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But just as culture can become corrupt, so also it can be redeemed, laid hold of and refashioned in order to satisfy the purposes of God for good. This work of redeeming culture falls on the shoulders of those who know their God and have accepted the calling to live for His glory in every aspect of their lives, including their cultural activities.
In order to be consistent and effective in this effort, we’ll need some standards to guide us in the use we make of culture. Psalm 27 draws together three ideas which, because they derive from the being and character of God, can serve as effective guidelines for us in the work of redeeming culture. These are the ideas of truth, beauty, and goodness.
Truth
“Teach me Your way, O LORD,” David prayed in verse 11. He understood that the truth of God defined the proper path for every aspect of his life.
Now, David did not always adhere to that truth, but he recognized his failings and shortcomings when confronted with the truth and repented and reformed his life accordingly.
In all our making and use of culture we must be taught of God and guided by His truth. Culture cannot become for us simply a matter of personal preference. There’s more to engaging culture than just our taste in music, manners, or merchandise. We are disciples of the One Who is the Truth, and He must define the choices and practices that guide our cultural activities, as He teaches and leads us by His Word and Spirit.
Beauty
David also prayed, “One thing I have desired of the LORD,/That will I seek:/That I may dwell in the house of the LORD/All the days of my life,/To behold the beauty of the LORD…” (v. 4). The Lord our God is beautiful in His being, attributes, purposes, and works. Everything about God radiates glory, majesty, and strength. To gaze upon the beauty of the Lord, as Paul explained in 2 Corinthians 3, is to be transformed by His beauty so that the glory of God comes to expression in all the details of our lives, whatever we do.
We can learn about the beauty of the Lord through His Word in Scripture and creation, including the cultural works of our Christian forebears. Our cultural practices can be beautiful so that they represent the very character and purpose of God, but we must seek the Lord in His beauty if this is to be the case. Beauty is not merely in the eye of the beholder; beauty is in the eye of him who beholds the face of God (v.8; cf. 2 Cor. 4.6).
Goodness
Finally, David declared that he fully believed to see the goodness of the Lord in his own time and culture. The goodness of the Lord relates to what God originally intended for His creation, and for the societies of men, before the disaster of sin set everything on a course of corruption, decay, and death. Where the goodness of the Lord exists, His original, pure and sinless purposes are being realized. Justice obtains, love abounds, and human beings and all creation flourish. As followers of Jesus Christ we have been redeemed in order to do good works, and this pertains to all our making and use of culture.
Truth, goodness, and beauty: These are not ideas that originated with Greek philosophers. These three standards for life and culture appear over and over in the Scriptures, and they challenge us to learn what each of them requires of us in following Jesus for the redemption of culture.
The time is long past for Christians to cease participating mindlessly and selfishly in whatever forms of culture the unbelieving world might cough up next. We are called to bring the truth, beauty, and goodness of God into the everyday lives of people and societies all over the world, and we do this by taking seriously our calling to engage and redeem culture for the glory of God.
Next steps
How might you improve your understanding of truth, beauty, and goodness? Why should you do so? Talk with a pastor or church leader about these questions.
Additional Resources
Download this week’s study, Redeeming Culture.
Sign up for ViewPoint Leaders Training and start your own ViewPoint discussion group.
Want to go a little deeper with culture? Order T. M.’s book, Christians on the Front Lines of the Culture Wars from our online store.
Men, download our free brief paper, “Men of the Church: A Solemn Warning,” by clicking here.
Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.