Transformation and Renewal, Not Conformity.

Lately I've been thinking about my everyday life, and the everyday life of the average American Christian. And here's what I've seen: we love our culture too much. Not in the true sense of love though, that would seek to drive our culture to God. But rather in the sense that popular culture has said to the Christian, "Come, sit down. Watch this show. Make some money. Be prosperous. Get comfortable." And we have done so. Though we may disdain the teaching of the "prosperity gospel," which seeks to make God's message and the culture's message harmonious, we do not however disdain the places in our lives where our aim is comfort above and against God's glory.

Maybe I could provide some examples. Example number one will be familiar to those readers who have seen Dan's blog on modesty. Who told girls that their clothes had to attract guys (like a UV lamp attracts bugs)? It was our culture, not the Word of God, and when we shop (notice the "we," guys often shop with the same motives as girls do) to glorify ourselves instead of buying our clothes to the glory of God, we become no different than those who aren't saved.

But let's not just stop there. How about entertainment? Modern American society rivals the ancient Roman society (which at times had non-stop games for months) in its love for entertainment. Oh, how often do we compromise godly virtues for a moment of entertainment! How often have I watched something inappropriate in the name of comedy! Friends, do we really think that we can continue to drink in all the violence, selfishness and lust that our culture seeks to "entertain" us with and be unaffected by it? Did Jesus Christ ever command us to watch something solely because we found it entertaining or humorous? Why then do we seek our own amusement with more vigor than we seek to minister to the church, or to evangelize those "among whom" we are to "shine as lights (Phil 2:15)?"

I'm not advocating monasticism here. I realize the desire to be "in the world, not of the world" is a good desire. Christ prayed "I do not ask that you [God the Father] take them out of the world (Jn 17:15)." I acknowledge that. No one should necessarily throw their TV in the garbage and go live in the desert somewhere with just their Bible. That's clear.

However I don't believe that's the temptation for the American believer. We've all heard the phrase "being too heavenly minded to be any earthly good." Though I have never seen one person with that problem, I have seen scores of Christians (including the one in the mirror) who are often too earthly minded to be any earthly good.

In fact, I would venture so far as to say if we are not "heavenly minded" we won't be "any earthly good." What good is a Christian that is drenched in American culture? About as much good as red dye is in cherry Kool-Aid®. What do we have to offer a culture that we're no different from? We can't offer them the God who gives ultimate joy if our highest joy is no different than theirs.

Jonathan Edwards would seem to agree. His twenty-second resolution reads:

Resolved, to endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness in the other world as I possibly can, with all the power, might, vigor, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable of, or can bring myself to exert, in any way that can be thought of.

As he lived out this resolution (and the others) in his life, he in turn affected the world in which he lived. Edwards became one of the driving forces in the Great Awakening, a period of spiritual revival in early America. Moreover, these words, written by 19 year old Edwards, continue to be of "earthly good" over 200 years after he wrote them.

But we shouldn't think of Edwards as extra-spiritual. He was merely following Biblical commands.

1 John 2:15 "Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him."
Romans 12:2 "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.

The difference between transformation and conformity is "the renewal of your mind." I can't renew my mind if I'm feeding it the same things I did when I was still dead in sin. The 1st century Jewish believers couldn't have renewed their minds if they had stayed under the works-based teaching and culture of the Pharisees. The Ephesian believers couldn't have renewed their minds if they had kept their books of magic, or (if they had had them) their subscriptions to the monthly magic magazines. How then do we expect to renew our minds if our time in front of the TV is more substantial then our time in the presence of our Father in heaven, through prayer and reading His Word?

You then should do what you need to do to be renewed. Cut out what you need to cut out. Get immersed in God-centered things that will encourage you to change. Most importantly, pray that God will show you where you compromise, and that He will empower you to make the changes in His strength. And pray for me. I'm in the thick of the same battle. I'll be praying for you in your battle as well.