Sometimes it seems we are disconnected from those around us. The temptation is to try and 'fit in'.
In a magnificent piece of rhetoric, Paul mocks those who have become ‘rich’ in the eyes of the world. In fact, as Christians, we value very differently things such as career, wealth and even truth and ambition:
"For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive [by grace from God]? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?
Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! ...We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honour, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labour, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things. (1 Corinthians 4:7–13)
Being a Christian means being different, but that does not mean we have to flee our context, just recognise that we live by a different set of values and a different standard of truth. There is no shame if in Christ we are seen as ‘the scum of the world’.