Outsiders

 

Nobody likes to be left out. There is a very subtle but very powerful influence on us to fit in with the group. If we are excluded, we tend to migrate to another group that will proclaim “We never want to be with those folks in the first place!”

  But that isn’t true. We want to belong. To be accepted. Part of what C.S. Lewis called the Inner Ring. Those that are “In”.

 We may want to be there but it might not be where Christ is.

Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate.    So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach.

Hebrews 13:12-13 

  Christ’s mission required him to not follow the norm or go with the crowd. His sacrifice required him to ‘go outside the camp’. Not to do what had always been done. Not to please the keepers of the status quo. Not to be like everyone else. He had to set out to go a way that had not been done.

  And that way can be lonely.

  Many a time we leave Christ, so we can stay with the crowd. We pick popularity over piety. Belonging over boldness. Status over service.  Our commitment stops when we have to step outside the camp.

 It may bring us reproach among the crowd to follow Christ but it will bring us to a better group, the Faithful.