Reverence Journal

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How Should Christians Interact with Society?

Historically, the church has taken a few different approaches to how it has interacted with society. One approach is more valid than the others. (This is loosely inspired by the book "Christ and Culture" by H. Richard Niebuhr.)

Conquer It: Attempts to conquer society go all the way back to the original 12 disciples, some of which were political zealots who expected Jesus to lead an uprising against the government and were disappointed when He didn't. A few hundred years later a Roman Emperor named Constantine declared Christianity the state religion of Rome. This approach was carried on through the Crusades, colonialism, and Christian Nationalism. This approach is not the way of Jesus.

Avoid It: Even in Jesus' day a Jewish sect called the Essenes lived far out in the wilderness away from society. This group produced the Dead Sea Scrolls. Following in their footsteps were monks who lived in isolation hand-copying scripture. Today the Amish and other groups attempt to live holy lives by avoiding interactions with society. The problem with this approach is that sin is not only in society, it's in our hearts. We take sinful tendencies with us wherever we go. Avoiding society does not make us good Christians, it makes us bad missionaries.

Conform To It: Any church that pledges allegiance to a flag (rainbow, American, corporate or otherwise) has conformed to society. Christianity already has a symbol - the cross. What the cross represents is what the church should be about. There's no need to add social and political statements to the cross.

Transform It: This is the way. We should work toward the transformation of society because transformation is what is happening to us at the personal level. As followers of Jesus we are transformed. As we scale this out it leads to community transformation. This must happen at the personal and heart level first if it's to be sustained at the corporate level. We transform the world by serving in the name of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit to the glory of God.