Chesterton on Changing the World

Within Christian history there has always been discussion on what it means, exactly, for the church to be “in the world, but not of it.” That is, how do we live on this earth as a people who knows that there is more than what we see? What is our interaction with those around us who do not believe? How do we get them to see the beauty of the Gospel without compromising our sanctity as God’s peculiar people? On and on the questions go.    Today, the debate rotates on the axes of isolationist fundamentalism and “emergent”  church liberalism. From the top to the bottom, everyone is concerned with this topic. And why? It’s because this does not just change our theories. It doesn’t simply throw out a question that is complex in order to leave it unanswered so that we can feel better having contemplated it. No. How we respond to the question of living among the world, but not being of the world, changes our thoughts, actions, purpose, etc.   I will not here endeavor  to answer this question. This is not because I lack an opinion, but because I want to share that I believe we must make sure our focus is correct when answering this question. What often seems to get caught up in this debate (at least from my experience) hinges on appearance. It’s about how we perceive the world and how the world perceives us. I would argue that, while this is not an irrelevant point to consider, it is not the main point. What must be at the forefront of our mind is desire: a desire to change the world. Throughout the spectrum that has fundamentalism and liberalism as its bookends there is a desire to see the world changed by the gospel. (Although at times it can be debated whether these two sides would call the same things “gospel”). But how and why do we get here? This is where I turn it over to G.K. Chesterton. He has some amazing points on this in his book Orthodoxy, particularly his chapter, “The Flag of the World.” Enjoy.

• Men did not love Rome because she was great. She became great because men loved here.
• The man who will improve the place is the man who will love it without reason.
• Before the cosmic act of reform we must have the cosmic act of allegiance. A man must be interested in life, then he could be interested in his views of it.
• The world is not a lodging-house at Brighton, which we are to leave because it is miserable. It is the fortress of our family, with the flag flying on the turret, and the more miserable it is the less we should leave it. The point is not that htis world is too sad to love or too glad not to love; the point is that when you do love a thing, its gladness is a reason for loving it, and its sadness a reason for loving it more. All optimistic thoughts about England and all pessimistic thoughts about her are like reasons for the English patriot. Similarly, optimism and pessimism are arguments for the cosmic patriot.

What Chesterton speaks of is beginning to love a place before you seek to change it. You have to love something as it is before it becomes something great. This makes our relationship to the world one that requires us to love it as it is – fallen. To love something as it is is not to be content with it that way. What love in this way means is to not approach the situation with a secret, or hidden, agenda. Once agendas are put in place, the world becomes a priority on a checklist instead of an object, a group of people, that we must love. For the Christian, this should not sound unfamiliar, for this is how Christ loved us. He did not love us as we would be, as we could be, or as we should be. He loved us as we were. He did not love us so that we would change. We changed because he loved us. Because he knew, and knows, and ever will know that His love is the catalyst and the agent of any hope and change we might have. How then could we neglect loving the world as it is? Is it not what has been done for us? world.”  Let this be a reminder to us all, wherever we fall on the issue of “being in, not of, the world,” that an unbelieving world will know we are Christians by our love.