By the 'Way' I refer to Christians
By the 'Crowd' I refer to Culture
Christians are called out of the worldly system, but then sent back into the world. In other words, as we walk the narrow path, we are surrounded by the broader culture. How should Christians relate to culture? I think there are 4 main ways we often do this:
Adapt to the culture
Boycott the culture
Cultivate the culture
Destroy the culture
Which should we do most often? Should we relate in different ways to different cases? Are any of the ways always wrong? What do you think Jesus most often did?
2 comments:
In some ways you can adapt to the culture, for example, if people in your city like to attend baseball games, hey, attend baseball games; there's no problem there. In other ways you must boycott the culture in order to follow Jesus' commands. For example, in our culture it is common for couples to live together before they tie the knot. According to the Bible, that is not OK, and so a Christian must be counter-cultural in this respect. I'm not sure what you mean by "cultivating" the culture. I'm guessing you mean trying to change it. I suppose we can change our culture, but I don't know if we are so much called to do that on purpose. To me, it's just something that happens as Christians live out Biblical principles. Destroying the culture? Hmm. You should definitely speak against cultural practices that are anti-Biblical, if that's what you mean. We should certainly use our influence to change things, but I think "destroy" is too harsh of a word to describe it.
Just my thoughts.
Hey Regan :) good thoughts
With the term 'cultivate', I'm starting with the assumption that not everything in our culture is bad (some things still give evidence that we have been made in God's image). As Christians, then, we are to be salt in our culture (preserve that which is good). I agree with you, though, that the best means to changing a culture is always by being incredibly different.
By destroying the culture I was using some Scriptural language from Paul about how we are called to destroy worldly philosophies and arguments (or our calling to be 'light,' which destroys darkness). Though 'destroy' is a harsh term, I wanted to use it because it allows us to converse about how some christians attempt to use violent means to combat the culture (another abortion doctor just got shot, this time, in church!).
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