It’s time to take some blame for the state of our world.

Let’s face it. The church’s voice is marginalized and ignored when we blame gay marriage while half of us are divorced, when we blame government when we can’t govern our own family, when we blame business when we can’t control our own spending, when we blame music while singing the praise of idols, when we blame Hollywood while being more enamored with their stories than the story of God in the bible, when we blame the media for all the bad news they preach when we’re not preaching the good news of the gospel, when we blame education while abdicating our responsibility to train up our children in the way they should go.

We’re not living in a manner worthy of the gospel when we preach a gospel of salvation from the penalty of sin and a future hope of salvation from the presence of sin, while failing to also display the gospel’s present power to save us from the power of sin.

Blaming the government, Hollywood, music, education, and the media for the moral crisis the nations finds themselves in is not the answer.  It’s not their job to be salt and light.

That’s the church’s job.

The bible says that the church is supposed to be the “salt of the earth” and the “light of the world”. (Matt 5:13-16) Salt preserves and protects from decay.  Light expels darkness.

For decades the church retreated from society.  And then when decay and darkness infiltrated and permeated culture, the church complained about how bad things got.

Could it be that the reason this happened is because the church wasn’t as salty and the light wasn’t as bright?

If the lights were to go out in my basement, the absence of light would make it a dangerous place for tripping and falling.  The absence of the church’s light makes the world a dangerous place for tripping and falling into the harm and destruction of sin.

In lieu of the church’s past retreat from society and the current mess we’re in, the error of my generation has been to swing the other way.  We’re now as Dave Matthews said, “making plans to change the world, while the world is changing us”.

Becoming like the world isn’t helping. We need to be in the world, but not of it.

The world needs the kingdom of God, the rule and reign of Jesus.  The small mustard seeds of the kingdom need to be planted in every realm of society: arts and entertainment, business, education, family, government, media, and religion. (Matt 13:31-32)  The yeast of the kingdom needs to work through the whole batch of dough. (Matt 13:33)

There’s only one entity that exists to bring the kingdom of God onto planet earth.  In fact, God created all things for this entity: the church (Eph 3:9-10).  The church is the means by which God has chosen to bring his kingdom on earth.

If we’re serious about changing the world, then we need to be serious about seeking first his kingdom.  And if we’re serious about the kingdom, then zeal for God’s house (his church) must consume us as well (Ps 69:9). As zeal for God’s house consumes us we’ll live lives as the church in a manner worthy of the gospel (Phil 1:27); lives that preach and demonstrate “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom 1:16).  The gates of hell shall not prevail against such a church (Matt 16:18), because a church like that is the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

(Image Credit: alles-schlumpf)