Cultural Toxins
Take a
moment to think about what you’ve seen and heard today. Perhaps you woke up to the alarm playing a
favorite radio station. What song woke
you? You may have turned on the TV while
you were dressing. What topic started
your day? What stores and billboards did
you see while driving? What were the
attitudes of those you spent your day with - negative and gossipy or hopeful
and edifying?
We are
submerged in our culture whether we like it or not. It is such a part of our lives that we
typically do not pay much attention to its influence. But it does influence us. We cannot continually be immersed in the
attitudes and actions around us without being influenced. And the greatest danger is the culture’s
subtlety. Many of us believe we have our
own thoughts and attitudes without realizing that, unless we actively engage
ourselves to the contrary, our attitudes are continually shaped by the cultural
norms of our society.
Satan is
aware of this principle. The Bible says
that Satan is the prince of this world (John 12:31, 14:30,
16:11), so the cultures in
all corners of the world are heavily influenced by Satan. Satan’s goal is to drive you away from God. So the cultural norms he has created will be
anti-God. Yet, interestingly, God does
not tell us to isolate ourselves from society.
Instead he tells us to go into the world and influence the culture that
seeks to influence us. John 17:15 “My prayer is not that you take them out of
the world, but that you protect them from the evil one.”
Crossroads
of the World (map
of Israel
here)
Ancient Israel
was seated on the ‘crossroads of the world.’
In Old Testament times, the main
trade routes between north, south, east and west ran through Israel. God intended for the peoples of the world to
pass through Israel
and notice a difference in the people. Israel,
like our society today, was to provide an alternative to cultural norms. The intention was that the people of the
world would notice such a good difference in Israel that they would become
curious and investigate. Israel
could then point the way to God.
But Israel
did not follow God’s way. Instead Israel
allowed themselves to be influenced by the cultures around them, which lead to
their eventual downfall. The societies
around them worshipped foreign gods and engaged in activities God warned Israel
not to participate in. But the people of
Israel
allowed themselves to be infested with those cultural toxins. This is an example and a warning to us. Are you influencing the culture or are you
allowing its toxins to infiltrate your life?
Our Interaction with Cultural
Influences
Even if it
were possible, the goal, as Jesus stated, is not to be removed from the
cultural influences around us, but to become aware of them and turn the tide. Romans 12:2 in the The Message says, “Don’t
become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even
thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside
out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it.
Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of
immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in
you.” All of us have become desensitized
to a certain extent, so the key is whether we will allow ourselves a fresh look
at what’s going on around us and evaluate its impact on our lives.
Cultural Spectrum
Each of us
will end up on a different point in the cultural continuum, depending on our
proclivities, background and experiences. For example, just because a movie is made by
non-Christians does not mean that it is an evil production. At one end of the spectrum, some movies
clearly contain non-biblical principles.
But most that we choose between are not so cut-and-dried. Although, some Christians disagree even on
that statement. Some have hard and fast
rules, such as never seeing a movie rated “R.”
Interestingly, the popular Christian movie a few years ago called The
Passion of the Christ was proclaimed by many to be a must-see movie, but it was
rated “R” due to the violence of Jesus’ crucifixion.
It is ultimately
up to each of us to listen to our own consciences and so determine our actions,
remembering Paul’s admonition in 1 Corinthians 2:12, “ ‘I have the right to do
anything,’ you say – but not everything is beneficial. ‘I have the right to do anything,’ you say –
but I will not be mastered by anything.”
Here are a
few questions you can ask yourself when considering how actively to engage in a
specific activity:
1. Am I being entertained by sin?
2. Is this pleasing to God?
3. Does this lure me away from Christ?
The Problem of Pleasure
Theologian
Ravi Zacharias talks of ‘the problem of pleasure.’ Have you ever considered that there is a
problem with pleasure? He suggests that
the problem of pleasure is a more difficult one that the problem of pain. Most of us can hold onto a string of hope in
our pain…the hope that it will end one day and all will be well. But what if pleasure runs dry? What if you achieve your goals and experience
many joys yet still remain empty and unfulfilled? Solomon, arguably the wisest man who ever
lived, had great success in all he did and says this in Ecclesiastes 2:1-11:
I said to myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure
to find out what is good.” But that also proved to be meaningless. Ecclesiastes
2:1 “Laughter,” I said, “is madness. And what does pleasure accomplish?” I tried cheering myself with wine, and
embracing folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was
good for people to do under the heavens during the few days of their lives.
I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and
planted vineyards. I made gardens and
parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made reservoirs to water groves of
flourishing trees. I bought male and
female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more
herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem
before me. I amassed silver and gold for
myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired male and female
singers, and a harem as well—the delights of a man’s heart. I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In
all this my wisdom stayed with me.
I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart
no pleasure.
My heart took delight in all my labor, and this was the
reward for all my toil. Yet when I
surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve,
everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under
the sun.
In his
position as a successful and powerful king, he was able to pursue all the
pleasures and accomplishments we dream of and yet he found it meaningless in
the end. All of us have experienced this
at some point in our lives. The job we
so desperately wanted has some negatives aspects to it. The spouse we thought would fill all our days
with joy actually have some faults we need to deal with. The car and house wear out. The clothes become outdated. The meal at the fabulous restaurant ended too
quickly. The movie disappointed us. The weekend getaway is but a memory and it
feels as if we never left home.
The last
three words in verse Ecclesiastes 1:11 are key, ‘nothing was gained under the
sun.’ ‘Under the sun’ is a Hebrew-ism, meaning that God does not play part in
it. These are pleasures pursued under
the sun, here on earth, according to man’s wisdom, without input from God.
Yet we
often continue to pursue pleasure as if it can provide the peace, contentment
and joy we so desire. We look to pleasure
to provide meaning in our lives. God did
design us for pleasure but not at the expense of our relationship with
him. So where we find our pleasure is
key. And when we pursue pleasure and
contentment more than we puruse God, we are making idols of them and relegating
Him to position number two.
Theologian
Ravi Zacharias provides three principles for choosing pleasures that will keep
God first in our lives and free us to fully embrace the enjoyment that God has
for us.
Pleasure Principle #1
Anything
that refreshes you without distracting you from or diminishing your final goal
is a legitimate pleasure. Dr. Zacharias
uses the story of Gideon’s army in Judges chapter 7 as his basis for this
principle.
God was
choosing men to participate in a battle.
God told Gideon to take the men to a spring and to watch how they
drank. Most men got down on their knees
and put their mouths to the water. But
other men cupped their hand, scooped up the water, brought it to their mouths
and lapped it like dogs. God told Gideon
it was the latter group who would participate in the war. The stance they took in drinking the
refreshing water kept them alert and active, enjoying the refreshment yet being
mindful of and ready for the next task.
They were not letting the water take their minds from the battle looming
ahead of them.
But when
it comes down to considering a movie to watch or a book to read, the broader
question of your life’s mission may not immediately assist you in your choics. For those moments, consider the definition of
sin given by John Wesley’s mother to her son:
“If anything weakens your reasoning, impairs the tenants of your
conscience, obscures your sense of God or takes away your relish for spiritual
things; in short, if anything increases the authority and power of flesh over
the spirit, that to you becomes sin, however good it is in itself.” Anything that weakens your conscience and
increases the power of your flesh over the spirit will detract from the
completion of God’s purpose for your life.
If the details of our lives do not increasingly line up with God’s will,
we will continue in a state of unrest, lacking the ability to move forward in
his peace, purpose and favor.
However,
in order to determine if the pleasure is distracting you from the goal, you
first need to have a goal. Knowing
God’s purpose for your life and specific plans for the short-term sets the
foundation from which you can determine if a pleasure is refreshing or pulling
you away from your goal and God’s will.
If you have never done so, consider writing a mission statement for your
life. It will serve as a guide and a
path to all that comes after it.
Pleasure Principle #2
While with
his army preparing to go into battle, David voiced his desire to have a drink
from his well in Bethlehem
– how refreshing that would be. Some of
his men decided to surprise David and get him that drink. At great risk to themselves, they snuck back
to Bethlehem,
drew a pitcher of water from his well and brought it back to David.
David was
about to drink but stopped. He said he
could not indulge in a selfish pleasure knowing that the lives of his comrades
had been in danger. So he emptied the
water onto the ground to let them know that they are of greater value to him
than the fulfillment of his pleasures.
The second
principle is this: any pleasure that
jeopardizes the sacred right of another is an illicit pleasure. If David had followed this principle later in
life, he would not have indulged in adultery with Bathsheba, which resulted in
strained family life, which in turn negatively impacted the nation of Israel.
This
principle can apply to the daily issues of life in addition to the graver
ones. Anytime we take anything that is
not ours, it is an illicit pleasure:
leaving work early without permission but with pay, habitually coming
home late from work until your children no longer hold onto hope that you will
be at dinner, or not returning the extra $5 the cashier mistakenly gave you at
the store.
We seek
peace through our pleasures, but if the pleasures are not obtained in a
legitimate way, they produce harm and discontent in the lives of those we care
about as well as in the consciences God has placed within us.
Pleasure Principle #3
The last
principle is best illustrated by Proverbs 25:16, “If you find honey, eat just
enough. Too much of it and you will
vomit.” Any pleasure, no matter how
good, if not kept in balance, will distort reality or destroy appetite. Ravi Zacharias gives the example of his love
of playing tennis. It gives him great
delight. But if he played tennis
continually, he could not also experience the pleasure of holding his wife’s
hand.
Balance is
a challenge in our lives. We have so
many responsibilities and challenges that sometimes we deny ourselves
pleasure. At other times, however,
perhaps in response to the stress we feel and the desire for peace, we
overindulge in pleasures and they either become toxic in and of themselves or
they hinder our main purpose in life.
Solomon tells us there is a time for everything under the sun – a time
to weep, laugh, play and work. If we
become out of balance in any area, including pleasure, we reap the negative
consequences.
Four Conclusions to Pleasure
Ravi
Zacharias also provides four conclusions regarding pleasure.
1. All pleasure must be bought at the price of
pain. With false pleasure, the price is
paid after you enjoy it. With true
pleasure, the price is paid before the enjoyment.
2. Meaninglessness comes from being weary of
pleasure, not pain. That next big thing
that we believe will bring us joy ultimately passes and we are left empty
again.
3. The closer you get to pure pleasures, the
closer you get to the heart of God. When
was the last time you did something just for the pleasure of it? God made our bodies and minds with the
ability to enjoy creation and the creativity within ourselves.
4. Our hearts long for an intimacy that touches
both body and soul. The cry of each
human heart is to be connected. The
ultimate connection is with the One who can fill us to overflowing. No other human can meet that need. It is God “who satisfies your desires with good things so that your
youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”
(Psalm 103:5)
Group Work
1. Talk about cultural influences you experience
that have a negative impact on you or are a source of temptation.
2. Describe an activity you thought
was innocent, but that turned out to be harmful. Could you have anticipated its impact?
3. Have you experienced the ‘emptiness
of pleasure’? Explain.
4. Do you consciously think about the
pleasures you indulge in?
5. Have you ever indulged in too much
of a good thing? Explain.
6. Are you able to just enjoy life at
times? What pleasures could you indulge
in this coming week just for the sheer pleasure of it?
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