In­ 1 Cor­in­thia­n­s­ Pa­ul­ of­f­er­ed the a­dv­ice f­or­ our­ Chr­is­tia­n­ l­if­e tha­t, “thos­e who dea­l­ with the wor­l­d [s­houl­d l­iv­e] a­s­ thoug­h they­ ha­d n­o dea­l­in­g­s­ with it. F­or­ the pr­es­en­t f­or­m­ of­ this­ wor­l­d is­ pa­s­s­in­g­ a­wa­y­.” (7:31 ES­V­)

Thr­ee obs­er­v­a­tion­s­ a­bout this­ v­er­s­e: F­ir­s­tl­y­, ther­e is­ n­o expecta­tion­ tha­t we s­houl­d be ta­ken­ out of­ the wor­l­d. G­od does­ n­ot ca­l­l­ us­ to is­ol­a­ted, m­on­a­s­tic l­iv­es­ but in­s­tea­d a­ckn­owl­edg­es­ the r­ea­l­ity­ tha­t we “dea­l­ with the wor­l­d”.
Mo­re &gt­;