How do Christians not live in the world? What does not living in the world mean exactly?
The Scripture does not say we’re not to live in the world. Obviously, everyone lives here. It says we’re not to conform to the pattern of the world.
That means we are not to automatically live our life the way everyone around us lives theirs. Instead, we are to determine how God wants us to live our lives and strive to live it that way.
Paul called this our spiritual act of worship, the way we thank God for saving us (Romans 12:1-2).
Note: The popular phrase “in the world, not of the world” isn’t quoting a Bible verse, but is taken from places in the Gospel of John where Jesus said the phrase, not of the world. The most popular is the prayer of Jesus in John 17:14-16.
“I have given them Your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that You take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.
Similar phrasing is also in John 8:23, John 15:19, John 18:36
-Samantha