{"id":4775,"date":"2010-02-25T16:44:52","date_gmt":"2010-02-25T21:44:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/example.org\/what-in-the-world"},"modified":"2010-02-25T16:44:52","modified_gmt":"2010-02-25T21:44:52","slug":"what-in-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/2010\/02\/what-in-the-world.html","title":{"rendered":"What in the world?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"asset asset-image at-xid-6a00d83524c19a69e20120a8d4853e970b alignleft\" style=\"margin: 0px 5px 5px 0px; width: 239px; height: 249px; border: 0px;\" title=\"Earth_from_space\" alt=\"Earth_from_space\" src=\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/6a00d83524c19a69e20120a8d4853e970b-800wi.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/> &#8220;My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world&#8221;<\/em> (John 17:15-18 NIV).<\/p>\n<p>When the Bible talks about the &#8220;world,&#8221; it is almost always referring to human culture. And as we&#8217;ve been discussing these past weeks, the culture has been bent by human sin. The culture is crooked.<\/p>\n<p>So, what in the world do we do in response to living in a crooked culture?<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\">Almost half a century ago, H. Richard Niebuhr&#8217;s book, <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Christ and Culture<\/span>, laid down a framework of five typical answers to the question. In the book, Niebuhr gave a history of how Christianity has responded to culture. He outlined five prevalent viewpoints:<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Christ against culture.<\/strong> Following Christ alone, we reject the culture. We become separatists from culture.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Christ of culture.<\/strong> Affirming both Christ and culture, we become accomodationists of culture.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Christ above culture.<\/strong> Believing that neither a blank rejection or acceptance of culture is in order, we attempt a synthesis of both.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Christ and culture in paradox.<\/strong> Believing that we live in dual kingdoms, we attempt to live in both, while at the same time recognizing their differences. We become dualists.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Christ transforming culture.<\/strong> While similar to the dualist&#8217;s view of two kingdoms, this view believes that culture can be improved and that a holy Christian community on earth is possible.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As I studied Niebuhr&#8217;s book in seminary, I saw\u00a0things I could affirm\u00a0in all five responses to culture. I know Christians throughout history have struggled with this question.<\/p>\n<p>The church of my youth came closest to Niebuhr&#8217;s first category, Christ against culture. We heard sermons on the evils of TV and Rock and Roll. We were challenged to watch our hair styles (&#8220;The Bible says it&#8217;s a shame for a man to have long hair.&#8221;) and our dress code (&#8220;Women shouldn&#8217;t wear pants.&#8221;). Our church represented a cultural island within the larger American culture. I tried to live in both, but often felt schizophrenic in the attempt. There had to be a better way to live.<\/p>\n<p>I want to live in the world the way Jesus did. I\u00a0can think of\u00a0at least three metaphors that Jesus taught that can shape our response to today&#8217;s culture.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Be like salt.<\/strong> Jesus tells us that we are the &#8220;salt of the earth.&#8221; Salt does many things. It adds flavor. It has healing properties. It\u00a0can be used as a preservative. \u00a0Like salt, we are to be influencers of the culture&#8217;s flavor. We are to be healers of the culture&#8217;s wounds and preservers of that which is good.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Be like light.<\/strong> Jesus tell us that we are the &#8220;light of the world.&#8221; Light\u00a0gives sight and exposes the darkness. We are to share the truth about the gospel and expose falsehood in the culture.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Be fruitful.<\/strong>\u00a0 Jesus tells us that we are to bear &#8220;much fruit.&#8221; We are to do good in the world just as He did. We are to bear the fruit of being God&#8217;s children, showing the world God&#8217;s goodness.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If we&#8217;re going to be salt, then we&#8217;ll have to mix it up with the world to affect its flavor. If we&#8217;re going to be light, then we&#8217;ll have to shine bright, so the world can see. If we&#8217;re going to be fruitful, then we&#8217;re going to have to devote ourselves to doing good in this world of need.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ll have to live in this world where Jesus sent us just like God sent Him.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1718,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2060,2061,1,2062],"tags":[],"location":[],"class_list":["post-4775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs","category-religion","category-uncategorized","category-weblogs"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4775"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=4775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}