Is the Culture a Battlefield or a Mission Field

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Scripture Galatians 6:7-10 (NLT)

7 Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. 8 Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. 9 So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. 10 Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith.

Devotion:

          We often hear that we are involved in a culture war and that we must be prepared to fight against our enemies. While it is true that as Paul says in Ephesians we are to put on the whole armor of God and be prepared to “quench the fiery darts of Satan.” It is also true that God fought battles on behalf of Israel in the Old Testament. Still, we see in the Parable of the Sower and the Parable of the Weeds (Chapter 13 of Matthew) that Jesus refers to the Kingdom of God as a field where sowing and reaping take place. I believe we need to learn to think of our world as a place nurture and growth, rather than a land of fighting and conquest.

          In our scripture above, we see Paul exhorting the Galatians to be people who plant goodness in the culture where they are living. The context of the letter Pau is writing here is he is writing to a church divided amongst themselves and thus not projecting much of a positive witness to the world. The church today is in very similar circumstances. The liberal/conservative divide is as bad in the church today as it is in the general culture. We are tempted to believe that the other side is not really Christian and demonize them. As we see in the scripture above that we are to do good to all people especially to the family of faith. The culture sees our divisiveness and mocks us.

          We should then take the words of Paul to heart. We need a new way to look at our brothers and sisters. Instead of shunning and distancing ourselves from each other we should come together and have dialog and cooperation. While we must stand for the truth of scripture, we must be humble seeking to bring Jesus people together. So, that we can be an attractive witness to those who do not know the Lord. Let us pray for unity in the church so that we will be an example to the culture instead of an example of the cultures ways.

Prayer:

          Dear Lord Jesus may we be empowered by the Holy Spirit to reach out in love to all people especially to the family of faith. Keep us in your care this day and every day. Lead us in your path of peace and joy every day. Help us to be a good witness to the culture that has rejected you. May we not be part of the reason that they reject you O Lord. Show us your love in beautiful ways that we may learn to love even our enemies. Help us to patiently endure the derision of the culture. Let us not be alarmed by the words and actions we see in this world but trusting in you be steadfast in peace and purity of heart. Amen

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