by Abram Coetsee

It’s the end of the year; do you have your Set Apart shirt yet? As a Christian does it matter that you take part in something that’s on the back of your T-shirt? Does Set Apart just mean that you have a T-shirt that’s in dress code?

Is your life as a Christian just something you wear on your T-shirt? Is your relationship with God something that can be summed up very comfortably in a quirky license plate frame? Is it something that can be boiled down to a clever bumper sticker making fun of other worldviews? Is it something that can be easily attached to your tailgate in the form of a chrome fish? Would any of these special accessories actually be “Setting you apart?”

Or would all these pretty logos of crosses and Christian paraphernalia just be the same as a non-Christian wearing logos of whatever sports team they prefer? As Christians we are not simply to be Set Apart in our car accessories, in our interests or our activities. Being Set Apart, simply because we add “Jesus” to whatever we are doing, is not the right idea. As Christians we are called to look at life from a much different perspective. Having Jesus in our lives is not the goal; rather we are called to have Jesus be our life.

I think too often we as Christians water down our faith into something that we can just act on like it’s an interest of ours. Like something we could put down under the “interests” section of a myspace: photography, food, girls, music, jesus, hanging out with friends, watching movies. If Jesus Christ, the almighty God who took on flesh, who created all things, has reconciled all things and is coming to redeem all things; if this Jesus Christ can fit into our lives as just another item in our profile, we have it all wrong.

If I am living with Jesus as just another item on the list of things I do, I am not very Set Apart. In fact this is pretty much just like if I were a non-Christian having a list of things I do, because that sort of life is still just a big blend of interests that I enjoy just with a little bit of Jesus in it. How mistaken I would be to think that adding a little bit of Jesus to my life is such a righteous thing.

Even if Christ is my first priority, am I really to think that this is some sort of great thing to be proud of? A Christian must realize that this is not any wonderfully holy moral achievement; to put Christ as number one on my list of things to do is still confining Christ to something that I have say over in handling my list.

I must never think that my life is all that flattering to God, even to give Him the biggest part of my life time is wrong. Giving God 60% of my time is giving Him the majority of it, but that still means that I’m keeping 40% of it for school, sports, TV, video games, drawing, music, or whatever else may be taking “my” time. Set Apart does not mean setting apart my interests as including God, or even as being mostly about God. Set Apart means that everything, me in my entirety, every aspect of my life is governed by, supplied by, lived by Christ.

Being Set Apart does not mean having a life, with a part of it being about Jesus. That is truly not much more Set Apart than having a life, with a part of it being about watching the O.C.

            With all these things there is nothing inherently wrong with the activity, myspace is not bad, the O.C. is not bad, schoolwork is not bad, sports are not bad, music is not bad; what’s bad is when ANYTHING hinders us from totally surrendering to God. Life as a Christian is 100% devotion to God alone, and consequently a life lived in 100% fulfillment, is a life of experiencing every aspect of life at 100%. As Christians we are not Set Apart by having Christ be part of our lives. We are Set Apart by having Christ be the singular focus, the singular source, the singular definition of our existence; in short Christ is not something in our lives, Christ is everything.

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