In Genesis 2:15, we are told that Adam was placed in the Garden to cultivate (AVAD) it and to protect (SHAMAR) it. Throughout history it has been a man’s responsibility to stand in the doorway of his home, spear or shotgun in hand to protect (SHAMAR) his wife and kids from marauding gangs who might steal their food, rape their wife, or harm their children. In the 21st century, men have the same protective responsibility; but the enemies to be resisted are not ravaging pirates or plundering thieves, but ideas that want to take our loved ones captive, ravage their faith, and ruin their lives. This battlefield of the mind is described by Paul, who writes, We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. This episode begins a series to equip men to protect their loved ones from strands of ungodly thinking in the fabric of today’s culture and guide them, instead, into biblical worldviews.
Twenty years ago, I had reached a real point of frustration in my ministry as a church planter and pastor. I realized that by calling men to be the spiritual leaders of their homes, God had given men responsibility for the well being of their wives and placed men in a position of enormous influence to shape their kid’s lives. But pastors, (including myself), weren’t telling them HOW to do that. Being in a position to see the results of men’s failure to be spiritual leaders in their homes, we pastors would say loudly, “Men love your wives as Christ loved the church and be the dad your kids need,”—but nobody was telling men HOW. I couldn’t blame other pastors. I, myself, with the load of weekly preaching and all the other responsibilities of a senior pastor could not find the time I wanted to focus on helping men be the spiritual leaders of their homes. That is why I left a church I loved, with four of my five kids in a great youth group there, to start this men’s ministry.
This story comes to mind, as we begin the new series, “Guiding Our Loved Ones into a Biblical Worldview.” The biblical foundation and necessity for this series is Romans 12:2, Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. The more I have meditated upon the first half of this command, “Do not be conformed to this world,” the more it dawns on me that Christians must identify what the ungodly ideas ARE that are squeezing believers today into their mold. And this is practically a fulltime job. How can dads even begin to identify, understand, and protect their kids from these ungodly cultural pressures? After all, most men charged with being the spiritual leader of their homes, HAVE JOBS!!! Staying current on how harmful ideas in our culture are shaping the rising generation, not to mention wrestling with how to winsomely guide them into seeing the glory of the biblical world view seems to be an impossible assignment.
That is the reason for this ministry, this podcast, and this series. I need to do the hard work of keeping up with Christian worldview thinking and current cultural analysis, digest what is being said, think about its implications for the men who are assigned the job of protecting their kids from the destructive ideas that are catechizing our kids, and pass those thoughts on to you in 22 minutes per week. This is an intimidating ask. But fathers must be equipped to protect their children from harmful, shaping influences in the culture that is squeezing them into its mold and guide them to embrace the far superior wisdom of God, which is truth, itself—that which conforms to the realities of life. Let’s return to the biblical foundation for this calling to equip our kids to see the deficiencies of ungodly worldviews and guide them into biblical truth. It is Romans 12:1-2: I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect (Rom 12:1-2).
In chapters 1-11 Paul has proclaimed in all its fullness the gospel—the good news that righteousness is from God, not from men. God is the source of the imputed righteousness we need to be justified—saved from the PENALTY of our past sin, to be sanctified—saved from the POWER of our present sin, and to be glorified, saved from the PRESENCE of future sin. Because of God’s mercy for us, summarized in these 11 chapters what is our response to be? To lay our bodies on the altar in gratefulness to God—a response to God’s love of whole-hearted adoration for him. But as we saw last week, God’s love language is obedience. So, the first practical command Paul gives us is this:
DON’T BE CONFORMED TO THIS WORLD
A. What is the meaning of the term this world? The Greek word used here is AION from which we get eon, i.e. an age or a period of time. It refers to the wrong cultural values of our age, which Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:6-7 are doomed to pass away in contrast to the wisdom that God decreed before the ages. It is the combination of ungodly forces within the culture that Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:4 result from the fact that the god of this word has blinded the minds of unbelievers. The term, world, refers to any culture’s elements—its values, perspective, and thinking—contributed by the sinful nature of humans who are darkened in their understanding (Eph 4:18).
It is essential to understand that the term this world refers to the fallen thinking, misguided perspectives, and sinful values that are part of the amalgam that defines the culture in any given society in history. Contrary to what some have mistakenly taught many Bible-believing people, the world that we are not to be conformed to is NOT today’s entire culture, which would require separating from it, but the false worldviews within the culture that are ungodly. How could Paul command Christians to withdraw from culture when the very purpose of God in creating humans in Genesis 1 is to shape culture?
It is easy to read John’s words, Do not LOVE THE WORLD or the things in the world. If anyone loves the WORLD, the love of the Father is not in him (1 John 2:15) and mistakenly conclude that Christians need to be very wary of the non-Christian influence everywhere around them. But that can’t possibly be the meaning of “love not the world,” because God so LOVED THE (fallen) WORLD that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). To love not the world has never meant withdraw from everyday life with non-Christians and the culture they are shaping either because they might contaminate us with their sin, or as a statement that we disapprove something in their life. Fallen humans designed to shape culture still bear God’s moral image. Common grace ensures that part of the culture they build will reflect God’s righteousness. But our race’s sinful rebellion against God ensures that part of what they build will be evil.
A look at the command, “love not the world” in context reveals that in the next verse John says to resist specific parts of the culture, i.e. three parts of fallen culture that pull on human heartstrings. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. Those are the elements of John’s culture that he taught Christ-followers to resist. So, the Bible teaches that it is the sinful strands in the culture that mankind builds, that are to be resisted—not everyday life in that culture.
B. There is a very big biblical reason for Christians to understand what CULTURE is and how it shapes us. The word, culture, comes from Adam’s assignment by God to cultivate (AVAD) the garden. Building culture is not some liberal theologian’s idea, but God’s purpose for Adam. Brett Kunkle, who coauthored the book, A Practical Guide to Culture, with John Stonestreet of the Colson Center, likens helping our kids successfully navigate today’s culture to helping them surf successfully. Brett grew up a surfer. He writes,
As a surfing dad, I’ve dreamed of the day when my kids will paddle out to the lineup and catch waves on their own, with me cheering them on. But the ocean can be a punishing place. Pounding waves can give them such a beating, they may never want to go back in the ocean. So, there are steps I must take now to protect and prepare my kids for waves I hope one day they’ll ride on their own. As Christian dads, John and I dream of the day our kids will wade out into the culture and impact the world for Christ. But like ocean waves the culture can be a punishing place too. How many kids do you know who have been raised in the church only to be lost to the world after (and sometimes before) they leave home? How many Christian students, who seem to be grounded in the faith, end up making poor decisions that harm themselves and others? (Ibid).
Some parents live in denial about the dangers of the cultural waters their preteens and teens are navigating right now. They are allowing them to dive headfirst into the dangerous cultural riptides all week long, because they are safe in their youth group on shore one day a week or in their Christian school five of the sixteen hours of their day. Others think total protection is the answer, never allowing them to dip their toe in the water—the true teen culture—until they’re out on their own. To make matters worse, the cultural storms seem to be blowing more violently than ever. Kunkle and Stonestreet continue, It’s always rough out there, but the palpable sense of many American Christians—especially parents—is that the cultural currents have shifted and intensified. The past few years have brought a tsunami of change, and not for the better. One issue after another after another hits us like a series of waves at high tide. We wonder if and how our kids can keep their heads above water, much less live the sort of flourishing Christian lives we hope they will.
So, like the ocean, culture is all around us. Culture is the water we swim in. Like the ocean, culture has both invisible undercurrents and visible waves. In this series we want to equip dads to recognize both the undercurrents that are shaping our culture and the specific tidal waves—the destructive worldviews that are rocking our world. But remember, the WRONG solution is to abandon the very purpose for which God created humans--engaging and shaping culture. We are not to run away from this task that God assigned to Adam and Eve. Every other generation in history has had to wrestle to with living IN the world (to shape it) but not be OF the world (shaped by it). Human culture has always been shaped both by human fallenness and by human redemption. Separating ourselves from culture is irresponsibly being AWOL from our God-assigned post. For the moment, though, let’s leave the ocean analogy to look at HOW the world squeezes us and our loved ones into its mold. Remember the command is to resist BEING CONFORMED to the world. Here are additional metaphors for the way culture conforms us.
1. Being squeezed into a mold. The J.B. Phillips translation captures this command in Romans 12:2 exceptionally well. Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold but let God re-mold your minds from within. There is a sense in which humans are like wet cement. There is much that is unchangeable created into us, like our gender, but there is much about us that remains to be shaped. The most significant mold that shapes us is our worldview. “Our worldview, whether or not we are consciously aware of it, informs our actions in the world and our interactions with others. It consists of our deeply held beliefs about God, morality, and the nature of reality.” Poured concrete basements in our area have now replaced cinderblock as the foundational structure of homes. The forms used to shape the home’s foundation are like the cultural values that shape us. There are subtle, unseen, foundational elements of our cultural mix that are shaping the rising generation. For example, consider transgenderism. Throughout history, truth was understood to be outside of ourselves, to which humans must adapt (which happens to be correct). But those promoting the transgender movement today say that the truth about your gender identify is rooted in how you feel.
2. Wanting Desperately to get an A on the test. God designed humans to enjoy an everyday love relationship with him. Humans seem designed to need everyday reassurance of God’s unconditional love, the way an astronaut outside the Space Station needs an oxygen lifeline. Sin broke that connection, making us all insecure, uncertain about ourselves, and driven to perform so we will “measure up.” Every subculture has its own test questions. Getting an A+ rating in the public arena means saying what is politically correct. The teen’s group of friends has an unwritten test of what it takes to be approved by the group. When I was in college, I dated a girl who liked classical music. My parents were shocked that I wanted some classical music for Christmas!
3. Joining the military. Quickly, a new recruit finds out what is expected of his new society. He is rewarded by conforming to the rules and punished for violating them. He is held accountable. Like a football team that reviews the films from the previous game, he is routinely evaluated by superior officers and sometimes by peers. This pressure is deliberate. One of my friends in the Marine Corps told me that boot camp is designed to eliminate the independent streak that most men have who come into the corps. Whether we like it or not, every set of relationships in our lives has its own set of values that determine acceptable behavior within that circle. One of the strongest of human motivations is to belong. So, what the group values, we value.
4. Being a chameleon, which is a lizard that changes its colors according to its surroundings. God designed into humans a need for human relationship with others. It is not good that man should be alone, said God. We need others’ acceptance not their rejection. No human wants to endure feelings directed towards him because he is weird. A big part of culture’s role is to tells us what is “normal.”
The power of what we experience as normal, though largely unnoticed until we experience a different, “normal” cannot be overstated. In fact cultural norms determine much of our daily lives: our schedules, what we like and don’t like, what we buy, what we eat, and how we spend our money….To summarize, cultures consist of those products of human activity that have collectively taken on a life of their own. The worlds we create powerfully influence our lives by convincing us of what is normal (Ibid).
Paul tells us not to be conformed to ungodly strands woven into our culture’s fabric that pressure us into conformity. The first thing required for obedience is to identify those false ideas. As this series continues, we will examine many of those specific mistaken worldviews that are taking teens and young adults (and maybe US!) captive in our culture. As the series examines broken worldviews, our goal is not to load our kids’ guns with biblical ammo to shoot down the non-Christian worldview. Rather, it is to fill them with confidence in God’s Word and the goodness of his commands. We want their confidence to empower them to love well the non-Christians around them, feel confident to ask questions to discover what their Muslim or LGBTQ friend believes, and perhaps winsomely give a reason for the hope that is within them.
I’ve spent the past month promoting a book I wrote to help parents to guide their kids into the biblical view of sexuality and gender. This specific material is in other podcast episodes. But it illustrates the approach we will take in this podcast to other cultural issues. In the book, I first call parents to let their kids see them loving their relative, neighbor, or friend in the LGBTQ life well before criticizing the worldview of the LGBTQ movement. I then identify the Gender Unicorn graphic being promoted worldwide by TSER (Transgender Student Educational Resources). This worldview says that every individual has the right to determine: 1) his/her biology (through a sex change or hormone treatments, 2) his/her romantic and 3) sexual orientation, 4) his/her gender identity, and 5) his/her gender role—as HE or SHE sees fit. Then I move on to what is my real agenda, writing,
When it comes to understanding gender, Christians have something far, far better to offer our children and culture. It is not human disintegration—the splitting apart of one’s biological sex from one’s sexual identity and sexual role, or the separation of gender from emotional attraction. It is an integrated view of body and soul that sees God’s design of male and female to be glorious. (Anchoring Your Child to God’s Truth in a Gender-Confused Culture: Helping Our Children Embrace Their Calling to Godly Manhood or Womanhood.)
I then quoted from Owen Strachen and Gavin Peacock’s book, The Grand Design: Male and Female He Made Them.
When we trust Christ as our Savior, the beauty of God’s design comes into view. Our conversion opens our eyes to the nature and purpose of our God-given sex. We see the body not as a blunt instrument for our lusts, but as the gift of God for his glorification. We see our relationships with the opposite sex not as a power play, but as an opportunity to serve others in the name of Christ. We see the plan of complementarity, the roles we have the privilege of filling, not as a sentence to misery but a summons to happiness.
At EVERY point in our culture where the rising generation is being squeezed into the world’s mold, Christians have something far better to offer the world. May God use this series to help our teens see these truths and enlist in this cause!
For Further Prayerful Thought:
- If God designed humans to shape the culture that is built as Adam and Eve’s descendants multiply and a differentiation of labor takes place, why does it make sense that the first command Paul would give those offering themselves to Christ would be to STOP LETTING the FALLEN COMPONENTS of CULTURE SHAPE THEM?
- What do you think is the most difficult part of recognizing the fallen worldviews that influential voices in our culture promote?
- How can we best impart to our loved ones the wonder of God’s design of male and female, instead of just loading their guns to shoot down the LGBTQ worldview? Why is this important?
