Galatians 6:14-15 NASB95
But may it never be that I would boast, except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. [15] For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.
John 17:13-16,18 NASB95
But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. [14] I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. [15] I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. [16] They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. [18] As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.
Jesus said that he sent us into the world, but he also said that like Him, we are not of the world. Jesus sent us into the world to rescue the world, not to blend into the world and think like the world, or to have a value system, or a set of priorities like the world has. If you climb a tree then it can be said about you that you are “in the tree,” but you are certainly not “of the tree.” You aren’t part of the same substance of the tree just because you are sitting on a limb. As new creatures in Christ, the world has been crucified to us and us to the world. That happened 2000 years ago at the Cross. We are heavenly beings though we still live in an earth suit, and therefore we must always think into the world from Heaven’s perspective instead of the other way around. As New Creatures in Christ, we are primarily of a different substance.
Jesus prayed, and therefore His priority for us in being sent into the world, is that we would be kept from the evil one. It is sad when Christians get consumed with anger, fear, and anxiety about what’s happening in the world around them because Jesus said very clearly that while in this world, we were to experience His joy made full in us. (John 16:13)
Do we live in the world? Yes. Are we to think and feel the way the world feels as they cling to the things of the world and the systems of this world? No! We have been called to invade the world as aliens (New Creatures) from a heavenly world, going forth in the fullness of the joy of Christ, overcoming the works of the devil until the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. If you’ve lost your joy lately, could it be that the evil one has been deceiving you into thinking that your hope and your joy is dependent in any way on the systems or the priorities of this age. We certainly are called to expose and overcome evil. Still, in the process, we must not lose our true identity and our calling to overcome evil and to bring Heaven to earth by manifesting the life (actions, power, character, and disposition) of Christ with whom we are in union. It is His life in us that makes us New Creatures. As aliens in a foreign land, we are “other” than those who are lost. Our being “other” than them is their only hope of being rescued by us in the name of Jesus. If we respond to the chaos of this fallen world the same way they do, then they will not be able to tell the difference between them and us even if we proclaim a thin religious veneer. We are heavenly, supernatural beings. We are literally the Body of Christ, carriers of His life. We come from above and are not of this world even though we are in this world. His presence, power, and likeness are the weapons of our warfare, and His life in us is the FULLNESS of our joy during our pilgrimage and assignment of rescue on this fallen planet.