We are bombarded by messages from our culture. The loudest reverberations in our lives come from the agents of popular culture. Granted many of the messages disseminated thereby are unwholesome and anti-Christian, but many are not. Most are promoting a lifestyle that you should engage in so that you are happy, fit in, and contribute to society. Companies tap into this ideology and sell products that ideally help you accomplish such a lifestyle. And most of us buy into it to some degree.
Sometimes unknowingly the agents of culture can be bearers of the Truth, for, as Arthur Holmes stated, “all truth is God’s truth.” Thus comes the regular debate of Christians: “What do we do with culture?” We can’t ignore it. We can’t just rebel against it. We can’t stop it by protesting. We shouldn’t buy into it. So what do we do?
As Christians we are responsible for sifting through the messages we hear and separating the light from the dark. Or as Paul writes in Thessalonians 5:21 “Test everything, hold onto the good.” Whenever and wherever we find truth, we must claim it; we must also respond appropriately to those messages we deem untrue.
The solution revolves around taking every thought captive and turning it over to God. We develop a filter that can see God’s truth in a variety of cultural places. Truth about God and our place in this world can be found if we just tune our ears to hear it. It may be unexpected. It will also probably not be in the trite Christianized versions of culture (I am talking to you Lifeway and Family Book stores). There is a lot of noise from our culture. It can be redeemed. It can be used to explain the gospel. Or it can be ignored and we can allow it to affect us unaware. What’s your filter like?
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