We need to realize that the whole of the human culture opposes God, and culture is a frustration to God’s purpose concerning Christ and the church, for culture frustrates us from experiencing Christ, growing in life, and arriving at a full-grown man.
From its very beginning to its development until today throughout the ages, culture has been a big frustration to God and His purpose; culture is a subtle enemy of God, for it is part of our very being, it is ingrained in us, and we may even think that it is us.
Our culture is not merely our desire to go to the theatre or to the opera, our wearing fine clothes according to the latest fashion, our listening to classical music, etc but rather, it is the common way of living, the views, the values, the goals, the social arrangements, and the way of living that prevail in our area, in our city, and in our country.
Our culture is necessary for us to grow up and live a human life on earth, and without having a culture there’s no way to be a proper human being.
As we grow up we all are under a certain set of social rules, customs, and habits, and we all have a certain culture.
However, when we are regenerated and come into the church life, we are part of the new man, and everything of the old man – including its old way of living, its customs, its culture, and everything – needs to be put aside.
We cannot bring and live out our culture in the church life, for it simply has no place here.
As we still live in the locality and country we live in, we need to allow the Lord to purge our culture for the one new man, replacing it with the all-inclusive, extensive Christ.
Actually, the immediate future of the Lord’s recovery depends on how much we live out Christ instead of our culture.
What the recovery will be in actuality and practicality, as far as accomplishing God’s economy goes, depends on our daily living.
Do we still live out our culture, or do we live and enjoy the all-inclusive, extensive Christ, the One who replaces our culture and becomes everything and everyone in the one new man?
It is absolutely necessary for the church as the one new man that we come to the Lord’s light and allow Him to shine on us so that we may see what replaces Christ in our being and allow Him to replace any substitute for Christ.
If we don’t allow the all-inclusive, extensive Christ to be everything to us and to replace every element of our culture for the one new man, we will live in the old man, being divided by the various cultures we have among us.
Hallelujah, there is a living hope that, as we live and breathe in the church life in the Lord’s recovery, we will see the one new man manifested, fully grown, even as we arrive at a full-grown man!
Christ as the sevenfold intensified Spirit is operating in us to bring in the one new man in reality all over the earth. Hallelujah!
Culture is a Great Frustration to Experiencing Christ and Arriving at a Full-grown Man
God’s desire is to make known His multifarious wisdom to the authorities and rulers in the heavenlies through the church, according to the eternal purpose which He made in Christ Jesus our Lord (Eph. 3:10-11).
However, culture is a frustration to God’s purpose concerning Christ and the church, for culture is a substitute for Christ in our experience.
There is something very subtle that stands in the way of Christ and the church; this subtle element that opposes our experience of Christ and living in the church life is our culture (Col. 3:10-11; Eph. 2:14-15; Col. 2:14-15).
On His side, Christ has crucified the old man and has nailed it to the cross; He has crucified and terminated all the ordinances and ways of living, and in Himself, He has created one new man.
However, in our experience, we still live in the old man, we still have the old way of living, and we live out our culture instead of living out Christ.
Culture is a great frustration to experiencing Christ; unconsciously and subconsciously, we are frustrated by culture from the experience and enjoyment of Christ.
In Phil. 3:7-8 Paul describes the totality of his living and pursuit of God in the Judaic religion, and he admitted that, even though he had such a high, refined, and religious culture, even arriving at perfection according to the law, he put all these aside because they were not Christ.
He not only put his culture aside – he considered it as rubbish, refuse, dung, for he wanted to gain Christ, be found in Christ, and experience Christ.
May the Lord have mercy on us and cause us to realize this same matter concerning us; may He shine on the many aspects of our living so that we may realize in what way do we still live in our culture instead of living Christ.
When we are under the Lord’s light, we will realize that everything we are and everything we can do, everything we do by default and everything that issues out of our natural man is simply not acceptable to God, not up to God’s standard, for only Christ experienced and enjoyed by us can live the Christian life and fulfill God’s purpose.
When the Lord shines on us, we realize that our growing up into Christ in all things and our arriving at a full-grown man is hindered by our subtle, hidden culture (Col. 2:19; Eph. 4:18, 15-16).
He is faithful to expose aspect after aspect of our living and our habits so that we may realize how much we live our culture and not Christ.
We shouldn’t “search for our culture” by introspecting and self-analyzing ourselves; we should simply come to the Lord, who is light, and turn our heart to Him, exercise our spirit, and open our being so that He may shine on us.
The Lord is not here to judge us and we are not here to judge or expose one another; rather, He is here to shine on us, expose any replacement of Himself, and help us grow up into Christ in all things so that we may arrive at a full-grown man to express Him.
He only needs our cooperation to come to Him in a simple way; we should come just as we are, not examining ourselves but being before the Lord concerning ourselves and the hidden culture, which frustrates us from living Christ, experiencing Christ, and living the church life.
We may still feel peace inside, but we may not have much enjoyment of Christ; we may love the Lord, but we may not enjoy Him or experience Him that much.
We need to come to the Lord and allow Him to shine and expose the culture in us, the effect that culture has upon us, and our enjoyment of Christ. We may even offer Him simple prayers such as,
Lord Jesus, save us. Save us not just from negative things but also from our natural man and our disposition. Save us from our culture. Replace all these with Yourself for the church as the one new man. We come to Your light, dear Lord, for it is only in Your light that we see light. Replace culture in us for the sake of the one new man. We don’t want to be hindered in our growth in life anymore. We don’t want to be robbed from experiencing Christ any longer. Lord, we give ourselves to You to enjoy You, experience You and live You. We want to grow in life until we all arrive at a full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ!
Human Culture stands in Opposition to the Kingdom of God, Persecuting those who are in God’s Kingdom
When the Lord Jesus spoke concerning His followers, He used some very strong words; in Matt. 10:37-39 He said that he who loves father, mother, son, or daughter above Him is not worthy of Him, and who doesn’t take up his cross to follow Him is not worthy of Him.
Later He said that His true followers will be brought before governors and kings (the political people) and will be persecuted, put in prison, and even put to death.
Even more, the religionists will persecute them, thinking they serve God as they persecute the true followers of Jesus (Matt. 10:16-22).
The primary elements of culture are religion, politics, and family life; human culture is the best invention of man, but Satan uses it in a subtle way to hinder and oppose God’s kingdom.
When Christ came, He brought with Him another kingdom, which is the kingdom of God; however, the satanic kingdom reacts to and rejects the kingdom of God.
Human culture has become a basic part and a great portion of the kingdom of Satan.
If we are for the kingdom of God, we will be persecuted and opposed by Satan and his kingdom, and in particular, we will be opposed by human culture.
If we go along with the human culture and religion, we will be popular and not persecuted, but if we are for the Lord’s kingdom, religion will oppose us.
Even in our family life, our own spouse, children, or relatives will oppose us when we are for the kingdom of God and want to live the kingdom life.
Not all our relatives are in favor of the kingdom of God, and especially our unbelieving spouse, children, or relatives will oppose us when we are for the kingdom of God.
The kingdom people are those persecuted by others because they do not conform to others’ culture and way of living; they live the kingdom life, and Satan with his kingdom opposes them.
The whole of human culture opposes the kingdom of God.
If others accept us and warmly welcome us, there must be something wrong, for the Lord said He came to bring a sword, and not peace (Matt. 10:34); this doesn’t mean that we should “seek to be persecuted” but rather, as we live the kingdom life in the kingdom of God, persecution, and opposition will come.
This is why the Lord spoke of taking up our cross to follow Him and of losing our soul-life; according to our soul-life, we want to be like the others, living the same way as they do and doing the same things, but as kingdom people, we cannot, so we lose our soul-life in this age.
The persecution and opposition from human culture instigated by Satan should not discourage us; rather, we should be those who pay the price to buy an extra portion of the Spirit in our vessel.
We should take the opportunity to pay the price of losing the soul-life (Matt. 10:38-39) so that we may buy the extra portion of oil in our vessel (25:9).
The price we pay is our very soul-life. We may be caught for the kingdom of God but our spouse may not be caught; in this case, we need to lose our soul-life to gain more of the Spirit.
All the genuine believers in Christ are kingdom people, the “troublemakers” sent by the Lord to “turn the world upside down” by not living according to their culture but living the one new man, the kingdom life on earth.
If we are faithful to the Lord and mean business with Him about His kingdom, we will suffer persecution on one hand, and on the other hand, we speak and live the kingdom, so the kingdom of God will advance.
Actually, today’s Christianity has become a constituent of human culture; since Christianity is a strong factor of contemporary culture, it becomes the strongest opposition to the kingdom of God. Oh, Lord Jesus!
We need to realize that sinful thing do not oppose the kingdom of God as much as human culture does, for human culture has become a basic part and a great portion of the kingdom of Satan.
Culture has become a stronghold of Satan, and in a subtle way he maintains a hold on culture and utilizes it to oppose the kingdom of God (Acts 26:18; Col. 1:12-18).
Lord Jesus, we want to live one spirit with You as kingdom people, those who live the kingdom life on earth today. We do not look at persecution or opposition from those around us with their culture – we look unto Jesus to enjoy Him, experience Him, and live Him! Amen, Lord Jesus, strengthen us into our inner man so that we may pay the price to gain more of the Spirit in our vessel as we lose our soul-life today. We are willing to pay the price of our soul-life today so that we may gain more of the Spirit in our soul, our vessel. Amen, dear Lord Jesus, we love You more than we love our soul-life, and we stand one with You against any element of our culture, realizing that the whole of the human culture opposes the kingdom of God!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1972, vol. 2, The Kingdom, ch. 22, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The All-Inclusive, Extensive Christ Replacing Culture for the One New Man (2020 Thanksgiving Conference), week 1, The Urgent Need for Our Culture to Be Replaced by the All-inclusive, Extensive Christ.
- Hymns on this topic:
– All things are vanity of vanities, / Christ, the reality all things to fill; / Though everything we may enjoy and own, / If we’re devoid of Christ we’re empty still. (Hymns #496)
– By divine regeneration / We the sons of God became, / But we must mature to fullness, / Thus the birthright to obtain. / Born and fully grown to manhood, / God’s adoption we may share; / By the measure of full stature, / We God’s sonship will declare. (Hymns #741)
– ’Tis for God’s kingdom we press on, / Like Moses, we are for the Lord; / We suffer with God’s people here / And look away to the reward… / We all must learn to pay the price, / Christ must be worked into our soul; / ’Tis thus our soul is gained by Him, / This is our aim and this our goal. (Hymns #1298)
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