In the past four months I continued teaching in a pandemic, had others mad at me for standing up for truth, fought to keep the Sabbath day holy within my family, faced much external strife, and failed at balancing my family’s calendar (we were way too over committed). It has been an exhausting 2021 professionally and personally. I am reminded in Psalm 136:23 to give thanks to the One who remembers me in my low estate because his love endures forever. I need to be reminded of his enduring, steadfast love not only as an individual, but also as one who lives in the broader climate of our current culture. I’m exhausted because like everyone else I have depleted myself of all my reserves this last year of the pandemic, but I’m also exhausted because of the state of the church.
We are in a culture where everyone has an opinion, it seems, about everything. No longer do you need a degree to have a voice, you just need social media. Conversations online or in person range from BLM (Black Lives Matter) to CRT (Critical Race Theory) to LGBTQ+ matters concerning gender identity. How are followers of Jesus to respond to all these topics and discussions? Right now, the answer sadly is we have responded divided. Some believers have embraced, while others have rejected BLM, CRT, or the LGBTQ+ movement.
God teaches us through his Word that lives matter because he is the Author of all life. God’s Word teaches against racism because over and over it reminds us that humanity is one race called to bear his image and respect his other image bearers no matter what tribe, tongue, or nation is their heritage. The Bible, God’s breathed out word to us, also teaches gender matters because the God of all creation created mankind in his image as male and female. If we belong to Jesus, the Word made flesh, then we sit under his authority and are to fall in line with his authority. The Triune God of the Bible tells his followers to be about life because he is the Life Giver. He tells us to care about other people with different heritages than ours because he is the Maker of all heritages through our first parents Adam and Eve. He also commands his followers to abstain from sexual immorality (whether heterosexual, homosexual, or other sexual sin) because he desires we honor him with our sexual choices because his home is now our bodies through the Holy Spirit.
The gospel is the only answer to all of these matters and movements. Any other teaching other than Jesus’s ends in destruction. Hear the warning in 2 Peter.
“But there were also false prophets among the people [during Peter’s time], just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping (emphasis mine).” 2 Peter 2:1-3
This chapter also encourages believers. It tells us God knows how to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment (v.9) because he is the same God who did not spare angels, Noah’s ancient world, or the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah (vv.4-6). God destroys what is evil and wicked. Nothing (no theory, movement, individual, or group) has or will extinguish the gospel! Pharaoh who enslaved the Israelites is not still standing, but the gospel is. The Assyrians and Babylonians who exiled God’s people are no longer ruling, but God is. The Romans who crucified Christ no longer reign, but the risen Lord they nailed to a cross does reign. Nero who wickedly ruled around the time of Paul and most likely had Paul beheaded could not cut off the gospel message from continuing to be proclaimed. All the attacks that have come against the church since have all failed. So will these current attacks. They cannot and will not stand. They will bring about their own destruction. These too will perish (v.12). The blackest darkness is reserved for them (v.17). They will be paid back harm for the harm they have done (v.13).
In 2 Peter 2, we’re also given a description of the counterfeit teachings (also called false teachers and false prophets in v.1, the unrighteous in v.9, and those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature in v.10). The false teaching and teachers . . .
- despise authority (v.10)
- are bold (v.10)
- are arrogant (v.10)
- bring slanderous accusations (v.11)
- blaspheme in matters they do not understand (v.12)
- are like brute beasts (v.12)
- are blots and blemishes reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you (v.13)
- have eyes full of adultery (v.14)
- never stop sinning (v.14)
- seduce the unstable (v.14)
- are experts in greed (v.14)
- have left the straight way (of the gospel) and wandered off to follow the way of those who are false prophets like Balaam (Numbers 22) because they love the wages of wickedness (v.15)
- are springs without water (v.17)
- mouth empty, boastful words by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature (v.18)
- entice people (v.18)
- promise freedom while they themselves are slaves to depravity (v.19)
Only the gospel can promise freedom because Christ in his death and resurrection delivered on the promise of freedom. Only in the gospel and the gospel alone is there hope because the gospel is about a perfect person, fully God and fully human, who accomplished what no person or theory or organization or movement can accomplish.
Let me close by revisiting how I started writing about our culture. The agenda in our culture is important because humanity is important to Jesus. Believers must follow his loving, tender, and humble lead as we engage with our culture while being keening aware of the dead end our culture is offering. Let’s remember as we interact with others these life-giving words in 2 Peter 1:5-9. “Make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.”
Lord, your love endures forever.