What Is the Role of Church in Culture?

(Editor's Note: This blog was written by Reid Ritter who is interning for The Stand and American Family News.)

As believers it can be easy for us to fall into the pitfall of thinking that, due to increasing cultural wickedness, we have no need to involve ourselves in cultural affairs. After all, it can be exceedingly difficult, exhausting, and even discouraging for the church to be involved in cultural issues.

In many ways, this sentiment is easy to justify. For one thing, many believers who involve themselves in the culture are negatively affected by it (just take one look at the growing number of falling Christian leaders), and we certainly don’t want the culture to rub off on us.

Nevertheless, as the people of God, it is absolutely essential that we look to God's Word, rather than anyone’s feelings or opinions, to discern what interaction, if any, we as the church should have with our culture.

It is critical that we remember that Christ has instituted us as His church to be salt to the earth and a light to this evil world:

You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven (Matthew 5:13-16).

Regardless of anyone’s feelings or opinions, Jesus Christ has called believers to be examples of Him to those in the culture “that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

Contrary to what some might think, Christ requires us to do more than simply live as Christlike examples to the culture. Our Lord has also commanded us to directly interact with our culture for His glory.

In the Great Commission, Jesus left His disciples with one final command that applies directly to us today:

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:19-20).

For us to fulfill the Great Commission we must interact with our evil culture. This is Jesus Christ’s requirement of us.

Nevertheless, it is undoubtedly often hard and challenging to interact with the world, for our society is overtly hostile to Christ. For many of us, standing for Christ in the midst of our perverse culture can result in being ostracized or even fired. And in many ways, it seems as though evil triumphs over good.

The prophet Habakkuk was no stranger to a culture in which evil seemed unchecked. As a prophet to Judah before it was captured by Babylon, Habakkuk was grieved by the immense cultural wickedness of the Jews that seemed to prevail in his society. In fact, his desperation led him to cry out,

How long, O LORD, will I call for help, and You will not hear? I cry out to You, “Violence!” Yet You do not save (Habakkuk 1:2).

Often our responses to wickedness in our society may lead us to cry out to God just as Habakkuk did. After all, it is painful to us to see wickedness thrive, especially when it may seem that God is turning a blind eye to this reality.

Nevertheless, we would do well to examine God’s response to the discouraged Habakkuk:

Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days—You would not believe if you were told (Habakkuk 1:5).

God reminded Habakkuk that even though evil seemed to prevail in culture, He was not absent. Rather, God was doing something mighty. Even as evil ravages culture, we must be faithful to God by being obedient to His commands, knowing with absolute certainty that He is at work in our day.

In Habakkuk’s context, God was about to bring judgment upon the wicked kingdom of Judah. Nevertheless, He went on to tell Habakkuk,

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea (Habakkuk 2:14).

Regardless of the evil that is prevalent in our world and culture, God's promise is that His glory will fill the earth. The incredible reality is that as His church we are a part of the means that God has ordained to fill the earth with His glory and presence.

No matter how wicked the world gets, we must endeavor to be faithful in the circumstances and culture in which God Almighty has placed us. To do this, we must impact the culture for the glory of God by fulfilling His Great Commission and living in such a way “that they [people in the culture] may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” As the salt of the earth, we must endeavor to not become tasteless!

This is our God-given mission. Moreover, as we seek to accomplish this mission, we should pray for our culture. Relating to the Babylonian captivity that was going to come upon the Jews, the Lord told Jeremiah:

Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare (Jeremiah 29:7).

As ancient Israel was in exile, we are spiritually in exile today (1 Peter 2:11), for this world is not our home. Even so, as we live out this exile, we must pray to the Lord for our culture, knowing that the prayers of the righteous are very powerful (James 5:16).

No matter how wicked the world gets, we must be faithful to our God and obedient to His requirements of us by fulfilling His Great Commission and praying for our culture, remembering that as Christ’s church, we cannot lose (Matthew 16:18).

In the midst of our corrupt society, let us not lose sight of God’s purposes for us. Let us impact our culture for the glory of the One Who has saved our souls as we seek to hear our Master say to each of us, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”