Hi Men,
This is Gary Yagel. This is the fourth episode in our summer series, Meeting the Worldview Challenges in a Broken Culture, in which we repeat past episodes that are vital for men leading their families in 2023. Today’s episode was recorded about 3 years ago, just before the 2020 election. It addresses the despair Christians often feel over the loss of influence in our culture and the temptation to give up fighting for truth to prevail. More precisely, it addresses the confusing use of the term world in the NT as both something we should love because God loved it so much that he gave his son to die in order to redeem it, and something John commanded us NOT to love, “Love not the world, neither the things of this world.” Faithfulness to our master requires that we NOT get these two uses of world confused. And now, the past episode from November 2020:
A lot of people are looking forward to getting this Tuesday behind us because we are so tired of the furious political brawling going on at every level of our culture. No matter how the election turns out, many weary Christians are disheartened as they try to battle for truth in our culture. The thought crosses our minds, “Why battle for truth in a world that hates you? After all, Jesus was clear to his disciples, If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Why bother trying to shape our election based on arguing for biblical principles. Since the world hates us, why would they listen? Why don’t we just withdraw into our own Christian cocoon, and await Christ’s return? Why fight for spiritual truth in a world that is heading to hell and destruction? After all, John commanded us not to love the world, nor any of the things of the world. James taught that friendship with the world is enmity with God, and Paul told us that Satan, the God of this world, has blinded unbelievers to the truth. Why beat our heads against the wall and try to get the world to listen to us on cultural issues? Capitulating to this argument is tempting. But yielding to it would lead to utter FAILURE to complete the mission assigned to us by Christ. This episode explains why.
This episode concludes our series, “Surrounding Our Loved Ones with the Belt of Truth.” We’ve seen repeatedly that human logic and sound reasoning obliterate so called “logical” objections to Christianity like, Science Disproves the Existence of God, or How Could a Good God Allow so Much Suffering, or There Can’t Be Just One True Religion, or You Can’t Take the Bible Literally. BUT WHY BOTHER MAKING THESE ARGUMENTS. Since the world hates us, why would they listen? Such an argument for Christians to withdraw from culture has caused enormous damage to America over the last hundred years and in my view is responsible for the loss of much of the biblical influence that once shaped American thinking.
FOUR REASONS WITHDRAWAL FROM THE CULTURE IS WRONG
A. Reason #1. God’s very first command in the whole Bible to humans is Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth (Gen 1:28). As image bearers of God, Adam and Eve are created to be kings and queens over earth. They are to discover and unleash the potential God has put into planet earth, causing the earth and those humans God placed on the earth to flourish. They were to build culture; they were to turn the untamed garden into a beautiful, garden city. Out of love for God—allegiance to him—they were to rule over this process as his vice-regents, shaping that culture to please Him, according to the moral law of God written on their heart. God’s moral will on earth was to be done as it is in heaven. This command to the first humans was never abrogated by Jesus. Jesus did not undo this command but built upon it.
B. Reason #2. The second reason cultural withdrawal is wrong is that it is based on a misunderstanding of the term, world, in Scripture. Here is the background behind this term. When Adam and Eve joined Satan’s alliance to rebel against the High King, they unleashed the power of Satan, sin, and death upon kingdom earth. Adam and Eve’s kingdom has now become a realm where two loves, two allegiances compete. The great theologian, Augustine, describes human existence since the fall as two kingdoms existing side by side, which he likens to cities. He says, Accordingly, two cities have been formed by two loves: the earthly by the love of self, even to the contempt of God; the heavenly by the love of God, even to the contempt of self (City of God.) The biblical term for this “earthly city” is the world.
This is very confusing because world can mean, “the earth with its inhabitants and all things upon it.” Scripture often uses “world” with this meaning, e.g. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God (Ps 90:2). But Webster also tells us world can mean, “the concerns of the earth and its affairs as distinguished from heaven and the life to come.” So, “the world” can refer to a system of thinking, a way of life that contrasts to the way of life in heaven. In other words, the term, world is used in Scripture BOTH for the sphere of human life on earth where the clash of two kingdoms takes place and as a synonym for one of the two kingdoms, i.e. the kingdom of darkness, i.e. the City of Man, the attitudes and perspective of sin—to a way of life shaped by the love of self to the contempt of God in contrast to a way of life shaped by the love of God, to the contempt of self.
This second definition of world as contrasting with the righteous life of heaven is the meaning of the world in John 15:19: Because I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. In this verse, the term, world, DOES NOT REFER TO OUR CURRENT CULTURE but to the kingdom of darkness at work in the culture. Again, the world does NOT refer to the non-Christians around me or the Internet, but the system of thinking—the worldview, the values of the lost world, the thinking and behavior that contrast to the righteous way of life in heaven. Here are some examples of this frequent use of the term, world, in the NT.
- 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 (Eph 2:1).
- He said to them, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world” (John 8:23).
- Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out (John 12:31).
- But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. (Gal 6:4)
- 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 (Eph 2:2).
- Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. (James 1:27).
- We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one (1 John 5:19).
Withdrawal from the culture is wrong because it is based on a misunderstanding of the term, world. We are to turn our backs on the enticement and values of the fallen world but not on the sphere of human existence where this battle is taking place (culture) or on those being harmed by Satan and sin’s attacks.
C. Reason #3. Jesus reaffirmed God’s command to Adam and Eve in Genesis 1 to shape culture, subduing the earth in a way that pleases the High King when he calls his followers to make disciples of the nations. The Great Commission begins with the words, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.” After sin entered the world, humans only have the power to fulfill this creation calling in the power of Christ, the Second Adam who at the cross redeemed Adam’s kingdom from its slavery to Satan Sin, and Death. In fact, Jesus taught his followers that recovering and pursuing this calling is their highest priority. He commanded “seek first the kingdom of God and his rightness-for-creation” (which is what the term righteousness means). We are called to seek the rule of Christ’s moral law in every sphere of life—starting with our own hearts, and accomplishing Christ’s agenda in our heart attitudes, marriages, families, workplaces, neighborhoods, and nation.
We do this, however, not by military conquest, i.e. forcing that law on citizens (which is called theonomy). Christianity’s view of kingdom expansion is the opposite of radical Islam’s pursuit of the Caliphate, which practices jihad in slaughtering religious opponents and forcing Sharia Law on those who survive. Rather, Jesus repudiated the use of force, saying My kingdom is not of this world, and teaching that his kingdom grows not through political coercion but through Christians’ influence in the culture as salt, light, and leaven which spreads over the earth. Tuesday’s election is an opportunity for us to demonstrate that influence through voting, although our calling to shape culture in a fallen world goes way beyond voting. Christ came to restore everything that is broken in creation, and we are called to join him in this endeavor. What is our motivation? That leads to the fourth reason not to withdraw from the world.
D. Reason #4. The fourth reason faithful Christians cannot withdraw from the world is that we are to have God’s love for the world (the sphere of lost people). For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Here is the point.
- When Jesus says to us, Because I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you (John 15:19), he is NOT saying that Christians are universally hated by NON-CHRISTIANS. We are hated by the City of Man—by the ruler of this world, by the system of rebellion, humanism, and sin that both pulls on our heart strings to lure us and seeks to attack and destroy us. The average non-Christian is lost, hurting, and open to the love of Christ, like the woman at the well of Samaria. After leading her to himself, the only one whose love would ever really satisfy her soul, Jesus commanded his disciples, Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest (John 4:35). He was probably referring to the many Samaritan’s wearing their white tunics coming down to the well to find out more about this man “who told the woman everything she ever did.” For we read, Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony (vs 39). JESUS DOES NOT WANT US TO THINK OF THE LOST AS THE WORLD THAT HATES US. I want to say that again, WHEN JESUS TELLS US THE WORLD WILL HATE US, HE IS NOT SAYING THAT NON-CHRISTIANS HATE US. The world and the lost are not identical.
- Our current culture is not synonymous with the term world. Rather our current culture is the place where the clash between two cities and the values of two kingdoms takes place and we are called not to withdraw from that battle but to fight wisely. In the model Jesus gave us for daily prayer, he teaches us to implore God, May your kingdom come. May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. May the earth—Adam and Eve’s kingdom—be transformed, be restored to rightness—the righteousness of heaven. May we, those who follow Christ in his conquest of the kingdom of light over the kingdom of darkness prosper as we seek to follow Adam’s command to shape culture in a way that pleases the High King.
- The command not to be the world’s friend does NOT mean, “don’t befriend non-Christians, which is exactly what Jesus did do; it means to not be on the world’s wide path that leads to destruction—not to value the approval of those pursuing a way of life that is sinful. Jesus came into the world, meaning the sphere where human life is lived and culture is formed to seek and to save the lost. Christians can never follow Jesus and think they should separate from life in this world. In the same prayer in which Jesus said, “the world will hate you,” Jesus prayed to the Father, I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one... As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.
- Love not the world, means, “don’t set your affections on temporal things”; it does NOT mean, “don’t enjoy the pleasures of sex, beauty, eating, music, drama, creation.” God loves his world. It is a mirror of his glory and you can’t love him without seeing him in and delighting in his creation. It is his creation that Christ died to redeem. In fact, God loves his world so much that he extends common grace to unbelievers to preserve and protect his creation. This truth means that many times, non-Christians hold biblical values; the moral law is written on their hearts. Therefore, non-believers are NOT the enemy. Not only are they neighbors to be loved; they are fellow shapers of the culture, many of whose values (because of common grace), Christians often share.
We began this series Encircling Our Loved Ones with the Belt of Truth, by arguing that as men we are called to lead the way as warriors for the truth. For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God. The past four episodes passed on the logical answer to objections to Christianity that our loved ones might hear. But the purpose for them knowing these arguments is to give them confidence in their faith and equip them to articulate logical responses to various objections to Christianity. Even as they do this, Scripture provides wisdom for how to do so: Prov 16: 21 says, the wise of heart is called discerning, and sweetness of speech increases persuasiveness. Prov 16:24 observes, Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body. Helping our loved ones know how reason supports the Christian faith is not done to load their spiritual guns with bullets to shoot down their ENEMY, their awful secular teacher or non-Christian enemy on Facebook who doesn’t hold the same views. This lesson is vital to make sure our children don’t think that non-Christians, secular schools, liberal college professors, or friends posting opposing political views are our enemy, THE WORLD THAT JESUS SAID HATES US. They are not. They are lost folks who need Jesus, who reflect the lost views of a fallen culture that needs Jesus.
Tony Campolo tells the story of visiting Honolulu, Hawaii and meeting a “worldly” woman named Agnes. Not being able to sleep because of jet lag, he had gotten up and found a greasy spoon restaurant that was still open at 3:30 in the morning. A few minutes later, in walked 8 or 9 boisterous, half-dressed prostitutes. Tony overheard one of them, Agnes, say, “Tomorrow’s my birthday. I’m going to be 39.”
Her friend answered nastily, “So what do you want from me a birthday party. Ya want me to get you a cake and sing, “Happy Birthday?”
Agnes responded, “Why do you have to be so mean. I was just telling you, that’s all. I don’t want anything from you. I’ve never had a birthday party in my whole life, why would expect one now?”
Campolo, overhearing this conversation, waited until the women had left. Then he asked the owner, “Do they come in here every night?”
“Yeah!” He answered.
“Does Agnes come in every night.”
“Yeah, Agnes comes in here every night. Why d’ya want to know?”
“Because I heard that tomorrow is her birthday—What do you say you and I throw her a birthday party right here tomorrow night?”
He answered, “That’s great I like it.” Then calling to his wife, he shouted, “Come out here. This guy’s got a great idea. Tomorrow is Agnes’s birthday. This guy wants us to go in with him and throw a birthday for her right here tomorrow night.”
His wife must have gotten the word out on the street because at 3:15 AM every prostitute in Honolulu was in the place. It was wall to wall prostitutes and Tony. At 3:30 Agnes and her friends swung open the door and everyone screamed “Happy Birthday.”
Campolo writes, “Never have I seen someone so flabbergasted…so stunned. Her mouth fell open. Her legs seemed to buckle a bit. As she was led to sit on the stools by the counter, we all sang “Happy Birthday” to her. She was tearing up but as the birthday cake with all the candles on it was carried out, she lost it and just began to sob.”
Harry, the owner, urged her, “Blow out the candles and cut the cake.” But Agnes just couldn’t do it. So Harry blew them out and handed her a knife, saying “Yo Agnes, we all want some cake.”
Agnes looked down at the cake. Then without taking her eyes off of it, she slowly and softly said, “Look Harry, is it all right with you if I…I mean is it O.K. if I kind of….what I want to ask you is…is it okay if I keep the cake a little while. I mean is it alright if I don’t eat it right away.”
Harry shrugged and answered, “Sure it’s O.K. If you want to keep the cake, keep the cake. Take it home if you want to.”
“Can I?” she asked. Then looking at Tony she said, “I just live down the street a couple of doors. I want to take the cake home, I’ll be right back, honest.”
She got off her stool and carrying the cake like it was the Holy Grail, she walked out the door. There was stunned silence in the place. Not knowing what else to do, Tony broke the silence by saying, “What do you say I pray?” So, he thanked God for Agnes and prayed that she might come to know the love of Christ.
When he finished praying, Harry leaned over the counter and with a trace of hostility in his voice, he said, “Hey! You never told me you were a preacher. What kind of church do you belong to?”
Campolo answered, “I belong to a church that throws birthday parties for whores at 3:30 in the morning.”
Harry waited a moment and then answered, “No you don’t. There’s no church like that. If there were, I’d join it. I’d join a church like that!”
That’s the kind of church that Jesus did come to create. It is a church full of strong men who step up to fight for their loved ones, to encircle them with the Belt of Truth, but who never get confused about who the enemy is. The enemy is the God of this world, his lies raised up against the knowledge of God, and the rebellion that he inspired against God. It is NOT the wounded humans enslaved by those lies, trying to find love in a world so broken that a 39-year-old woman has never had anyone love her enough to give her a birthday party.
For Further Prayerful Thought:
- How would you explain the paradox that John commands us NOT to love the world, but in another sense, Christ-followers are to follow Jesus example who did love the world so much that he came into this world to fix everything broken by sin?
- What do you think are the 3 best reasons why Christians should not withdraw from the battle to shape culture?
- Why is it important to not think of non-Christians, secular schools or the social media as “the enemy?”
