What Is Culture For? (7)

“Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 7.12

Full circle
Beyond confronting cultural abuse and misuse, Christians must make a conscientious effort to restore culture so that it serves as a means and end to the glory of God by demonstrating the love He intends all people to know.

All Christians are immersed in culture. As we have previously noted, people are made for culture. We can’t escape it, and we can’t do without it. All the everyday things we use, the conversations we engage, the work we do, everything about our homes, manners, avocations, and interests—all this is culture, and we are engaged with it all our waking moments. Thus, since the overarching guideline of our lives is to love God and our neighbors (Matt. 22.34-40), we will make and use the culture of our lives to that end.

The challenge to the Christian is to remember that Jesus Christ has reconciled the world to God, and He has appointed us as His ambassadors to restore it. His Spirit and Word are at work in the world to bring forth the glory of God for all to see, so that more people may know the wonder and joy of the steadfast love and faithfulness of God, and so that they might be influenced for love by these manifestations of His glory.

Principally, as we’ve seen, God intends to bring His glory to light through those He has redeemed and come to indwell by His Spirit. Thus, in every aspect of our lives, and in all our cultural activities, we must be diligent to allow the glory of God to show through in us, so that the love God has for humankind and the world can be known by all.

God distributes the gifts of culture to aid us in this high and holy Kingdom calling. We must receive and use these gifts for this end alone.

Prepare your mind
The apostle Peter encouraged a community of Christians who were beginning to experience the animosity of their neighbors to hold the line for Christ, and, by the exercise of their own unique gifts and callings, to advance the presence and rule of King Jesus, even in the midst of a hostile environment. He called them to prepare their minds to act in ways that would glorify God (1 Pet. 1.13).

If these Christians were going to stand out as true followers of Christ, they would have to apply themselves to careful thought and planning, together with continual vigilance, so that they made the most of every opportunity—and every resource—to glorify God by loving Him and their neighbors.

This is good advice for us as well. Jesus prescribed a simple but profound mindset for everything we do in this world: Think about what you want others to do for you, and do the same for them. We have the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2.16) so that we can think His thoughts after Him, as He thinks, and thus discover the best ways of doing all things in and unto love.

In the self-centered culture of our day, people tend to do unto others whatever others do unto them, or whatever they suspect others might be thinking about doing unto them. This is not the way to build a culture of love. We who desire to know, enjoy, and express the love of God above all else must devote ourselves to the task, in all our activities, as in all our relationships, of showing the love of God to others in ways we would want it shown to us.

A few examples
I want to end this part of our study with us thinking in very practical terms about how such a mindset might guide us, day by day, in the culture we make and use each day.

For example, what we don’t want to happen during the day is for selfish, grumpy, conniving people to take advantage of us or take us for granted, or try to make us miserable or feel insignificant. Moreover, it might be nice if people spoke with us during the day, especially if their conversation was interesting, showed concern for us and our wellbeing, and left us feeling edified and, well, loved. And if only they were more serious about their work and more gracious in their driving. Yeah, we don’t want others to treat us like that.

So how do we keep from becoming such a person ourselves?

Obviously, we begin our day with the Lord, and we go with Him from our time of reading, meditation, and prayer to a daily walk of circumspection and service, yielding every moment of our time and everything we do to His will and Spirit (Eph. 5.15-21; Phil. 2.12, 13). We call on the Lord to give us wisdom in daily planning and to guide us into the work that will bring Him glory (Ps. 90.12, 16, 17). At the beginning of the day, and before each new activity as well, we get the mind of Christ in gear before we begin the work that God has prepared for us, to give us contentment, joy, and consideration of others in all our activities and all our use of culture.

Second, conversation is a powerful cultural resource. We can learn the art of conversation so that our speech is always seasoned with grace and devoted to edifying our neighbor (Col. 4.6; Eph. 4.29). If we plan for it, pray continually about it, and commit all our conversations to the Lord, we’ll be surprised and delighted at what He can do to spread His grace to others.

The same applies to all the rest of our life. If we want the people at our job to give their all and do excellent work, then we must lead the way by our own example. How we drive our car, the manner in which we take our meals, the music we listen to, the websites we peruse , how we talk about others—indeed, every single one of our cultural activities can be engaged in with this one thought in mind: To glorify God in our cultural lives, and to promote love for God and neighbors by means of our cultural activities, we must keep the Golden Rule in mind, and take it seriously as a simple but profound guide for achieving a culture of love.

The Golden Rule and the mandate to love God constitute the mindset and guidelines for a Christian approach to culture.

For reflection or discussion
1. Suggest some practical ways that more consistent use of the Golden Rule might begin to transform your own approach to engaging culture:

2. What can you do to help make sure you’re operating out of the mind of Christ throughout the day and in all you do?

3, What will you do differently today to use the culture of your life for loving God and your neighbor?

Next steps—Transformation: Try this out with a few of the cultural opportunities you’re likely to engage today: Your apparel, demeanor, conversations, work ethic, life at home, leisure time. Make a list of the culture you will use today. Then, beside each item, jot down one way you might apply the Golden Rule to that activity. Commit your list to the Lord as a plan for glorifying Him in your cultural life.

T. M. Moore

Two books on culture are available to accompany this series on “A Christian Approach to Culture.” Christians on the Front Lines of the Culture Wars shows how important it is that we consider culture as a way of bringing glory to God. Order your copy by clicking here. Redeeming Pop Culture examines the nature of pop culture and some ways we can make good use of it for God’s glory. Order your copy by clicking here.

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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.