BP 214
If you and I love Jesus, we will live our earthly lives in a constant tension. Why? We are living in this world, but we are not of this world. As we have alluded to in previous posts, C.S. Lewis said that genuine believers in Jesus are amphibians. He said that Christians are living in two worlds–in water and on land, in this physical world and in a spiritual world where the person you love the most—Jesus—cannot even be seen with physical eyes but only with eyes of faith.
Yes, your whole life, past, present, and future, is built firmly on the foundation of the unseen Christ (see 1 Peter 1:8,9), but you still swim in the waters of this world and breath the air of the present age culture. Sometimes (often?) we are not able to discriminate between what is the culture and what is the truth of God in Christ.
There used to be a time when culture was supportive of faith in Jesus because America embraced Christ if not in saving trust at least by tradition. But so much has changed in sixty years. Most of you under forty have no idea the seismic shift that has occurred.
I’m sure there are many factors why faith in the God of the Bible has waned in this country and impacted us spiritually, socially, psychologically. One reason could even be the old “melting pot” identity of America: when there is so much religious diversity, eventually it seems that all religions have become legitimate while the faith of many of the founding fathers has become the target of hatred and denigration. Tolerance is touted but intolerance is practiced. Go figure. Sounds like something Jesus warned us about.
The aim of today’s post is to consider how swimming in the waters of a post-Christian culture impacts you as a follower of the God who can only be seen by faith–as someone who believes that Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6),” and who asserts that “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12).”
Specifically, if we are born into our earthly culture and second by second continue to swim in its waters, how are we to be holy (“set apart”) from the world so as to be in the world but not of the world? “For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come” ~ Hebrews 13:14.
How can we walk by faith (live on land) while we swim in a world of physical senses (like an amphibian, live also in the water)? How can we love every man and woman around us because there are no “ordinary people” according to C.S. Lewis while at the same time “not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” ~ 1 John 2:15. How can we love Jesus but not love the dark, fallen world of Ephesians 2:1ff?
Okay, then, what are some specific things to be savvy about in this culture as a believer whose name is written in the book of life and is here for only a breath?
+ “When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild. But whoever obeys the law is joyful” ~ Proverbs 29:18, NLT. The New International Version words it a bit differently: “Where there is no revelation, people cast off restraint; but blessed is the one who heeds wisdom’s instruction.” Both translations point to the truth of our current culture: When God is marginalized and His revelation in Scripture is rejected, materialism, atheism, rebellion, and lawlessness becomes the new norm in this physical world. Increasingly, our current culture is rejecting Jesus. How, then, will men and women who bow down to a holy, righteous, and sovereignly authoritative God fit into this world? You won’t fit into it, because you are a world apart from the world around you. As we mentioned at the beginning today, you will always live with tension—if you truly love Jesus as your life. He is the loving Lawgiver who brings order and peace to a chaotic universe.
+ Isaiah 5:20,21 is true of the world we live in now: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil,
who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!” I would assume that many of you have seen how God’s moral truth has been turned upside down in this current culture. No wonder there is such a divide between the natural man and the spiritual man (1 Corinthians 2:12-16).
+ Sadly, more than in the early years of my life, I see Romans 1:18,19 being true of our world: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.” Even though all humans come equipped with the software in them that God exists and that they are made for Him, men and women naturally suppress this truth because they want to chart their own path. Do you remember Jeremiah 2:11-13?
“Has a nation changed its gods,
even though they are no gods?
But my people have changed their glory
for that which does not profit.
Be appalled, O heavens, at this;
be shocked, be utterly desolate,
declares the Lord,
for my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living waters,
and hewed out cisterns for themselves,
broken cisterns that can hold no water.”
Suppression is a critical component of our culture right now. Men and women suppress divine truth and make up their own subjective truth. Romans and Jeremiah spell the truth out very clearly that humans exchange the truth about God for their own idols.
+ When humans in our culture reject God, they must reject creation because it assumes a Creator. They cannot believe that God created the universe so they must duct tape collapsing theories such as evolution to explain why everything exists. When men and women embrace a godless, blind process where things accidentally mutate and are “created” through natural selection apart from any intelligent Designer, then humans are accidents. They certainly are not made in the imago Dei since there is no God, at least no God who has any authority over their human lives. What accompanies the rejection of God, then, is the loss of human exceptionalism. Humans are not special. They are mere animals just a rung higher than apes and whales that cannot compose a song, write a book, paint a picture, or make medical discoveries that might save both humans and whales. Where there is no God, humans are reduced to a mere collection of random atoms.
+ This point might be a bit controversial, but when human exceptionalism is lost, then other animals become as important as humans or even more important. In this post today I will mention only one animal species, namely, dogs. I don’t know if you have noticed it, but it seems that our culture increasingly worships animals such as dogs—maybe especially golden retrievers. Ha. Before you assume I am a dog hater, go back and read my post called The Death of Summer posted in late September 2021. I love dogs and can become very attached to them. But I also believe that when God and His truth is “suppressed” and exchanged for idols, love of animals can compete with love for humans. Maybe part of the problem is that the farther we move from God, the less we know how to love others. The unconditional love of dogs has become more attractive than the love of humans. And why not? Removed from God, the love of humans becomes selfish, manipulative, using, and even dangerous. Who wouldn’t choose a Golden Retriever? Maybe it all goes back to the philosopher (his name escapes me) who said that DOG and GOD are only different because of the order of the letters in their name.
+ In our culture—in the universe in general—people today are more apt to project their badness onto others. Humans naturally are so good at blaming, pointing the finger, scapegoating, gaslighting to take the attention off their own badness, and seeking to take the speck out of someone else’s eye while ignoring the log that is in their own. This projection of badness into others is the only option available to people when they do not come to Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins. As I have mentioned in other posts, there are only two things people must do in this world, namely, find the object of their desire that will fill their inherent emptiness and get rid of their badness. Jesus is the only answer to both objectives. If people reject Him as so many are doing in our culture today, they must seek lesser desires that will leave them forever hungry and restless, and they can only remove their badness by placing it onto available scapegoats whether that be in political arenas, marriages, schools, friendships, or even God Himself.
+ Mental illness and addictions are common in our culture because of relational breakdown with God, others, and our own selves. Addictions are pursued to feel pleasure, self-comfort, and escape from the current world that is so bereft of love, peace, and the comfort that comes with loving presence.
+ Respect for authority is declining in a world that does not respect God’s authority. If people refuse to obey God, how will they obey (respectable) human authority whether it be parents, teachers, law enforcement, bosses, political figures, or even church leaders? Rebellion, anarchy, refusal to submit, and hatred of moral boundaries and accountability is rampant in our world that is growing farther from God by the minute.
+ An apparent symptom of our post-Christian culture is the frightening ability to deny truth and pronounce lies as if they are truth. Truth seems to be a forgotten part of the moral fabric of our world. People often say what they want to say regardless of the truth. We can even pronounce over our own bodies what gender we are when every gene in our body screams the evidence that we are lying to ourselves. Subjectivism kills objective truth. Opinion eclipses reality. What is the old saying? “All things are thinkable and even “speakable” but not all things are livable or even true.” God’s word teaches us truth that is the source of peace and love and joy and forgiveness.
+ Speaking of God’s word, many in our culture want to ban the Bible because it is the last thing standing between them and the freedom to do whatever they wish to do. Believer, be prepared for the coming day (is it here already?) when the Bible will be found a sexist, racist, gender-freedom hating book and will be outlawed here in America. Yes, banned.
So, what are we to do as lovers of Jesus living in a culture that hates God and His word and instead chooses lying, disrespect for authority, idols that provide fleeting pleasure even at the cost of addiction and death, blaming others, loving dogs more than people, and calling evil good and good evil?
The answer is simple: Love. Love Jesus as your true north in a world lost in darkness and love others as Jesus modeled for you. Don’t run from the world. For sure, long for Jesus’ return. Keep your eyes fixed on the eastern sky for His second coming. But be in the world. Love others who will yet come to believe in Him. The only thing you can take to heaven with you is other people. So, don’t hoard your faith. Share it as oxygen in an airless world.
You are different from the world around you—an eternity different. But that difference is granted you by God through grace. Humbly and with the heart of a servant, be the vessel of His grace to those around you. As we have seen so often in the political arena lately, don’t harangue and criticize and hate those who disagree with you even if they do those things to you. Love your enemy. Invite them over for supper. Give back better than you are given.
Be Jesus to the world, He who is the friend of sinners.
We don’t know if all dogs go to heaven, but we know that God’s desire for all men and women is that they will be with Him in heaven. As it is written in 2 Peter 3, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”
As it is also written in 1 Timothy 2:3,4, “This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” ~ 1 Timothy 2:3,4.
So, know that you are swimming in a world where many will love their dog more than you or their Creator. Remember that you are in the world but not of the world. Be set apart from the world but love men and women with your life. Don’t judge but strive to seek and save the lost by God’s grace.
Be different than those who love this world. Walk with eyes of faith so that you will see Jesus first and foremost and then see and love everyone else through His eyes.
“Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls” ~ 1 Peter 1:8,9
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus . . .” ~ Ephesians 2:1ff