what we wear?
what we listen to?
what we watch?
who our friends are?
It’s nearly 4:00 AM as I write this. No matter what I do to try and change my sleeping habits, lately, I find myself most comfortable as a night owl. Anyways, I was flipping through channels and came across a pastor who said something that made my ears perk up a bit:
America needs change, and in order to change America, we have to change culture first. We need a Christian culture! The problem is, we’ve got so many Christians trying to blend in with their existing cultures, that you can’t tell who’s a Christian and who isn’t. We’re supposed to be different, peculiar. We’re salt and light, that city on a hill which can’t be hidden.
Hmmm…… I’m no Bobby Flay, but last time I checked, the purpose of salt is to enhance the food in which it is used. No salt, and the flavors are rather bland, blending together in a seamless, cardboard-like taste. Use too much and the dish becomes offensive and inedible. In other words, salt is supposed to blend in with the other ingredients and change the dish from the inside out. Much like salt, light, when used properly, is one of man’s greatest tools. The sun lights our days, and the moon our nights. Artificial lights allow us to see regardless of the time of day or the conditions outside, and if all else fails, we’ve got fire. But like salt, when there is too much light, it becomes offensive; hence inventions such as sun visors, baseball caps, sunglasses and tinted windows.
If there is one thing we, as Christians, can learn from the past 60 years of Christianity, it’s that rejecting the culture of the world and creating our own sub-culture has done nothing but separate and alienate us from the very people we are called to reach (Matthew 28:18-20). I’m not saying that it’s wrong to have Christian music, Christian movies, Christian fiction or Christian schools. Nor am I saying you shouldn’t avoid certain things – I’d bet we’ve all become a bit desensitized by the rampant and unnecessary use of sex and violence in entertainment. Even PG movies have a little bit of both. But the way we run from culture and hide in our Christian bubble, thinking sin can’t get to us in there, is ridiculous. It’s akin to the little kid that takes his ball and runs home because he didn’t get his way. All it does is further separate us from sinners, and whether you like it or not, the gospel isn’t going to preach itself.
So to finish up where the title begins, the world won’t know us because of what we wear, or what we listen to, or what we watch, or who we hang out with, because all those things are outward. I can change my shirt almost as quickly as I can change the channel on the TV. Christ said that all people will know we are His disciples by our love (John 13:34-35).
