Faithfulness in a Broken Culture (Part 1)

Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf for in its welfare you will find your welfare. (Jer 29:5, ESV)

Jeremiah’s words are not directly for us, but the principles of living as an exile in a foreign land should be heeded by every Christian. We have no lasting city (Heb 13:14), but we do have a responsibility to be active in the culture in which God has sovereignly placed us (Eph 1:11). For many years conservative Christians have neglected the duty to engage in the culture and it has cost us dearly.

Every Christian must recognize the fact that we cannot escape our culture. We live in the culture, and we cannot be faithful to the Scriptures without staying in it. In the Great Commission, the Lord commands us to go into all the world to make disciples. As much as we would love to get our favorite people and retreat into a monastery somewhere, this is not an option that results in faithful Christianity. Our culture, even as it continually degrades around us, is the context in which God has sovereignly placed us and in which we must be found faithful.

Sadly, in a practical sense, many pastors isolate themselves without being in the community at all. Practical community involvement does not have to add more to the pastor’s schedule. Frequenting the same restaurants, barbershops, and coffee shops, walking in our neighborhoods, and engaging with community leaders can result in great opportunities and pastors should be intentional about getting involved.

Part of the problem for us is that as our culture descends into further open wickedness, we do not want to be around it. A love of biblical truth makes the sins of the world repulsive to the Christian. It becomes easier to disengage because we find the sins so off-putting. But we must not retreat. Yes, we must protect our families but that does not require us to withdraw from the culture. Rather, we protect our families by teaching them how to engage the culture biblically. Our children aren’t missionaries, they are disciples, and we must faithfully disciple them while keeping wickedness from them. You cannot be faithful to the gospel if you do not interact with the world around you, and in today’s culture that means being around those who adamantly and openly oppose a biblical worldview.

While we cannot be faithful and escape our culture, we also recognize that our culture cannot escape Christianity. Whether or not you think America was a Christian nation, there is no denying that the Judeo-Christian worldview is the context in which our nation was born, and the ethical and moral principles of that worldview permeate everywhere in our culture. Public schools, hospitals, orphanages, and more were begun out of the love that the Church had for the world around it. In the words of Rory Shiner Western culture is “Christ-Haunted.”¹ The impact of Christ and His work in His people is everywhere we look. This everywhere presence of Christ in the roots of Western culture opens the door for Christians to speak into every aspect of society. The problem is that we have failed to do so.

Christianity has largely lost the cultural battle because we have disengaged with the world around us. In the mid-1900s, many Bible colleges were started but we never went any further. We started Bible colleges for those who would go into ministry and left the other 99% of young people in our churches without biblical education. Very few schools helped build a Christian view of engineering, healthcare, business, or the arts. Many of those that did have a broader offering quickly allowed theological liberalism to take over. Socially, we mostly stood by as abortion, homosexual marriage, birth control, divorce, and more took over our society. For many Dispensationalists, we were so convinced that Christ would soon return that we were thinking about the next five years instead of the next five thousand. We have no idea when Christ may return and should be thinking of our great-grandchildren and not just our immediate context. This is not acceptable because the truth of God’s Word impacts our culture here and now.

We are not to expect Christ to conform to the culture around us but for the culture to be impacted by Christ. This impact always comes from Christians and should predominantly be directed by the local church. The activity of God’s people in the world is what will influence it for good or their lack of activity or even their sin will influence it for evil. The Christian is not to shy back from cultural engagement but approach it with boldness and clarity. However, this boldness must be appropriately directed. There is a sense in which Christians may cheer for political conservatives to make a difference in our culture. Generally speaking, conservatism is a good thing that benefits our society, but we must beware of the political “Absaloms” that surround us. Conservatism itself is not the goal of the cultural battle. The aim for the Christian is the righteousness of Christ and the glory of God to prevail. This does not mean that we should not vote for someone who is not a Christian, but we should never put our hope in men (Ps 146).

Absalom stood outside the gate of the city to win the hearts of the people away from David (2Sa 15:2).² Christians must beware of those that speak of things that we would approve, but not claim Christ. We can certainly agree with those who do not follow Christ, but our young conservatives hear people like Vivek Ramaswamy, Joe Rogan, Jordan Peterson, and others, giving these men more time than they give the Scriptures. It is a simple truth that we become most like what we give the most time to.