How should Christians relate to the world
around us? Should we withdraw, or should we engage? How do we know which action
to do when? It’s not question with a simple answer, is it?

On the one hand, there are plenty of
reasons why we might think we should withdraw from the world. Paul tells
believers in his letter to the Ephesians: “you were dead
because of your offenses and sins, in which you once walked, according to the
age of this world” (Ephesians 2:1–2), and so “we were, by nature,
children of wrath”, deserving of God’s righteous judgment
(2:3).
But Christians are people who have been rescued from the evils of the world. God
has “raised us together
with Christ, and seated us together with him in the heavenly places
in Christ Jesus” (2:6–7). So we should “no longer walk as
the gentiles walk: in the futility of their minds” (4:17). Instead, we should “take off the old
humanity, according to the former way of life, which is being corrupted
according to deceitful desires” (4:22), and instead “put on the new humanity, which has been created according to God in
the righteousness and devotion that come from the truth” (4:24). Our behaviour must be completely different
from the world’s—no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed. “It’s because of
these things that the wrath of God is coming on the children of disobedience.
So don’t become partners with them” (5:6–7). All of these things that Paul says in Ephesians
seem to give us plenty of reasons to withdraw from the world and have nothing
to do with it.

But on the other
hand, there are also plenty of reasons for us to engage with the world. Christians
are people who are caught up in God’s great plan “to sum up all things in Christ: things in heaven and things on
earth, in him” (1:10). God is achieving this plan through the preaching of the gospel, the “word of truth”, which brings
salvation to people. Christians are people who have come to believe and trust in Christ the
missionary, the one who “came
and preached the gospel: peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who
were close” (2:17). Paul the apostle is caught up in this mission; he is a “minister of the
gospel” whose task is “to preach to the gentiles the gospel”
(3:7–8).
And God’s people, too, are caught up in this “work of ministry” and mission; we should be “speaking the truth
in love” and so seeing the body of Christ grow (4:14–15). So gospel ministry and mission is central to
our identity as Christians. And all of these things give us plenty of reasons
to engage with the world—so that people might hear the gospel, come to Christ,
and be saved.

So what should we do? Should we withdraw,