Culture is the Backdrop for the Real Story

by Jim Elliff June 7, 2018

Christians, God is infinitely more concerned about the heart, faith, behavior and unity of true believers in our country than the politics, economics, social trends, racial tensions, sexual downgrade, and international relations of the country.

But that does not mean these things have no meaning or present no concern at all.

We learn about this priority of God for the true church above culture from examining the emphasis of the New Testament during the time when Christianity was not conjoined to the Roman state as it later would be. We see the global and eternal plan of God through His chosen people gathered in local churches as they intersected with the state and culture at many junctures, and impacted it powerfully, even when the church was young. As far as God was concerned, we see in the writings that the churches had an importance far above what was in the Roman world around it and that God concentrated his interest on it and chose to reach out through it.

This means that the culture is the backdrop for the real story. And, because it is God’s primary interest, he will use believers as a display of his love and beauty in contrast to the society, and will lovingly provide through its voice the only reasonable answer for the self-centeredness and wickedness that will otherwise always characterize it.

This priority of the church should be seen in the things we do and say. We should prioritize it as God does, and seek its beauty and growth and its perfect design for mercifully portraying Christ to others.

Editor's Note: This post originally appeared at CCWToday.org and is used with permission.