All In And All Out

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” – Romans 12:1

The definition of all in is “to be totally committed to something.” Being all in as a Christian is a radical abandonment to the will of God and a wholehearted pursuit of Jesus Christ as our only option. There is no middle ground in our relationship with God.  We should be all in. 

As Christians we are called to be all in and all out. We are called to be set apart. Romans 12:2 says, “set apart.” Romans 12:2 says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.…” But it is not about being holier than thou or self-righteous. Our goal in seeking to be set apart is not to stand on higher ground so that we can look down on people. Set apart means something different. 

It is easy to look at being set apart in terms of what I did or did not do. It was almost like a contest where we are trying to do more of the right things than others. But if we think in those terms we have it backwards. It is not about looking different than the world.

Acts 4:13 says, “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.” (Acts 4:13). It does not say they were different from the world. Most followers of Jesus want to be different and they want people to notice they are different. But we should not lose sight of the fact that the goal is not for people to notice that something is different about us, but it’s for them to know the one who made us different. Our goal in being set apart should not be for people to look at us and say, “Wow, look how different they are from the world around them.” Our objective should be for people to look at us and say, “they look like Jesus.” 

Jesus calls us to be in the world, but not of the world. John 17:15-16 says, “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.”  We should not distance ourselves from any contact with our secular culture; we should influence it.

God’s goal in setting us apart is not about taking us out of the world, but about Him taking the world out of us. By pursuing Christ, the things of the world lose their grip on us. He wants to conform us into His image, not distance us from the world.

Discussion questions:

1. How can a Christian be all in and out at the same time?
   
2. What can we do this week to become more all in for Jesus?