By: Steve Wilmot
Cultural change is not new, but it seems to be accelerating in recent years. Its objective is primarily to change the basic assumptions and shared beliefs Americans have had for centuries.
The Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence and built a new country founded on the commonly held principles found in the Bible.
But during the last several decades, nearly all of that has been challenged, and much of it has changed. You’d have to be blind or totally isolated to not notice how things have changed.
Culture is the way of thinking, living, and behaving that defines a people group, e.g. Italians, Germans, Americans. It includes their morality — their accepted standard of right and wrong.
Culture can be positive, but it can also be a snare. The culture of the Canaanites where Jacob and his family lived had rubbed off on them. Simeon and Levi killed every man in Shechem (Genesis 34). Judah had sex with his daughter-in-law (Genesis 38).
The older brothers got rid of Joseph. With a track record like that, there was no reason to imagine they wouldn’t adopt other ungodly practices of Canaanite culture — incest, child sacrifices, bestiality, and homosexuality.
Israel stood at a crossroads. They’d already taken steps in the direction of the culture of the Canaanites surrounding them. God didn’t want culture to invade and influence his select as it grew into a nation.
It was already clear, too close a brush with culture leads to compromise or conformity. If God allowed his chosen people to remain in Canaan, they would assimilate with the corrupt and godless people who lived there.
To reverse this moral decline, God sent them to Egypt to grow into a distinct nation with a godly culture. But the culture of Egypt wasn’t any better. It was steeped in depraved sex and idol worship of a multitude of gods, including Pharaoh.
Wasn’t moving from Canaanite culture to Egyptian culture like jumping from the frying pan into the fire? Yes, but the all-knowing God had already planned ahead when he sent Joseph to Egypt.
Joseph was the key player in God’s plan to shield Israel from being absorbed into the Egyptian pagan culture.
The ancient Egyptians were racists. Historian Herodotus reports Egyptians so abhorred things foreign, that priests refused to eat or drink anything that was imported. They didn’t use eating or cooking utensils that Greeks had used.
Their discrimination carried over to the Hebrews, too. They wouldn’t eat with them because they “are detestable to the Egyptians” (Genesis 43.34). If not for their bigotry, Pharaoh probably would have settled Joseph’s family next door to him. Then they would have had greater exposure to Egyptian culture, not less.
But God orchestrated every piece of the puzzle and nudged Pharaoh to settle them in Goshen — the best part of the land, removed as far as possible from the influence of the Egyptian culture.
The twenty-first century church is in the same danger as Israel was in the days of Joseph. The pervading culture of America has invaded the church, not vice versa as it should be.
We’ve embraced the ever-evolving morality of non-believers around us. Nothing is a sin anymore — just a choice or an alternative lifestyle.
We chase happiness at all costs, even when it defies the Word of God. Surveys reveal little difference in divorce rates between Christians and non-Christians, how we spend our money, what movies we watch, and the choices we make.
We’ve been caught in a snare of a changing culture. Course correction is necessary, and it’s imperative we start now. So how do we dodge the snare of culture?
- Renew your mind. Paul writes, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12.2). Make the Word of God your standard for right and wrong. Meditate on it day and night until God’s thoughts become your thoughts. The path to freedom from the negative influence of our culture is to let the Word of God change us and keep us changed.
- Remove bad influences. You may kid yourself into believing the people you hang around with most don’t influence you, but the evidence overwhelmingly proves that premise false. God warns against it as well. “Do not be misled: Bad company corrupts good character” (1 Corinthians 15.33). “… a companion of fools suffers harm” (Proverbs 13.20).
- Resolve you won’t conform. Joseph didn’t conform to the evil culture around him. Neither did Daniel, even when the Babylonians thrust him into a situation intended to convert his morals to theirs. “But Daniel resolved not to defile himself” (Daniel 1.8). He made an unyielding decision he would not exchange God’s standards for Egypt’s culture and morality. That kind of resolve is essential to avoid getting caught in culture’s snare.
If you take the threat of culture lightly and ignore God’s warning, it will catch you in its snare. It would be a good idea to evaluate where you’ve conformed to current culture. Then assess what you need to do to disentangle yourself from it and avoid its snares from trapping you again.
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Steve Wilmot is a former Edgerton, Ohio area pastor who now seeks “to still bear fruit in old age” through writing. He is the author of seven books designed to assist believers to make steady progress on their spiritual journey.