culture and mission...part 2

Think of the new testament church.

They lived a lifestyle and held a worldview that was dramatically opposed to the culture around them. They gave their very lives to stand up against injustice, unrighteousness, hatred and all kinds of immorality – but more importantly – they stood primarily for the gospel of Christ. The truth.

The whole point of it was Jesus, they cried out the name of Jesus as they were martyred and persecuted. Not in the name of a just cause or a political agenda or even a hippy dream for peace and love. But the name of Jesus.

They lived purposefully to kill the inherited culture within themselves, but entered the culture of those around them in order to save it, to see it transformed into the image of God, not of Caesar. Definitely not naïve, but wise in the ways of the world, every act and every word spoken; they proclaimed a better way of living life. The way of Jesus.

Yet somehow they were not irrelevant. Quite the opposite. They truly lived within their culture but not of it. they didn’t shun those around them, but came alongside them and showed them how life was meant to be lived. Not under the empire, but within the kingdom of God. Their relevance was not found in their close resemblance to the pervading culture, but precisely in their difference. It became infectious.

They didn’t do violence to the culture around them, but they took it by force. By love. And by truth. Love without truth excuses a multitude of sins, but love with truth covers a multitude of sins, leading to repentance, wrenching them out of wicked ways into the righteousness of Christ Jesus. A clean slate. A new beginning. New creations ushering in heaven on earth.

‘amazing grace, that saved a wretch like me’