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Sunday, October 27, 2013

Cultural Differences

"Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies...Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!" (Psalm 27:11, 14 ESV)

The world is entirely opposed to Christianity because Christianity is entirely adjacent the world.
Christianity does not conform to the world nor the "progression" (a misnomer, as progression implies a measure of positive change; progress) of the world in such that the Bible does not change. It is a living thing, it affects everyone differently, but the words stay the same, and the world has an issue with any two-thousand year old text written that shapes lives today in different ways than it did a century or a millennium ago.
What's more, society is against a belief system that says that all people are equal, believers in it or otherwise. We crave exclusion, something that says we're of an elite group, even if we're not. That's why so many organizations exist, as well as titles and such. We always want to have a one-up on everybody else, and the Bible destroys that line of thinking by telling us that anyone can be saved, and that God loves all of us, even the sinners and the "Christ-killers." They are opposed to the idea of a merciful God who loves unconditionally and tells us that if we're to be truly abundant outwardly and inwardly, we must love both our neighbors and our enemies alike (as G. K. Chesterton said, “The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because generally they are the same people”).

The world hates the idea of a murderer being no more a sinner than a petty thief or a liar or an adulterer (being one who looks at another with lust, not only those that have sexual relations outside of marriage). This ideology says that we all have sinned, and that all have broken part of the Law and, therefore, broken the whole Law, and that we must humble ourselves to overcome our offenses. And, simply put, people who have said a seemingly innocent "no" when the answer was "yes" or have malicious/hateful thoughts just don't want to be lumped in together with a murderer or a child molester.
So the only answer to how society sees the Christian culture is for them to shun it.
Jesus covered this, as did certain apostles, in saying the world will hate us because we're not like them, because of Christ's sake.

But i would like to look back, pre-Christ, for an answer, and the verses at the beginning of this post, though not written about this particular situation, are not irrelevant.
I don't want to call the world our enemy, but the world has set itself against Christians, be it in the tame mocking we receive here in the United States, or the martyrdom found in other nations. Persecution, in all its forms, of Christ is becoming quite rampant, so it is safe to say they're our enemies, whereas it's perhaps more precise to call us their enemies.
But if we have faith in God, He will lead us on a level path because of our enemies. So wait, be strong, have courage--wait for the Lord.

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