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How to Handle Society
I don't know if you have noticed or not, but the society we live in is not very Christian-like.
In fact, anymore, it is just about outright anti-Christian.
It is getting harder and harder to be a part of society and be a Christian.
So how do we deal with our faith and society in our personal lives?
How do we deal with Christianity on a day-to day basis?
On a quick examination I can see three possibilities.
Attack Society
We can attack the society.
We can preach brimstone and hell-fire, telling people how evil they are and how bad they are.
I do believe there is a time and a place for that, but that cannot be our complete approach.
Withdraw from Society
We can withdraw from society.
Just not be a part of it.
Just keep to ourselves with our Bible loving friends.
But this is rather hard to do in our modern world and if we are withdrawn from the society how then do we witness to it?
The Bible never calls for us to withdraw from the sinner or his society.
Compromise Society
We can compromise with society.
We can have our faith and just wink at the times society acts or goes against our faith.
Both withdrawing from society and compromising with society are forms of privatizing our faith.
It is keeping our faith as an inward spirituality without any kind of impact on our outward world.
This is what people really want.
They are looking for an inward spirituality that will give them inner strength and inner peace and it is a form of paganism.
In Paganism there is no over-arching God, but there is a God of every little area.
There Is a God of the sea, the God of the air, the God of the Earth, the God of the harvest, the God of planting, the God of War, and the God of love.
These God's rule their own little private areas, but they don't go into another's area.
This is what people really want, even Christians.
They are looking for private little God's that they can use.
People are looking for a spirituality that can help them meet their own agenda.
But Christianity is different.
Christianity is in inward change that provides inner strength and inner peace, but it has an outward affect.
Christianity is an inward change that provides its own agenda.
When God touches you, you don't just get inward strength and peace, but a whole new way of seeing things.
You don't listen to music the way you did before.
You can't look at yourself the way you did before.
You don't relate to people the way you did before.
You relate to the government differently.
You relate to your job differently.
Everything changes.
It is like a person in a room and they look out and see 20 people.
They are trying to find something that can give them inner strength to move into the room.
Then there is the other person that is touched by God.
They look up and they don't see a room of 20 people, but they see a room of 80.
There are 60 people they didn't even see before and the person touched by God is moving about the room getting joy from things others can't see or hear.
Where other people trip and fall and wonder what happened, the person touched by God avoids that area.
ACTS
ACTS
In Paul is in Athens.
We can use this to best see how Christianity doesn't just change our inside, but changes our relationship with everything.
We can look at how Paul reacts in this famous passage and in so doing we can learn how we should interact with our society.
We will look at Where Paul Went, How Paul Felt, What Paul Saw, and What Paul Did.
h2 Where Paul Went.
Where Paul Went.
The Bible says Paul went to the synagogue and to the God-fearing Greeks.
He went to the people that believed in the Bible.
We are okay with that, but Paul didn't just stay there he went to the marketplace.
To understand the marketplace, you must understand Athens.
When we think of the Roman Empire we think of this great powerful government.
The saying is true that all roads did lead to Rome.
However, the center of culture was Athens.
If you wanted to be a leader in Art, Business, Philosophy, Religion, or Science you needed to know Greek and be a part of Athens.
The marketplace just wasn't a Wal-Mart where items were bought and sold, but it was the place where ideas where exchanged and where news was found.
It was the television, workplace, and internet of its day all in one.
This is where Paul took his faith.
Paul took his faith into the heart of society and he was not private with it.
Another great story of someone who took their faith into the heart of their society is found in 2 Kings chapter 5. Naaman was a general in Syria, but he was more than that.
In our modern terms Naaman would have been something like a Prime Minister.
But Naaman has a problem, he has leprosy.
So, Naaman looks around and tries to find a cure, but finally one of his servants suggest he goes to the prophet of God in Israel.
So Naaman visits Elisha and Elisha tells him to dip 7 times in the Jordan river.
At first Naaman isn't happy with this and looks like he isn't going to do it, but his servants convince him, and he goes to the river and there his leprosy is healed.
When Naaman comes out he says there is only the God of Israel.
This is important, because it shows he just isn't healed on the outside, but he is changed on the inside.
Naaman goes back to Elisha and what does he do?
Does he say, “Hey, back where I am from they are just all pagans, idolaters.
I am going to stay here in Israel where God is.”
Does he withdraw from his society, no.
Does he say, “Look I am going to go back and when I go into the temple of Rimmon with the king of my arm and I bow and sacrifice, it doesn't matter.
No reason to rock the boat.”
No, he doesn't compromise with his society either.
What does Naaman do?
Naaman says,
Why does Naaman ask for two mule loads of dirt?
Naaman ask for the dirt because he knows who the real God is, and he knows that he is going to have to go into the temple of Rimmon with the king on his arm and he is going to have to bow.
Naaman say, “I am going to go into the temple and I will have my servants spread the dirt of Israel and when I bow and sacrifice everyone who sees will know that I am sacrificing to the God of Israel.”
Why does Naaman ask for two mule loads of dirt?
Naaman ask for the dirt because he knows who the real God is, and he knows that he is going to have to go into the temple of Rimmon with the king on his arm and he is going to have to bow.
Naaman say, “I am going to go into the temple and I will have my servants spread the dirt of Israel and when I bow and sacrifice everyone who sees will know that I am sacrificing to the God of Israel.”
Some may think it is just superstition act, but it is not.
It's a witness, a symbol.
Naaman is saying, “I am going to do my job, but I am going to show my faith.
People are going to ask me about it, and I am going to tell them I don't serve the way I used to serve.
What I do, I do to honor the true God.” Naaman neither withdraws from his society nor does he privatize his faith, but he takes it into the heart of his public life.
Now, you might be wondering, “How do I do that?
How do I do what Naaman and Paul did and take my faith into society?”
You might think the Bible has some pat answer, but it doesn't.
The Bible doesn't give pat answers, but it gives broad descriptions, here is the type of person that takes their faith into public with them.
You are going to have to work it out yourself.
You are going to have to be creative.
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