The Gospel Coalition

In my last post (an excerpt from the book I’m writing entitled Unfashionable) I mentioned that when it comes to how a Christian should engage the world around him, there are two extremes we must avoid: being culturally removed and being culturally relaxed. I handled the first extreme in that post (you can read it here). Here I handle the second extreme. 

Extreme #2: Culturally Relaxed

There is, however, another extreme we must avoid when it comes to relating to our culture — that of accommodation, or being “of the world.” It happens when Christians, in their attempt to make proper contact with the world, go out of their way to communicate sameness between Christians and non-Christians when it comes to style and taste, ideas and morality.

To be sure, we’re to follow the principle stated in Paul’s words: “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22). Christian thinkers call this “contextualization.” It’s the idea of translating the truth of the gospel into language understood by our culture. David Wells has noted rightly, “Theology is undoubtedly about timeless truth that we have in Scripture under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. But it is timeless truth that needs to be brought by God’s people into their own particular context.”

Missionaries and Bible translators have been doing this for centuries. Every Bible translation available is an effort to contextualize God’s written word (originally written in Hebrew and Greek) for a contemporary audience.

Whether in translating the Bible or simply talking to a neighbor, Christians are to be missionary minded in the way we communicate. This takes work — especially for those like me who are more comfortable with “inside” language. Although we don’t need to shy away from using biblical language, good missionaries go to great lengths to explain that language for those with no biblical knowledge. As Nancy Pearcey says, “We need to be actively translating the language of faith into the language of the culture around us.”

Contextualization also involves building relationships with people who don’t believe. We don’t expect them to come to us; we go to them. We meet them where they are. We enter into their world by seeking to identify with their struggles, their likes, their dislikes, their ideas.

Chuck Colson tells us what this contextualization, properly understood, involves: “We must enter into the stories of the surrounding culture, which takes real listening. We connect with the literature, music, theater, arts, and issues that express the existing culture’s hopes, dreams, and fears. This builds a bridge by which we can show how the Gospel can enter and transform those stories.”

But when Christians try to eliminate the counter-cultural, “unfashionable” features of the biblical message because those features are unpopular in the wider culture — for example, when we reduce sin to a lack of self-esteem, or deny the exclusivity of Christ, or downplay the reality of absolute truth — then we’ve detrimentally moved from contextualization to compromise. And compromise is to be avoided at all costs.

In an article titled “Calling Christian Rebels,” journalist Marcia Segelstein describes what being a Christian in our current culture means: “It will mean taking unpopular stands on highly charged issues such as abortion, homosexuality, and divorce. It means risking derision, humiliation, and scorn. It means looking at the way things are and — when they undermine the Word of God — challenging them.”

In this sense, Christians should always be troublesome. Devotion to God’s authority entails conflict with any authority that challenges his.

In seeking to “engage” and “connect,” Christians must remember that God has called his people not to be popular, but to be faithful. The truth is that many in this world will not take kindly to those who follow Jesus. Jesus himself tells us that if we follow him faithfully, others will insult us, persecute us, and tell lies about us (Matthew 5:11).

Contextualization without compromise is our goal. The great model for this is, of course, the incarnation of Christ. Here was God “contextualizing” himself by taking on human flesh. Jesus Christ became fully human — one of us. He entered into our world. He met us where we were. He made deep contact. Jesus completely “engaged” us. But because he was without sin, his contact resulted in collision. His refusal to “fit in” eventually led to his execution. He contextualized without compromise.

We, too, while we come in contact with the world, must always resist the ways of the world. The ideas, values, and passions of the kingdom of God will always collide with the ideas, values, and passions of the kingdom of this world — and we need to stand our ground when and where this collision happens.

You could summarize it this way: Unfashionable living means that we avoid being culturally removed on the one hand and culturally relaxed on the other; instead we’re culturally resistant. We’re in the world, but not of it; against the world, for the world. We’re to be making contact with the world while colliding with its ways. We’re to be culturally engaged without being culturally absorbed.

We must not fear being different. If we do, we’ll never make a difference. It’s only as we faithfully refuse to “fit in” that we unleash God’s renewing power in this world. So we must always beware that in our attempt to make contact, we do not lean over so far that we fall in.