Non-Conformity

I Chronicles 16:1–6

“They brought the ark of God and set it inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and they presented burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before God. After David had finished sacrificing the burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD. Then he gave a loaf of bread, a cake of dates and a cake of raisins to each Israelite man and woman. He appointed some of the Levites to minister before the ark of the LORD, to extol, thank, and praise the LORD, the God of Israel: Asaph was the chief, and next to him in rank were Zechariah, then Jaaziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Mattithiah, Eliab, Benaiah, Obed-Edom and Jeiel. They were to play the lyres and harps, Asaph was to sound the cymbals, and Benaiah and Jahaziel the priests were to blow the trumpets regularly before the ark of the covenant of God.”

Following exuberant praise and celebration of God’s presence in our lives, we bow in thankful worship offering ourselves to the God who alone is good, creator of the universe, who breathed life into us, our hearts’ only true desire. In one of the sermons at church of the sermon series “Him+Her” on the topic of homosexuality, a testimony of a brother who struggles with same-sex attraction struck me; he did not want to label himself as anything like gay or straight or whatever, but chooses to identify as a follower of Christ more than anything else and that God calls him not to heterosexuality but holiness. Isn’t that what we are all ultimately called to? The Apostle Peter reminds us, “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 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 (I Pet 14–16).” To live a chaste life honouring God and trusting Him amidst the temptations, challenges and struggle that He will come through for us and so that we as a grateful response to His amazing grace, “therefore,” exhorts the Apostle Paul, “I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will (Rom 12:1–2).” Holiness is non-conformity to the world as the Apostles unanimously declare in the above verses that ‘conformity’ can be found in acts, behaviour, and lifestyle, willful alignment to the patterns of desires the world and our fallen proclivities hold us captives, our former ignorant passions. Gotquestions.org expounds on holiness, that “when God told Israel to be holy in Leviticus 11 and 19, He was instructing them to be distinct from the other nations by giving them specific regulations to govern their lives. Israel is God's chosen nation and God has set them apart from all other people groups. They are His special people, and consequently they were given standards that God wanted them to live by *so the world would know they belonged to Him*.” As followers of Christ, we need not blend in with this post(or more like pre-)-Christian culture around us, we are to be counter-cultural, “to be set apart from the world unto the LORD. We need to be living by God's standards”, as elucidated for us in Scripture, whether popular or not, and not the world's. God isn't calling us to be perfect, but to be distinct from the world.” The LORD Jesus prayed to The Father for His disciples: “I have given them Your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that You take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify Myself, that they too may be truly sanctified (John 17:14–19).”