apart to be isolated, we are set apart to stand out, and show God. I Peter 2:12 says "Keep your conduct during Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evil doers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation." We are held to a standard of holiness, but that standard is not to be exercised just in the presence of believers, but also unbelievers ("Gentiles").
    Holiness is also a process. I Peter 1:15 says, "But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy." Every day, we work at being holy by honoring God in what we do.
   Finally, holiness is a goal. I Peter 1:5 says, "you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer, spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God though Jesus Christ. Christians together work for the goal of being priests, priests that will offer their lives as service.
    So we don't compromise our holiness by living in the world. On the one hand, Christ sees us as holy, and on the other hand we are pursuing holiness through a life of holiness which of necessity calls us to engage in an unholy world. You have to shovel in the mud until the day when you will be free from sin entirely. Just know that that is who you are, not the one who is dirty, but the one whom Christ has made righteous. 
    The Levites had to bring lambs without blemish (Leviticus 1:3), before they were sacrificed as burnt offerings, "A pleasing aroma to the LORD" (Leviticus 1:17). The lamb had to be clean before it could be effective. Christ was clean for you. "For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified" (Heb. 10:14) 
    Now it is your turn to respond by being a living sacrifice to Christ (Rom 12:1). Look to Christ. Shower, (purify yourselves) and then jump into the pool!

  Be holy not be being safe, but by being a sacrifice.  

   What part of you must die today?