Was Jesus admonition to remain no part of the world good advice or not?

by tootired2care 5 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  tootired2care

  In thinking about my own life, I think I can safely trace most of my excluded outcast childhood to Jesus words in the bible to: "remain no part of the world". Sure the WTS in their legalistic thinking probably mis-applied this text, but it's still a prominent belief for other groups like the Amish too.

  No doubt many of us ex witnesses have issues with our childhood, who doesn't, right? Still, that admonition from jesus in my opinion has so much wrong with it. It implies that followers are superior to those that don't follow, it has the effect of making one feel at odds within the context of humanity around them, because the "others" are marked for destruction anyways.

  What are your thoughts, why is this good advice or not? What does it really mean? Should it be ignored or vigorously applied?

  P.S. I'm not looking to start an argument, I just think this admonition is an interesting one on many levels, and i'm curious how others reconcile it in their own life.
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  myelaine

  dear tootired2care...

  I think that Jesus was saying in essence that generally, the "world" drifts away from God (and godliness). He says that His followers are in the "world" but are no part of the "world"... ie. they don't drift away from God(and HIS precepts).

  It is good advice to "stand" for something instead of drift along with the current.

  love michelle
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  LongHairGal

  too tired:

  Even Jesus didn't mean it literally. It was meant to be figurative. The problem is that religious groups over the years have tried to interpret this more literally (for their own agenda, naturally).

  What you end up with are groups who try to physically isolate their members or the JWs who try to "mentally isolate" their members with ridiculous rules. The reason they can't do it physically is because they are located all over the world, so this would be rather difficult.
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  cofty

  Jesus said a lot of dumb things.
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  tootired2care

  @myelaine - It is good advice to "stand" for something instead of drift along with the current.

  I can respect having principals, and backbone and morals and not doing whatever the crowd wants or what is expedient. These are hallmarks of good character. What you say makes sense perhaps the translation is the problem, in that it implies that followers need to isolate themselves, and yet somehow make it in the world.

  @LongHairGal

  Since leaving i've come to realize that many that still believe it view much of the bible as allegory and that many things can be safely ignored like this command above, I used to view such beliefs as cowardly but I have some to respect those who have a more balanced view of these error prone texts , those who intepret these texts literally do much damage in my opinion though.

  @cofty - Jesus said a lot of dumb things.

  I don't disagree with that, although I wonder how much dumber some of the translations with intent of control made them.
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  Nathan Natas

  Actually, I think this is VERY GOOD advice and I intend to appropriate it into my series of secular atheist right-thinking sermons.

  We exist in THIS space at THIS time. We are unavoidably, by virtue of our existence, PART of this world.

  As individuals we have very little power to change much about this world, but through the news media we are continually barraged with "news" - almost never happy news but news about new terrors, new outrages, new atrocities about which we can do nothing.

  The solution, my friends, is to take a "news purge diet." For five days, listen to NO news and thereafter restrict your exposure to the news as much as you possibly can.

  While doing this, try to increase your awareness of your local and virtually local environment. ACT locally to improve the situation of those near you.

  By doing this you can be in the world but no part of the world.

  Hail Eris!