The Call of Today's Culture

I had a fascinating conversation this week with some students on facebook. After we talked, they told me that they did not want to be friends anymore and deleted me from their "friends" account. Basically, I check up on students on facebook, just like any other normal person to see how people are doing and what is going on in their lives. I saw these two particular individuals cursing on their facebook profile messages and making a lot of crude jokes, so I confronted them about it. I told them that I did not see Christ in what they were doing and encouraged them to stop cursing and telling crude jokes and invited them to come back to Bible study. In return, they basically told me that I was unfairly judging them, that teenagers today communicate through cursing and crude jokes, and that I needed to back off, get a life, and learn how the world works because everyone sins.

Allow me to share a few reflections I have had on this experience. First, I admit that maybe facebook chat or messages is not the best place to resolve differences with someone. I actually apologized about that, and I was forgiven for trying to change someone using a social media tool. Second, I also realize that many times people do feel judged for what they do unfairly and that is why they will cut off a relationship or stop communicating with someone. Third, my understanding is that Christians are supposed to keep each other accountable and call each other out when they see another Christian being a hypocrite. I mean, if we do not stand up for what we believe in, then I do not know why we have any faith in the first place. Fourth, all teenagers do not communicate using curse words and inappropriate jokes. Teenagers use the culture as a standard for what is acceptable rather than what the Bible says or what their parents taught them. Using the culture as a standard has never been nor will it ever be a wise plan. Fifth, even though it is true that all people sin, we are never given permission to use that as an excuse to sin freely. The whole point of Jesus' ministry was to set sinners free from bondage to perpetual sin.

Jesus said in Matthew 15, "The things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean'. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man 'unclean'; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him 'unclean'." Jesus says that you and I are responsible for sin and I literally "put my money where my mouth is" because I talk about what I value. If I use curse words and speak lies, hate, or lust, those sins have come from who I am: a sinner in need of salvation. The process of redemption in the Bible is not to sin and then ask for forgiveness so that I am free and clear to sin again. The process of redemption is sanctification, which means that I spend my whole life trying to sanctify my life, to 'become holy', to seek to become like Jesus. If I want to be like Jesus, then I should hate less, lust less, curse less, and boast in myself less and less over the course of my life.

I wanted to share these truths with you because they were on my heart, and we need to recognize as Christians that today's culture calls us to be self-centered. Today's culture calls us to "have it your way...right now!!!" Today's culture wants you to focus on yourself. Jesus' culture from two thousand years ago is still the only way out of becoming enslaved to the call of today's culture. Jesus invites us to recognize our sin, repent of rebellion against Him, and renew our lives daily as we seek Him in Bible study and prayer.

Please, I beg of you, do not listen to the call of this culture anymore. The call is sweet like honey, but the pay off is a filthy mouth and lifestyle and fake friends. Let Jesus shape your heart, and let Jesus shape your words. I love you and I pray for you. May you hear the blessed call of our counter-culture Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

James