Experience confirms authority, it does not establish it. It verifies the truth we have discovered, but it is not the source of that truth. Consequently we cannot authenticate our faith by appealing to our feelings.
–Gerald R. Cragg, Reason and Authority in the Eighteenth Century
In this world…but not of this world.
The old saying, “be IN this world… but not OF this world” is a bit is a crutch. I’m not a fan of it’s use. When I hear someone quote this phrase, I actually hear “don’t do the things that THOSE people are doing doing NOW. Do the things that WE are doing, or did 20, 50, 100 years ago (etc). The underlying meaning of this quote comes to me as “be not of THIS world, but be of this OTHER world, the one that I’m presenting…the one that God has blessed me to understand more clearly than you…don’t be of the world that the devil is tempting you with and the Lord God has blessed me with the strength and wisdom to see through!!”
The result of taking this idea too far is decidedly unChristian*. This view tells me to simply stick with the ideas that I am comfortable with, or the ideas that bring me comfort (spiritual and physical). This view encourages me to adopt positions that require little deep reflection about my faith. Deep dives into spiritual ideas are likely to produce results that conflict with the theology of those that have been more fully blessed (“called”).
Worse yet, this saying insinuates an “us vs. them” situation. “WE” are not of this world…”THEY” are of this world, and it is obvious because they do X or say Y.”
On closing, I must admit that this saying has some merit. On it’s surface, the phrase seems be telling me simply to understand that there are bigger things than this world. I am part of this world, but also part of a much bigger _________(world, idea, yet-unknown, etc).
*Is there a word differentiates “in accordance with Jesus’ teachings”, with “in accordance with current Christian Church dogma”?