Journal: Faith and Mission
Volume: FM 05:2 (Spring 1988)
Article: Saints In A Secular Society
Author: Robert E. Seymour

FM 5:2 (Spring 1988) p. 75

Saints In A Secular Society

Romans 12:2 “Don’t let the world around you
squeeze you into its own mold …” (Phillips).

Robert E. Seymour

Pastor, Binkley Memorial Baptist Church,
Chapel Hill, NC

Greetings to you who have been “called to be saints!”

This was a common greeting in the correspondence of the early Church, and whenever it was used, it was meant to refer to every member of the congregation. So, appropriately, in contemporary translations of Scripture, the word “saint” has been changed to read simply, “the People of God.” To be a believer and to be a saint are synonymous.

For too long we have associated saints with stained glass windows, but you and I are called to be saints in our time too. To be a saint is to be God’s man or God’s woman in the life of the world with a significantly different lifestyle from that of other people.

I. Another Look at Sainthood

It was to the saintly people of a particular congregation that our text was first addressed. Paul warned the Christians in Rome, “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold.” Historically, upon hearing this admonition, some saints have tried to distance themselves from the world and sought to live aloof from it. Indeed, so strong has been this stereotype of what constitutes sainthood that we think of monks and nuns cloistered away from the rough and tumble of life, secluded in a retreat of silence and prayer. They judged that the best way to be like Christ was to shut out the world and to focus their thoughts on heavenly things.

If having saintly status requires such standards, you may be protesting that you are not interested and prefer to be passed over. But happily, there is strong theological justification for a saintly lifestyle that is just the opposite from renouncing the world, that summons us instead to plunge ourselves into the mainstream of life as Jesus did. He was no recluse, but one who affirmed the goodness of life by entering into all aspects of it. He was no ascetic, but a flesh and blood human being like us who enjoyed life without apology.

Christian doctrine strongly supports this understanding. The doctrine of creation informs us that when God created the world, God said, “It is very good.” The doctrine of incarnation informs us that “God so loved the world” that Christ came into our midst, thus hallowing this planet by his presence with us here. Such theological affirmations have helped us to understand that as God’s People—God’s Saints, if you will—we are not meant to remove ourselves from the world, but to be actively involved in t...