When the Church Becomes Too Comfortable with the World | John Stott

"The sermon ""The Call to Non Conformity by John Stott"" addresses the contemporary challenges to the church, emphasizing a call to radical non-conformity. Christians have a dual calling: to be involved in the world (""worldliness,"" avoiding ""other worldliness"") and to maintain separation from the world by refusing to conform to its standards (""holiness""). Both escapism from the world and conformism to it are equally forbidden; instead, the goal is ""holy worldliness"". In the present day, the greater temptation is conformism—accommodating to the standards, values, and ideals of the secular world. The speaker highlights four major contemporary trends threatening to engulf the church: 1. The Challenge of Pluralism Pluralism, a feature of postmodernity, asserts that there is no such thing as objective or universal truth, only a multitude of subjective, culturally conditioned opinions. It affirms that all religions and ideologies have independent validity, and therefore, Christians should abandon the notion that they are correct or that they should try to convert others. The Christian response, delivered with humility, must maintain that absolute objective truth exists because God has revealed himself supremely in Jesus Christ, who claimed to be the truth. The church is a ""community of truth"" responsible for confessing, guarding, and communicating this truth. Christianity claims uniqueness and finality not for its systems (e.g., Catholic, Baptist, etc.) or its cultural manifestations, but for Jesus Christ alone. His uniqueness rests on three claims: • A. Incarnation: Jesus is the one and only God-man, fully divine and fully human, having taken human nature to himself once and for all and forever. This differs significantly from the temporary descents (avatars) described in Hinduism, which are often dubious in historicity and plural in nature. • B. Atonement: God initiated an act through Christ's death to bear humanity's sin, guilt, and condemnation, thereby satisfying both His love and His justice. The atoning death of Christ, which involves God taking the initiative to seek and save the lost without calculating the cost, is unique among religions. • C. Resurrection: Jesus' body was raised from the dead and transformed, defeating death and making him the living, resurrected Lord, available to those who call upon him. Because Jesus is uniquely competent to save through his birth, death, and resurrection, Christians should not be afraid of the challenge of pluralism. 2. The Challenge of Materialism Materialism is defined not as an affirmation of the created material order, but as a preoccupation with material things until they suffocate the human spirit. This spirit of materialism is seeping into the church. The message of Jesus and the Apostle Paul calls Christians away from storing up earthly treasures and covetousness, toward a lifestyle of simplicity, generosity, and contentment. Life on earth is a pilgrimage between two moments of nakedness (birth and death), emphasizing the need to ""travel light"". Covetousness is described as a trap, and the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. 3. The Challenge of Relativism (Ethical Relativism) Ethical relativism is characterized by the widespread belief that no absolute moral standards or goodness exist. This has led to slipping moral standards, especially in the West. A key example is the revolution in sexual ethics, where traditional views of marriage as a monogamous, heterosexual, lifelong union are being challenged by the acceptance of cohabitation and proposals for homosexual partnerships. Against these trends, Jesus calls followers to obedience, which is the only way to prove love for Him. Jesus endorsed the biblical definition of marriage found in Genesis 2:24, defining it as a heterosexual, monogamous commitment between a man and his wife. 4. The Challenge of Narcissism Narcissism is defined as an inordinate love of self or ""unbounded admiration for oneself"". Secular movements like the human potential movement and the New Age movement emphasize self-regard, self-actualization, and the idea that the solution to problems is within oneself (""you can save yourself""). The speaker rejects the popular, mistaken view that Jesus taught a third commandment to ""love ourselves"". Jesus spoke of only two commandments: love God and love your neighbor, referencing that humans already love themselves (due to the Fall). Furthermore, the type of love commanded, agape, means to sacrifice oneself in the service of another, and thus, cannot be turned inward toward self-service. Self-love is what the Bible calls sin—transferring love from God and neighbor to self. The proper attitude is to discern what aspects of our being stem from the good Creation (e.g., rationality, love capacity) and what stem from the evil Fall (e.g., self-centeredness). Christians are called to self-denial (repudiating what we are by the Fall) and to be a community of love.