Arts & Culture & Public Square

Why Should Culture Even Matter to Christians?

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Why is it important that Christians have healthy families? Why does it matter that we have biblical views on business or healthcare or science or education? Why should we work for a biblical view of economics?

Because God cares deeply about each of these things.

In fact, they belong to God! Dutch theologian Abraham Kuyper says this about God’s dominion on earth:

There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, “Mine!”

In the new covenant, we are God’s representatives, his ambassadors on earth. It is our job as the church to reclaim and restore what is rightfully God’s.

Politics, economics, family, business, medicine, education. All these things belong to God, and Christians are called to redeem them instead of letting Satan drain the life out of them.

Lecrae Moore, the chart-leading Christian hip-hop artist, says:

We go into culture and say, “This is not yours, Satan. This is not yours, world. This belongs to God, and I’m a representative of this Kingdom. Here to demonstrate what it looks like when a redeemed person enters the workplace and says this belongs to my God.”

Moore said that he had no examples growing up of what it looked like to love Jesus in a hip-hop culture. There was no one else to represent God there. No one to say, “God owns this, and here’s what it looks like when a redeemed person engages this world.”

Moore decided to combine his vocational passion for the music industry with his Christian calling to be a representative of Christ to the world around him.

He puts it this way:

You are a representation of God’s heart, mind, and character in his world. You are his workmanship. His blood was spilled out for your redemption, and you are a picture of that redemption in this culture. So whatever you are, you demonstrate what redemption looks like.

So we take law, we take business, we take science, we take medicine, we take economics, and we redeem them for the glory of God. We use them for his glorious honor. That’s what we’re here for.

Jesus’s blood purchased this world, and it belongs to him

If Christians are not involved in every aspect of this culture, in this society, there’s no representation of God there.

And we, as Christians have both the privilege and responsibility to display to our culture and society his redemption in our daily lives.

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