Should Christians Isolate Themselves from the World?

- Greg Laurie When I was in elementary school, we had a little game that we would play in whic h we would touch someone and say, You have cooties. Of course, we had to have a wa y to defend ourselves, so when someone would touch us and claim they just gave u s cooties, we would say, Not me, I dont have cooties. Then we would hold out our ha nds, revealing the handwritten initials, C.P., which stood for cootie protection. I think Christians are sometimes that way around unbelievers. They appear as tho ugh they are avoiding all contact with them. I can understand not wanting to be influenced in a bad way. But how about influencing others in a good way? Jesus said that as Christians, we are to be salt and light. In Jesus day, salt wa s used as a preservative. It was rubbed into meat to stop the rotting process. S o, as salt in a culture, Christians are to stop the spread of corruption. But an other thing salt does is stimulate thirst. So we are to stop the spread of corru ption and stimulate a thirst for God in others. In addition to being salt, Christians are to be light, which means that we are t o proclaim the gospel and do good works. Jesus said, Let your light so shine befo re men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven (Matt hew 5:16). We are called to be salt and lightto live a godly life. It is Gods job to identify the fake Christians, to determine the true from the false. God has planted us as believers in this world. He has put His people in the cult ure to influence it, to make a difference. God is not calling us as believers to isolate, but to infiltrate. Taken from A Positive Influence by Harvest Ministries (used by permission).