Something really well said by Miroslav Volf.
Christians do not come into their own social world from the outside seeking either to accommodate to their new home (like second generation immigrants would), shape it in the image of the one they have left behind (like colonizers would), or establish a little haven in the strange new world reminiscent of the old (as resident aliens would). They are not outsiders who either seek to become insiders or maintain strenuously the status of outsiders. Christians are the insiders who have diverted from their culture by being born again.
(Cited by Joel Green, 1 Peter [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007], page 196-7)
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2 comments:
Yep a good 'aspirational' statement is what I think I'd call it. Wish it was true of me all the time but i still find myself attempting the work of some of those groups he mentions at the start. It does howdever suggest that being 'born again' must be a new start in politics, religion, economics, social interaction, gender relationships etc etc. I like the comment
Thank you, Rob. I think you're on to something there. To be 'born again' in John's Gospel means to be 'born from above'. It's about being part of God's family and have a covenantal relationship with God - not unlike the covenant God had with Abraham. But in the context of the New Testament, to be in this covenantal relationship means a lot of things - it means a way of life that models after Jesus' life, death and resurrection - to confront hatred, injustice, systems and hearts that corrupt and dehumanise, and to do so with grace, love, mercy and forgiveness.
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