What Is Culture? (7)

Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours: whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or things present or things to come—all are yours. And you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s. 1 Corinthians 3.21-23

Called to learn
The root meaning of “disciple” is “learner”. Disciples are learners. Disciples of Jesus learn Jesus, as He Himself explained: “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matt. 11.29). Paul echoed this idea in Ephesians 4.20-24. After insisting that we cannot, as believers, simply continue in our old ways, he explained, “But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”

We are to learn Christ, Who is King of kings and Lord of lords, Who upholds the cosmos and everything in it, and Who gives gifts to people—life, time, the Holy Spirit, culture, and more. Learning Jesus begins with growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord (2 Pet. 3.18). But it goes beyond that to include learning how to live for Jesus and to glorify Him in even the smallest and most quotidian of ways.

And this means learning culture in a manner consistent with our calling to the Kingdom and glory of God (1 Thess. 2.12).

Culture will define, sustain, and enhance our lives. We make use of culture from our earliest days to our last. Making and using culture does not come naturally to us; we must learn culture and how to make the most of it for our calling as disciples of Jesus Christ.

If we are indifferent to or lazy about learning, or if we are complacent about growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord and seeking His Kingdom and righteousness, we will struggle in our stewardship of culture to use it for His glory. But if we take an active and focused approach to learning culture, remembering that it is from, through, and unto Jesus and His glory, then learning culture can be an exciting and ever-expanding adventure in knowing, loving, and serving the Lord.

In fact, we are always learning culture. But we need to make sure we are learning it for the right ends. All learning of culture is both passive and active, and we must understand how each of these can contribute to our having a cultural life that defines, sustains, and enhances us as disciples—learners—of Jesus Christ.

Passive learning
Part of how we learn the culture will be done passively. We will simply absorb the culture around us, as a little child does as it learns to talk. We hear things that appeal to us, then we repeat the sounds and make them our own. We see things that delight us, and we seek them out again and again. We fall into conversations, ways of working, mannerisms, and cultural preferences and practices because the people we love or work with or look up to, talk or work or live in certain ways. Here Paul’s warning that bad company will corrupt good character should be kept in mind (1 Cor. 15.33).

Passive cultural learning takes a variety of forms: imitation, osmosis—forms of culture moving into vacancies in our lives, often without our realizing it—trial and error, mindless repetition, and so forth. All such learning takes place in time, and, as Paul makes clear, we will use our time either as fools or for the glory of God (Eph. 5.15-17). We have the mind of Christ, and the Spirit dwells within us to teach us the things of the Lord. The more we work at learning Jesus, the more our soul will be equipped with hedges and filters to help make sure that the culture we absorb passively will lead not to corruption but to edification in the Lord.

We can prepare ourselves for positive passive learning by reading, studying, and searching the Scriptures daily so that we learn how to practice the Kingship of Jesus in every aspect of our lives. The more we are conformed to the likeness of Christ, the more we will absorb positive cultural influences and turn away those that tend to corruption.

Active learning
We must not be content merely to learn culture passively. Instead, we must become active in our approach to learning culture, taking specific steps, acquiring certain disciplines, and exercising Godly discretion as we grow in our use of culture.

We learn culture actively by associating with people whose cultural lives bring glory and honor to God. As we observe such people—how they talk, dress, relate to others, and do their work—we can learn from their example how to use the culture of our lives in ways that glorify the Lord.

We learn culture actively by reading and study. Christians have made many important contributions to cultural life in the past. In our day Christian writers are helping us learn discernment in our use of culture or showing us how to nurture the mind of Christ by searching the Scriptures for teaching about culture. We are unwise if we fail to sit at the feet of Christian teachers, past and present, by turning to their works, whether written, artistic, or institutional in nature.

And we can learn actively about culture by participating in cultural activities with fellow believers who share our desire to learn culture for Jesus. Worshiping, taking meals together, studying some aspect of culture, discussing the teaching of Scripture about our cultural lives—all these and many more such activities, when pursued in the company of fellow disciples of Jesus, can help us learn culture so that we will glorify God in all our use of it.

And always, in all our learning and use of culture we must “lay Christ in the bottom”, as an old Harvard motto has it, seeking Him in His Word and world, that we might be transformed into His likeness and seek the progress of His Kingdom and glory in all things.

For reflection
1. Would you describe yourself more as an “active” or “passive” learner of culture? Explain.

2. How does learning culture relate to our use of time (cf. Ps.90.12, 16, 17; Eph. 5.15-17)?

3. In which aspects of your cultural life do you need to become a more “active” learner?

Next steps—Preparation: Do you have a plan and proper disciplines for growing in the Lord? Review your present growth plan and make adjustments that will help you grow more in learning Jesus.

T. M. Moore

Following Jesus
What does it mean to follow Jesus? How does following Him affect our lives? Our course, “Disciples Making Disciples”, can help you bring your life and culture more into line with the Kingdom and glory of God. Click here to learn more and to register for this free self-study course.

Two books on culture are available to accompany this series on “A Christian Approach to Culture.” Christians on the Front Lines of the Culture Wars shows how important it is that we consider culture as a way of bringing glory to God. Order your copy by clicking here. Redeeming Pop Culture examines the nature of pop culture and some ways we can make good use of it for God’s glory. Order your copy by clicking here.

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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved