New Wineskins
How is God redeeming culture today? I’m not talking about that tv show you secretly watch because you know its bad but you love it anyways. Much of what culture is putting out today is morally wrong and personally corrupting. But that doesn’t mean we should reject everything and go live in a cave. As Christians, we can blindly embrace culture, we can reject culture, or we can redeem culture. One of the first to ever redeem culture was the Apostle Paul.
When speaking to a crowd of stoic philosophers, none of whom knew or cared about the Jewish Scriptures, Paul referenced their own culture to make an argument for the existence of a one true God.
26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ Acts 17:26-28
Paul quotes two ancient philosophers in verse 28, none of whom were from the Old Testament. The first quote was from the Cretan philosopher Epimenides and the second quote was from the Cilician Stoic philosopher Aratus. Paul redeemed aspects of their culture to make an argument for God.
So how can we as Christians redeem culture today? Are there themes from television shows that can spark deeper conversations? Is there photography that points to the beauty of God’s creation? Is there music that speaks to the deeper issues of the soul? Are there movies that expose the fundamental flaws in humanity? There are redeemable points of light all throughout culture, if we’re just willing to look for them.
How is God redeeming culture today?
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