Culture has a way of defining what is right and wrong for many people. Even though scripture tells us not to be of the world, and if we follow God, we will be at odds with the world. In Matthew, Jesus talks of the narrow gate that few enter, but the wide gate, the one the world accepts and many choose, leads to destruction. There is no medium-sized gate.
Even when Israel based their culture on the Torah, the Word of God, they kept messing up as a people. These were the people that God delivered from Egypt and met and spoke to them at Mt. Sinai. The Egyptian culture the Israelites became mixed with influenced their thinking. If beliefs are supported by or agree with mainstream culture, Christians need to stop and evaluate those beliefs. It does not matter if the views were taught in church or not.
If beliefs are supported by or agree with mainstream culture the Christian needs to stop and evaluate those beliefs.
One can believe in God, Know that He is the creator of the universe, and the Bible is his Word, but still not follow him. Culture affects how we think and draws us to the wide gate. We must constantly be praying for discernment and reading the Bible.
Proverbs 1:7 says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction." Accepting the unknowable power of Yahweh should draw us to the scriptures, not as the fool drawn to the wide gate of culture-defining reality. This is hard, though; being accepted by others is a strong pull and can be lonely. People I care about attend church and claim Christianity but accept the world. I'm not directly in their lives to be able to talk with them about it, but I am in yours.
Without God, religion is simply a social gathering. The depth of the Scriptures and following them, even when our culture-influenced minds tell us not to, is where our passions should lie. What "seems" right needs to be tested with scripture.
When parents have children that fall into sin, the perception of corruption changes. All parents want to believe that all they care about are following God, especially their children. We want to believe those we were responsible for bringing up in the way they should go can only make correct decisions. In 2022 these usually revolve around gender issues and sex before marriage. Suddenly parents declare the narrow gate outdated and run to the wide gate. We must get over ourselves and return to scripture when eternity is on the line. Love is not accepting all choices for fear of our loved ones rejecting God, but it makes choices that bring the focus back to God and point our loved ones to return to God.
Our way of thinking, shaped by our culture, screams at us to go through the wide gate. We must be praying for discernment and reading our Bibles.
Matthew 7:13-14 "Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few."
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