Outside the Camp

by Rocky Fleming

Day 2: The Subtle Tension

“So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured.”  Hebrews 13:12-13 (ESV)

I continue to draw our attention to the verse above.  Note that we go to Jesus who is outside of the camp and who is waiting for us.  What a comfort it is to know that He is there.  We will never be out of His sight or mind, and this thought is a key for us to have courage and assurance to get outside our “comfort zone.”  It is the same kind of courage Peter had when he got out of the boat to walk on the water to Jesus.  For the moment, he succeeded; he saw only Jesus, and he was comforted by this fact.  He failed when he took his eyes off Jesus and forgot the fact that Jesus had compelled him to come, and was there waiting for him.

We have already established that outside the camp means outside our comfort zone, and as well, the way our culture sees and acts on things.  It is an example and test as to our obedience to the values of Christ, or our embracing the values of the world.  If we choose to live in contrast to the value system of the world, we will see persecution big and small from this outside world.  It is being ostracized in some form because of being identified with Christ.  This could be because we do not join the crowd and speak and act as they do, and this will create unwelcome attention.  It could be peer pressure to join them or be excluded by them, and it starts early in life.  It could be outright threat of death and points in between.  Because there is a constant battle that is faced everyday, being able to resist the influence of this outside world requires that we keep a subtle tension on our self or an erosion of our values will set in.

Our values as a disciple of Christ are challenged all day long.  It is hard to escape the onslaught.  As an example, all one has to do is walk in a typical mall or watch advertisements on TV that even children can see, to understand how a man’s mind is seduced by society and drawn into lust and pornography because of the images that bombard us.  Go to a typical check-out area in a grocery store and you will see images on magazines that invite a man to go there, and he does so quickly in his mind, even though he never opens the pages of the seductive article.  

There are a lot of other things that we are invited to join that appeal to our fallen nature, and those are only a couple of examples.  The cause and effect of this evil is the same.  We are seduced into our culture’s ways, rather than be a contrast to it as Christ teaches us to be.  As a result, we stay inside the camp for fear of being misunderstood.  So we lose either way.  Outside is a danger that Jesus tells us to avoid.  However, at the same time He tells us to live in it but not be influenced by it.  It becomes a dilemma for us which means each choice seems to be bad.

For this reason, some false religious people have tried to establish isolated communities that keep their people from the threat that our society brings to them.  We see this as the main appeal of a cult and its leader, which is to isolate and indoctrinate a person by strict control.  The reason we can know that isolation from society is not from Christ is because He told us to invade our cultures with His truths instead of avoiding it.  If Jesus wanted isolation for protection and separation for purity, He would not have given us the example of His life to live by.  

Jesus waded into His culture and changed it, rather than joining its ways.  As His disciple we do what our teacher does and teach what He teaches.  We do not run from it, for the outside culture needs us to show them Jesus.  There will always be a subtle tension that will live in our life, for the rest of our life.  But it is this tension that keeps us on the right path, even when the path seems dark.