Copying the world or living the Word?

Are we copying the world or living the Word? I am becoming convinced that many Christians and many churches are being conformed to the world in ways that we don’t even understand. We simply copy the world, even if what we do violates God’s Word. I want to use two examples to demonstrate this point.

The Discipleship of Children

For the average child in a Christian home, their primary Bible teacher is a Sunday School teacher, children’s worker, or youth worker. Many Christian parents are not regularly teaching their kids the Bible or how to follow Jesus. Why? Mostly because they have copied the educational principles of the world. We are not the primary ones to teach our kids math or science, so why do we have to be their primary Bible teachers?

The Bible commands fathers to do otherwise, to bring up their children in the training and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4). So the father who is not actively discipling his children is copying the educational patterns of the world instead of living the commands of the Word. And we wonder why each generation seems less and less biblically literate when we have taken our cues from the world rather than the Word.

Church Discipline

I am convinced that the average church today will not exercise biblical church discipline. Most churches have many members who are living in the sinful pattern of complete disassociation from the church. Matthew 18:15-17 sets a clear pattern for handling this problem. We should approach these people privately and rebuke them. This means that we should confront them and prove to them from the Scriptures that what they are doing is wrong. If they won’t listen to us, we should bring another person or two with us as witnesses. If they still won’t listen, we should take the matter before the church. If they won’t listen to the church, we should remove them from church membership.

But most churches refuse to follow this pattern. Why? Because we follow a worldly wisdom instead of a godly wisdom. This worldly wisdom tells us that it is unloving to enact church discipline. This worldly wisdom tells us that doing so will disturb the peace in the church, lead to division, and drive people farther from God. And so we don’t do what the Scripture clearly teaches because we have bought into a false wisdom from the world about what is loving and peaceful.

I could give other examples, but the point is this: we cannot follow God according to the wisdom of this world. As James says, the wisdom of this world does not come down from God but is earthly, unspiritual, and of the devil (3:15). I have a deep concern for the church today. I am afraid that in many instances we are unable to ground what we do in the Scriptures, and too often this is because we have conformed ourselves to the world instead of being transformed to live according to the Word. If it’s true in these two areas, how many other areas might we be living out the patterns of the world instead of the commands of God?

So what do we need to do? James says that true wisdom from God is open to reason or submissive (3:17) and that God gives wisdom generously to those who ask in faith (1:5-6). We will not ask for what we think we already have. The first step is to humble ourselves and admit that the problem is real. Only then can we begin to seek God’s wisdom and evaluate all we do in light of Scripture, striving to make sure that we are being transformed through a godly repentance and renewal, rather than a conformity to the patterns of this world.