Marriage Sermons
Fulfilling Our Cultural Mandate
By Richard Land
Richard Niebuhr, the renowned Christian ethicist of the middle
of the 20th Century, identified five types of Christian ethics.
These types are Christ against culture, Christ above culture,
Christ of culture, Christ transforming culture, and Christ and
culture in paradox. Obviously, each of these types begins with a
different presupposition about the way in which Christ relates
to the culture. While it is possible to marshal biblical support
for each type, the preponderance of biblical evidence supports
the view that Christ desires to transform culture and that He
calls the Church to engage the culture to achieve this end.
I. THE BIBLICAL SUPPORT FOR CULTURAL TRANSFORMATION
The Bible offers many examples of God’s desire to transform
human culture. One can look at the Old Testament prophets and
see many examples. A casual glance may miss some of these
examples, but a closer reading causes them to jump out of the
pages of Scripture. Consider Jonah, a Hebrew prophet from Gath-Hepher,
a small village about two miles north of modern-day Nazareth.
Jonah had a very orthodox faith. He believed deeply in the
sovereignty of God over all creation, the centrality of the
Temple, and the righteousness and mercy of God.
It is obvious from reading the account of his ministry in the
book of Jonah that Jonah was very comfortable living out his
life in the secure environment of his own people. Yet God had
something else for Jonah. God called Jonah to go to Nineveh, the
capital city of the godless, heathen, cruel Assyrians. These
people were infamous for their cruelty toward conquered peoples.
If anyone deserved God’s wrath and His judgment, it was the
Assyrians.
God called Jonah to “go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry
against it” (Jon. 1:2). On the surface it appears that God was
sending Jonah to Ninevehto tell the Assyrians that they were
about to get what they deserved. But Jonah understood that God
was offering the people of Ninevehan opportunity to avert this
judgment. Jonah admits as much in his complaint to God in Jonah
4:2.
Fortunately for the people of Nineveh, everyone, including the
king, took Jonah’s message seriously. They repented of their
sin, determined to change their ways, and called on God to
relent (Jon. 3:5-10). Being a God of mercy, He did just that
(Jon. 3:10).
Jonah’s experience teaches us that God is concerned about how
all people live, not just those who have professed faith in Him.
Other evidence of God’s concern for popular culture can be found
as well. For example, John the Baptist confronted Herod at great
personal risk. Herod had married the wife of his half-brother
Philip, making him guilty of adultery. John’s witness to the
truth eventually cost him his life (Matt. 14:1-12). But for
John, speaking the truth to the leadership of his day was more
important than his own life.
II. THE BELIEVER’S ROLE IN CULTURAL TRANSFORMATION
Christians are the key to the transformation of the culture. As
He prepared His disciples for their worldwide ministry, Jesus
told them, “You are the salt of the earth . . . the light of the
world” (Matt. 5:13-16). This pronouncement includes a strong
cultural mandate. Salt has two significant functions. It serves
to prevent decay and it adds flavor.
Few substances work better than salt in preventing decay. Even
today, a little warm salt water can heal many skin infections
faster than antibacterial salves. However, salt can only perform
this preservative function if it comes in contact with the
decay. As long as it remains in the saltshaker, it will not
disinfect or preserve anything. Jesus sent His disciples into
the world to come in contact with the world so that their lives
would serve as a witness to God’s saving and transforming grace.
True to the nature of salt, their involvement in their culture
could influence it and keep it from decay. And where they
encountered decay, the salt of their witness and lives could
penetrate and eliminate the decay. This is where the other
function of salt comes in. Salt adds flavor to those things it
touches. Without salt, many foods are almost too bland to enjoy.
The analogy is obvious. The Christian brings a saltiness to the
world that makes life more enjoyable. The Christian life and
lifestyle leads to happier, healthier, more content people. It
brings the blessing of God on any people (Prov. 14:34).
The other metaphor Jesus used in this passage was that of light.
The Bible often characterizes the difference between evil and
good with the symbolism of darkness and light. Paul instructed,
“Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but
instead even expose them (Eph. 5:11). If they are living
faithfully, Christians carry this light with them wherever they
go; it is evident to everyone around them. At some time, every
faithful Christian hears someone say, “I’ve noticed something
different about you.” These people are recognizing the light of
the Christian life, which stands out in stark relief to the many
destructive lifestyles and behaviors in the culture. And as
Christians move out into the culture, they bring that light with
them, exposing the decay of the ungodly culture.
God has not left Christians to their own devices in this
culture-transforming ministry of being salt and light. He has
provided us with many aids. Two indispensable aids are the Holy
Spirit and the Bible. These equip and assist the Christian in
his ministry of being salt and light.
Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would guide the Christian into
all truth (John 16:13). We are not left to decide what pleases
God; God Himself teaches us. Furthermore, we can count on the
Holy Spirit to prepare the way and to confirm the witness of our
lives to the world. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would
“convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and
judgment” (John 16:8). This convicting work of the Spirit is
undoubtedly principally evangelistic in intent, but there is no
doubt, either, that the Spirit’s convicting work will illuminate
lifestyle and cultural issues. After all, the clearest evidence
of sin is found in one’s lifestyle and culture.
This brings us to another aid that God has provided for cultural
engagement—the Bible. The Bible is God’s revealed will. One of
its many crucial contributions to humanity is that it tells us
exactly what kinds of lifestyle choices honor and dishonor God.
Because of the Bible’s clear instructions on cultural issues,
both by way of direct comment and by way of guiding principles,
the Christian can engage the culture with truth, not merely with
personal opinion. But the Bible isn’t only for Christians. All
people will be held accountable to its standards. The Bible is a
public book; it is not kept behind sealed doors, for only the
initiated to read and ponder. While the meaning of many of its
deeper spiritual truths are beyond the understanding of those
who have not experienced spiritual rebirth (1 Cor. 2:14), the
Bible’s clear enunciation of such concrete things as lifestyle,
behavior, and thought-life are intelligible to anyone. For
example, anyone who reads, “Do not store up for yourselves
treasures on earth” (Matt. 7:19) knows that God does not condone
greed.
Given these aids, it is obvious that Christians are in a unique
position to understand the will of God for society and to live
in a way that exemplifies godly living. However, there is more
to being salt and light than living out the truth for people to
see. We have seen that salt ends decay and light dispels
darkness. Since Jesus called His disciples salt and light, He
must have intended for us to do something about cultural decay
and sin.
Of course, the most important thing we can do is evangelize.
People converted by the Holy Spirit have an internal guide to
direct them. If all people became Christians, the culture would
certainly benefit. But there are two problems with this remedy
for the culture. First, even converted people still sin, and no
matter how hard the church works to make them disciples, some of
them will still live self-willed lives. Second, all people are
not going to accept Christ as Savior, and some of them are going
to choose lifestyles and support a culture that does not honor
God. That’s the way of the sinful nature.
As salt and light, we must accept these realities and deal with
them in the way that God has provided. Part of this involves
political engagement. Some societies provide few means to
address their nation’s need for God-honoring laws, but in this
country, Christians have an incredibly effective tool at their
disposal. We have the right to vote. We live in a country that
actually provides for the will of the people in the selection of
the nation’s leaders.
What we see in the examples of Jonah and John the Baptist is
that God did not condemn government as an institution although
His people spoke out against bad government. Paul tells us that
God ordained government ( Rom.13:1-2) for He knew that humanity
would need to establish laws to guide life in a fallen world.
Government is intended by God to promote good and punish evil (
Rom.13:3-5). A government that promotes evil rather than good
will contribute to the demise of the culture by issuing
culture-destroying laws and a negative example. While it is
certainly true that government cannot change the culture by
itself, it is also true that it can encourage and assist
cultural transformation by promoting good behavior and thought
and by providing an atmosphere that encourages positive cultural
engagement.
When government fails to fulfill its commission, God holds it
accountable, and He calls on His people to engage with it. A
society where people are given the responsibility to choose
their leaders is accountable to God for the leadership they
have. In the same way that a parent is responsible for the
behavior of his children, so citizens in a democracy are
responsible before God for the behavior of their leaders and the
culture that results from that leadership, whether good or bad.
III. THE BENEFITS GAINED FROM CULTURAL TRANSFORMATION
Without Christian engagement in culture, our world would be a
much more dismal place. Whatever true Christian faith has
touched in its 2000-year history, it has made better. It was
Christians who were responsible for the rise of hospitals for
the general public. Even today, the majority of the hospitals in
the United States have a direct relationship to a Christian
faith or can trace their beginnings to Christian concern for
human well-being.
It was Christians who led the way to end the slave trade in the
West. While we lament the terrible practice of the enslavement
of other humans beings that took place in earlier centuries, and
still exists in some parts of the world today, it is likely that
we would still be living with slavery on a wide scale if it had
not been for the tireless work of Christians. One of the most
prominent of those Christians was William Wilberforce, a member
of the British Parliament, who dedicated his life to the
eradication of the slave trade in the British Empire . Imagine
our own culture if Abraham Lincoln had not won the election as
our nation’s 16th President.
The Christian commitment to the sanctity of all human life has
kept the debate regarding abortion alive through 30 years of
legalized abortion in this country. Recent successes like the
Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act can be traced directly to the
determination of Christians to engage the culture and the
political process in order to protect the sanctity of every
human life. This burden can be traced all the way back to the
days of the Roman Empire, when Christians finally brought an end
to the barbaric practice of casting unwanted babies onto
festering trash heaps, where they either died from exposure,
were carried off by wild animals, or enslaved.
CONCLUSION
Christian cultural engagement is a regular, normal part of
Christian discipleship. It is part of what it means to be salt
and light. It was the principled engagement of Christians in
days gone by that laid the foundation for our nation’s rich
cultural heritage. It remains for Christians of this generation
and every coming generation to continue to bring the whole
gospel of Jesus Christ into the culture and to set forth the
truth of God so that all of God’s creation may bring glory to
Him. In our land, this challenge includes the absolute
imperative of Christian political engagement. God will hold us
accountable if our failure to be involved directly in the
selection of our leaders results in a culture that does not
reflect God’s values. This is part of what it means to be salt
and light. |
