Just what does being seperate mean?

How do you balance this with Christ's command, "Go ye into all the world ........?"

 

James 1:27
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

 

Hmmmmm, that seems to be an answer but no answer. Who says anything abour compromise ... but standing alone the two passages/verses seem to contridict each other ... so we have to find a way to balance the two into a rational belief. We cannot separate ourselves from the world and never interact with it and at the same time go into all the world.

 

Must have been Vale Park or the Victoria Ground, because we are very well behaved at Crewe Alex :saint:

 

For one it means our world view is seen through scripture. Not the scripture through the world's view. We have to live in the world, and are expected too in order to spread the gospel, and live Christ in front of unbelievers, yet we do not have to live like unbelievers do, with world opinions like unbelievers, but rather our opinions on the world based on scripture..

 

Can you please describe what you mean by the term "worldly pleasures"while I go have a chocolate shake with my wife :wavey: .

 

So now sporting events are sinful? Hoo boy.

Wow. Why not let God do the convicting, if it's needed? Priesthood of the believer is a wonderful thing...

 

I don't think Hebron meant that, in themselves, sporting events are sinful. I am no football (soccer, to you ) fan, but I understand that bad language at matches is the norm these days. A Daily Telgraph article on the falling attendance at Premiership matches included this paragraph:

The downside was the unremittingly foul language, and the Smethwick End was not exactly the ideal family environment for the small groups of people with young children. If a football crowd is reflective of a nation's society........


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Another article, this time in The Independent, said (obscenties removed by David Lamb):

To complain about offensive language at football matches these days is to invite ridicule; not since the heyday of Brian Clough has there been a respected figure in the game who has taken issue with the practice of obscene chanting. Yet not a few of football's current problems began with the game's administrators accepting that 30,000 people can't possibly give voice to their derision following a mistimed shot without chanting "what (obscene words removed) was that?" Admittedly, "what the blazes was that?" doesn't scan quite as well. But it's no joking matter. Something should have been done long ago about orchestrated swearing, even in the form of referees stopping matches. Now, regrettably, it is too late. My eight-year- old son knows that there are certain "rude" words I don't like him saying, then I take him to a football match and he hears pretty much the entire repertoire from tens of thousands of his elders. One answer is not to take him to matches, although I would also have to stop him watching football on television. Another is to let him say whatever he wants.​

Perhaps things are much better at American football matches (as they seem to be at most other sporting events here).

 

I'm not sure that English football matches have become worse for bad language. A lot of grounds, especially in the Premiership, are quite family-orientated. I think it depends in part as to which ground you are at and which stand you are in.

At Crewe Alex (which I quite often attend) you have one stand behind the goal which is a bit rowdy, and then the main stand which is quite polite as football crowds go. At Crewe you've almost got two cultures really - the mostly teenage crowd which are quite rowdy and aggressive; and the mostly placid majority of families and respectable types.

You get all kinds of people at football, and you rarely get a whole crowd signing something abusive. Different clubs have different cultures as well; for example, someone I know went to a Stoke match and said it was much more violent and intimidating compared to Crewe where its more family and social orientated.

 

bad language is the norm in all of life, very few places you can go where it isn't. Like the grocery store, I guess the grocery store is a sinful place to go.
Just because there is bad language going on around you does not mean you have the same bad language. Thats what it means to be in the world not of the world.

 

Is the sporting event on Sunday?
Does it keep people from church through either attendance or watching on the TV?
How is God praised at a Sunday sporting event?

Just curious.

Sin is in the beholder of the belief. When I was a kid we had a neighbor whose church would not let him partake in communion because he had a radio in the living room. Times change.

Also, what is considered sin in one culture is not considered sin in another.

 

Oh, I wasn't arguing that sporting events were in and of themselves sinful...I was pointing out the pharasaical tone of the OP and the direction he was going...

 

I have to say, I'm with DonnA. You just can't escape bad language, it's everywhere. You can give your children some defenses against it though.

Do I have a problem attending sporting events with the ever present beer and bad language. Not in the least. My children are told what to expect from others in the crowd and why others behave in such a manner. They understand that some enjoy drinking beer, but we as Christians are told specifically to keep our senses about us and not become drunk. They are told the consequences that may happen from drinking to much beer at the ballgame and then driving home.

Same with bad language (this is a problem we have to deal with in our home). They know that I believe one should keep our speech becoming unto the Lord while a certain other members of our household and close family don't hold to the same practice. (Yes, I can be in the world and not of it in my own home. You learn to walk the line quickly this way.)

Ultimately, as rbell states, one must choose for himself what will best represent Christ to the world he finds himself in and practice that whole priesthood of the believer thing.

 

Good post MK, preparing your children before hand so they know what to espect and you've already taught them God's way before they even get there and see and hear people. Thats a good way of handling living in the world while not being of the world.

 

Thanks! As I mentioned, I am not a football fan myself, so I can only go on media reports.