Alasdair MacIntyre, in his book, After Virtue, argues that Western culture is in a situation very similar to the cultural moment when the Roman Empire fell. Rather than being governed by reason, faith, or some combination of the two, our culture is governed by emotivism. Emotivism is the concept that moral choices are simply expressions of choosing what “feels right,” not because there is an objective right and wrong. Because of this, our culture is unraveling.
In a culture like ours, where realities as simple and obvious as identifying a person’s gender with their biological sex is rejected and seen as hateful, not just by the periphery of society, but the major institutions, it is difficult to avoid agreeing with MacIntyre’s point. If our culture can’t agree on the fact that boys should compete against boys, and girls should compete against girls, that only women can have babies, and that people and businesses should be able to make decisions and policies accordingly, how can we improve many of the much more complex areas of our culture? It’s a dark time.
That’s why I believe it’s important for all Christians to think more thoroughly and carefully about what it means to be a Christian in this culture. In the midst of the cultural chaos, Jesus provides a pathway forward. He’s brought the church through more difficult times, enabling them to be both faithful and fruitful. I believe he is doing the same today. But it won’t be easy. To help, I think Christians need to return to Matthew’s Gospel and reorient their lives accordingly.
Matthew’s Gospel as a Playbook for Cultural Engagement
When Jesus stood on the side of that Galilean hill delivering what we now call, the Sermon on the Mount, the people of God were not in a position of cultural power. They weren’t in a position of strength economically, politically, or any other meaningful cultural measure. They didn’t hold positions in the elite institutions of the times, as James Davidson Hunter and others have argued are important for cultural change. They weren’t winning the battle of ideas culturally, as Francis Shaeffer and so many others have tried to help so many world changers do. In fact, the first followers of Jesus were unmistakably vulnerable politically, economically, medically, professionally, and relationally as they carried out their lives under the harsh rule of Rome.
And yet, it was to those powerless people, that Jesus set out a vision, one that focused on creating a people that are salt and light in a decaying and darkening world, that has undeniably changed the world. In order to be salt and light, his followers had to be prayerful (Matt 6:9-13), principled (Matt 5-7), and practical (Matt 8-9). They were to be prayerful because prayer, more than anything else, shows whether we really believe that we need God’s help to advance God’s mission in our day-to-day lives They were to be principled because just as creation unraveled with the rejection of God’s powerful word (Gen 3:1-6), it will be restored by God’s powerful word. And, finally, Jesus’ followers are to be practical, they are to make a difference practically in the lives of those around them, because Jesus loves to use “good works” like feeding the hungry, caring for the poor, and more, to adorn the gospel and all its world changing realities (Titus 2:10). Christians don’t need cultural power to bring about cultural change because Christians follow a king whose kingdom, and all its power, is not of this world—that created this world (Jn 18:37).
But it’s important, as we seek to follow Jesus’ plan for being salt and light in a decaying and darkening world, being a prayerful, principled, and practical, that we don’t miss out on the rest of Jesus’ plan revealed in Matthew’s gospel. In a culture marked by “expressive individualism,” it’s easy to skip the following parts of Matthew’s gospel, which show that Jesus is advancing his mission through a people, a church, that he is building (Matt 16:18). Why is this so important to see? Because Jesus’ mission advances most impactfully when his followers commit to one another to carry out his mission in local churches. These local churches aren’t supposed to be just another group of people who share the same preferences. They are a people who share the same faith in the crucified and risen Lord. They believe that Jesus’ body and blood, and his indwelling Holy Spirit, is enough to change their relationship with God and others.
Matthew’s Gospel doesn’t end numerically better than it starts. When Jesus meets his disciples on a hill in Galilee there are less present than when he delivered his Sermon on the Mount. But a decline in numbers doesn’t always mean a decline in influence. The major difference, obviously, was that Jesus was now the crucified and risen Savior—one whose hands were marked by eternally healed scars. His promised presence provides the key to advancing his disciple-making, and, consequently, world changing, purposes (Matt 28:18-20).
Matthew’s Gospel, which some scholars argue is the most read book in all of the Bible, provides a playbook for cultural change—one that doesn’t depend on cultural credibility, but the power and presence of the risen Lord.
Following the Mission of Christ throughout the History of the Church
A surface level reading of the book of Acts and the rest of the New Testament reveals unmistakably, that the followers of Jesus were prayerful, principled, and practical, as they sought to be salt and light in a decaying and darkening world. Local churches were started and the results were stunning. No one, no matter how well positioned culturally, in those cultures had the intellectual and spiritual resources to get people, as divided as they were culturally, to love and serve one another sacrificially like brothers and sisters, to do unmistakable good to all types of people. Little by little, life by life, the gospel began to change the world. The light was pushing back the darkness.
Christians enjoyed with gratitude all of the good things in their lives and culture given by God (Jms 1:17). Because the Fall hasn’t erased all of the goodness of God’s creation, there is much to be enjoyed. They also rejected many of the ideas and lifestyle choices that were evidence of the Fall and the ongoing powerful presence of sin in our broken world. And, finally, they sought to enhance or improve their lives, the lives around them, and beyond, fighting to bring all things in submission to the Lordship of Christ (Eph. 6:10-20).
This same trajectory was followed beyond biblical times through every phase of church history, starting with the Patristic period (30-590), then the early Medieval period (590-1054), the late Medieval period (1054-1517), the Reformation (1517-1689), and the Modern Period (1689-Present).
During the first part of the Patristic period, Christians combatted heresies, launched what would eventually become hospitals, cared for forsaken children, and more. During this period, Augustine, wrote the City of God, where he provided a devastating critique of pagan culture and one of the greatest writings in the history of the church.
During the early Medieval period, as Christians lived in a world where Rome had been conquered by the barbicans, they faced new cultural challenges with the beginning of Islam in 622, the rise of the Holy Roman Empire, and countless other challenges. Benedict’s “strategic withdrawal” from much of the surrounding culture, provided resources that Christians greatly needed in the centuries to come, as Rod Dreher has helpfully observed in The Benedict Option.
Christians launched educational institutions that have continued until today during the late Medieval period. The most prominent example, of course, is Oxford, which was started in 1096. Christians also dealt with major abuses in the church, advanced Bible translations at the cost of their lives, and the Crusades.
Christians entered the 1500’s as a major cultural force, for good and for ill. They had come a long way from that small hill in Galilee. Much good and much harm had been done in Jesus’ name. There was a need for major change. Starting with Martin Luther, the Reformation, created all kinds of amazing glimpses of “light in the darkness.” The five solas revolutionized how Christians approached being “salt and light” in a decaying and darkening world. The importance of “vocation” was elevated for all Christians. Abraham Kuyper helped followers in all seven spheres of culture see how to bring them under the Lordship of Jesus.
Finally, in the Modern period, with the rise of the Enlightenment challenge, Christians experienced religious toleration, advanced world missions, started major educational institutions (like Harvard was in the 1600’s to train ministers), and more. The first and second Great Awakening took place. George Mueller revolutionized orphan care in England. William Wilberforce fought the slave trade. Book publishers were started. Jesus advanced his cause through his church. Of course, Christians continued to make major, sinful errors. The role of many Christians in the slave trade remains, most likely, the greatest hypocritical sin of this period.
While this embarrassingly succinct overview of church history is admittedly simplistic, I include it to help provide historical perspective that shows every Christian at every time, has had challenges and opportunities to be salt and light—to be prayerful, principled, and practical. The Spirit of Christ has powerfully advanced the Father’s purposes through Christ’s blood-bought, imperfect church.
The Church as Salt and Light in a Decaying and Darkening World
Over the last 75 years or so, as Christian thinkers have tried to help Christians understand how best to be salt and light in a decaying and darkening world, the most substantial efforts have started by wrestling with how best to define “culture.” H. Richard Niebuhr’s, Christ and Culture, arguably the most influential work on its subject since it was written, does. Francis Schaeffer, Charles Colson, Nancy Pearcy, Andy Crouch, James Davidson Hunter, just to name a few thinkers, all spend time reflecting on the best way to define “culture.”
Hunter, in To Change the World, argues that most definitions can be categorized either as idealists or materialists. Idealists define culture primarily in intellection, worldview terms. These thinkers do a fantastic job showing what Richard Weaver voiced, in 1948, “ideas have consequences.” We change culture, in this view, primarily, when we change how people think about the world.
Materialists, like Andy Crouch, aren’t materialists in the sense that they don’t believe in God and the supernatural. Rather, they identify culture primarily with what is made of the creation. Hence, the title of Crouch’s book is Culture Making. We change culture, according to this approach, when we create new cultural goods, whether that is a sweater, a song, or whatever.
Hunter highlights what he believes are strengths and weaknesses that are found in each approach. As expected, Hunter provides what he believes is a better way, one that focuses more on the importance of institutions and networks. Perhaps he could best be described as an institutionalist. How do we change the world? By being faithfully present in the institutions and networks around us.
For our purposes, following Abraham Kuyper’s lead, I think it’s most helpful to think about culture as what’s found in the seven spheres of culture: religion, family, education, government, media, arts and entertainment, business, and online. In all of these spheres, I think it’s helpful, although somewhat arbitrary, to recognize that there are different levels of participation in each sphere: thinkers, doers, and consumers.
With this idea of culture, the question, then, becomes, how do we relate to what exists in these various spheres, with these various levels? While Niebuhr’s 5-fold typology is incredibly influential, I think that T.M. Moore, in his Culture Matters, provides a helpful way to think about how Christians engage with their culture: cultural indifference, cultural aversion, cultural trivialization, cultural accommodation, cultural separation, culture triumphalism. As each category is thought about, he notes, “No one adheres to any of these six models as the exclusive or even self-conscious approach to culture matters.” In short, culture is so complex, that there are times when we need to employ each of these approaches as we try to be salt and light in a decaying and darkening world.
I think that the task before us is the same as the task before those first followers listening to the crucified and risen Lord Jesus deliver his Great Commission. We should be prayerful, principled, and practical as we seek to advance the cause of Christ in partnership with other believers in local churches.
As Christians think about the messages, institutions, people, and all the rest, around us in all seven spheres, at every level in those spheres of culture, we should enjoy the good gifts of God in our culture with gratitude, resist the evidences of the Fall in our culture around us and inside of us, and improve every aspect of the culture for the glory of Christ. Let’s not run from the battle, let’s engage with it. But let’s fight, not as the world fights, but as our Lord fights, with truth and grace—prayerful, principled, and practically.
Some of the issues before us are obvious and some are not. That’s why it’s important to remember, as the New Testament church had to be reminded of, that we see through a glass dimly (1 Cor 13:12; Rom 14). Let’s remember that it’s not just important that we are right, we must be loving (1 Cor 13:1-7). If the Apostle Paul and Barnabas didn’t agree on the best way to move the cause of Christ forward, we’ll have our struggles to get along too.
Christians are a part of their culture, even as they are called to represent Christ in their culture, enjoying the good, rejecting the bad, and bringing all things in alignment with Christ (Eph 1:10). When we do this prayerfully, principled, and practical, we can be salt and light in a decaying and darkening world.
