Secular

Look the word up sometime. "Secular: adj. 1. of or pertaining to worldly things not regarded as religious, spiritual, or sacred. 2. not pertaining to or connected with religion. 3. concerned with nonreligious subjects." Well, you get the idea. And you know it. And you get it. So we have "secular music" and "secular media". We have "the sacred and the secular". Oh, and don't forget "secular humanism".

I would like to suggest that the word is, at its core, fantasy. It is largely a unicorn, a mythical thing that lots of people adore but doesn't actually exist.

Consider, first, Scripture on the subject:

The earth is the LORD's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein. (Psa 24:1; 1 Cor 10:26)

For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. (Col 1:16-17)

In Him we live and move and have our being. (Acts 17:28)

If the earth is the Lord's, if all things hold together in Him, if we live and move and exist in Him, what remains? What is apart from the sacred?

We make differentiations. We might say, "I have a secular job" meaning that I don't work in the ministry. But isn't my job a calling from God in which I am commanded to make disciples and be a light for Christ? We consider good and evil as divisions of the sacred and the secular, but Joseph told his brothers, "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good" (Gen 50:20), demonstrating that in the "secular" the "sacred" is involved. And so it goes.

Paul wrote that God "works all things according to the counsel of His will." (Eph 1:11). Now, if He works all things according to the counsel of His will, what is excluded? What falls outside of God's work?

Consider a biblical example of secular versus sacred:

Most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice. (Phil 1:14-18)

Here we have two groups preaching Christ. One does so from love and the other from envy and rivalry. The sacred and the secular. Paul considers both a good thing in that "Christ is proclaimed".

Now, sure, there is such a thing as "secular" in a certain sense. There are godly things and sinful things. There is the world and there is the Body of Christ. These distinctions exist and are even biblical. This is true. I am only trying to highlight what I think is a common misperception. We tend to draw this distinction in places not drawn by God. We've let the world draw these lines. There is no difference in the life of the believer between the secular and the sacred when it comes to living. Your job, your spouse, your family, your friendships, your politics, even your appearance all play into the sacred as part of your relationship with Christ and your commission to make disciples. There is no corner of your world that is not touched by God, not owned by Christ. Perhaps if we keep that in mind it can alter our perceptions about everything we have and do. I know it does mine.