Church vs Culture

“Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under a cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; And all did eat the same spiritual meat; And all did drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.”  I Corinthians 10:1-5

The main problem that the Apostle Paul was encountering in the Corinthian church was basically too much world in the church and not enough church in the world.  The folks in the church were allowing the culture to influence them rather than Christ.  They were bringing in false teachers, immorality, of which the main sins were fornication and incest, lawsuits, and envy among the church members concerning spiritual gifts.  It sounded more like a soap opera than a vibrant Christian church.  Paul brought up a lesson from the Old Testament concerning the time when the ancient Hebrew people were in their journey to the promised land.

Paul explained how God’s grace over the ancient Hebrew people appeared in the form of a cloud as they passed through the sea.  God led the people out of Egypt to the promised land by a pillar of a cloud to guide them and protect them from the pursuing Egyptians.  When they reached the Red Sea, He parted the waters to allow them to cross on dry ground, but closed the waters back over their pursuers, destroying them.  This was their baptism unto Moses because they had trusted in Moses’ ability to lead them safely out from under bondage in Egypt much like the sinner who trusts in Christ and is baptized in water to publicly identify his faith in Christ.

Paul then stated that the Hebrews all ate the same spiritual meat.  The manna that God sent them as they wandered in the wilderness was a type of Christ crucified who was the Bread which came down from heaven.  Whosoever eats of this Bread will live forever, meaning whosoever repents and trusts Christ as Lord and Savior, making a full commitment to Him, will live eternally with Him.  When the Hebrews drank the same spiritual drink, it was from the rock which Moses struck to cause water to flow.  This Rock was a type of Christ for the Hebrew people (Exodus 17:6).  The ancient Hebrews were not saved by obeying the law; they were saved by trusting God and trusting the leaders He chose to guide them.  Their obedience to the law came from this trust.  However, even though they all ate of the spiritual food and drank the spiritual water from the rock, not all were committed to following and obeying the LORD.  Many of them ate and drank only to satisfy their physical hunger and thirst and saw no need to commit spiritually to God.

I suppose that we could compare them to what is known today as “cultural Christians”.  Outwardly they do the Christian act, but inwardly their hearts are not truly committed to the Lord.  They claim to believe in God and believe that Jesus is His Son, yet that is as far as they go.  They haven’t made Jesus Lord of their lives, rarely read God’s word, seldom pray, give little or nothing to the upbuilding of His kingdom, and enter the doors of the church only occasionally.  If we say that we belong to Christ, then there must be evidence to show for our commitment.  Jesus said, “If ye love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15).  His commandments are straightforward:  love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and then love your neighbor as you love yourself.  If these two commandments are followed, then there will be abundant evidence that one is a true believer.

If a survey was taken, and the question was, “Who is winning: the church or the culture?”  Based upon statistics such as church attendance, giving, or the political climate, we would have to say that the culture is influencing many more people than the church.  The culture is not a winner in the truest sense of the word.  It is really the loser, and it is taking multitudes down with it.  The pollsters keep telling us that church attendance keeps falling every year.  COVID certainly contributed to the decrease in corporate worship, but we can’t blame it all entirely upon the pandemic.  Jesus said in Matthew 24:37 that when He returns, the days will be like the days in Noah’s time.  I suppose that Noah and his family were the only folks on earth who actually had a worship service.  Jesus also said that those who are busy in serving the Lord and doing what they are supposed to be doing will be blessed (Matthew 24:46).  The “cancel culture” crowd is missing out on the joy and peace that is only found in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  In the final analysis, the church will be victorious over the culture even though the culture seems to be “winning”.  The church, the bride of Christ, may be down, statistically speaking, but don’t ever count us out!  The battle is not over.