Chris is a friend of mine from church. For good or ill, our senses of humor run along the same lines in many ways. What you’ll see below is an email exchange he and I had in regard to a ticket to our church’s annual Men’s Dinner, written in lofty language and following the pattern we see in the Pauline epistles. It’s good stuff. I’ve added a few links to help explain some of the “inside” humor. Enjoy! 🙂

One of the things you hear preached is that Christ changes a person from the inside out, and I believe that to be true. In my own life, I can see the change being made, little by little. That change, though, is not wrought solely by the work of the Spirit. There has to be a decision made on the part of the Believer that he *wants* to be different. Sadly, we see many Christians who have either not made that decision, or have long since given up on it. To be fair, it’s a *hard* life. Whoever thinks that Christianity is for the weak needs to take a closer look at the faith, but I digress.

What makes me ask this question, are Christians truly different, is a discussion I was party to after Sunday School one SUnday morning. One of the ladies in my class commented on the length (or lack thereof) of the skirts and shirts in church (how’s that for quasi-assonance? :). Our (some would charge delicate) sensibilities were a little put off by the amout of skin that even Christian teens were showing. As we were lamenting this problem, a perfect example walked by: a skirt so short that bending over in public would not be decent.

While I realize that style of clothing is currently en vogue, we are called to a higher standard, and I need to be completely fair about this. This idea of setting ourselves apart a la Romans 12:1-2 applies to *every* area of our lives, public and private. Just as much as the racy dress of our youth is sending a bad message is the Christian body’s acceptance of smoking, excessive drinking, profane and immoral music and cinema, etc. We should strive to set ourselves apart from the culture’s decadence as part of our surrender of our lives to the high calling of Christ.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Being different for its own sake is pretty foolish (if blue is popular, wearing nothing but red proves nothing), and personal freedom is far too complex to boil down to my miniscule missive completely, so there are many factors to consider when pondering the point I’m trying to make. Take alcohol, for example. Personally, I don’t have much of a problem with it. If a Christian is a recovering or struggling alcoholic, he should probalby avoid it. In the words of Ted Kirkpatrick, "Just because it causes you to fall don’t [sic] mean it tempts me very much at all." However, since there are those who may stumble if they see me imbibing a "potent potable," I choose not too (see Paul’s discussion of meat sacrificed to idols in I Cor 8).

If we are to show that Christ’s indwelling is efficacious, if we are to show that Christianity is not a farce, then we *must* allow Christ to reign in all areas of our life: our clothing, our music, our movies and television, our dietary habits, etc. I don’t want this to sound like a call to legalism; I think legalism is a weed that chokes the life of out of the abundant life that Chirst brings. However, just because we are *free* to do something, does not mean that we *should* do something. The world needs to see that Christ does indeed change a man. Let’s get out of the way and let sanctification have its way.