“How can two walk together that are not agreed?”Amos 3:3
There is an old hymn of the faith that begins “Blest be the ties that bind”. Humans have a remarkable capacity to search and find other individuals with whom they hold things in common. Cultures, sub-cultures, tribes, clans, dialects, and accents set people apart, but also brings them together. I remember once while traveling in the remote mountain regions of northeast India we entered a sizeable village. Traveling with locals, I was the only white-skinned man in the entire region. Yet as we walked through the marketplace I heard someone calling in perfect English. Turning, a man with a distinctively British accent was running up and calling for me to stop. As he approached he thrust out his hand, “Good morning, Yank, what brings you to India?” After this comical introduction we conversed for almost an hour, our language (and skin color) bringing about some semblance of familiarity. However, it was this same language (and yes, also skin color) that brought about a profound unfamiliarity with everything else that surrounded me. While I came to love and cherish the hill tribes of northeast India these attributes guaranteed that I will forever remain distinct from them.
In his first letter to the Thessalonians the apostle Paul tells the believers that they are “sons of light”. Yet he doesn’t stop there. He quickly adds that they are “not of the night or of darkness” (1 Thess 5:5). Scripture repeatedly reminds us that followers of Christ are distinct from the world around us. The repeated Old Testament refrain was “come out from among them”. The ways of the world are not the ways of the Christian. Just as the sun cannot caste forth rays of darkness, neither can the true believer live as an unbeliever. Oil poured into water immediately separates as its very properties refuse to allow the two liquids to have anything in common. As believers, we are the very stars of God, and we must “come out from among” the non-believing world and shine our distinctive light.
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