Fellow followers of Jesus,

I wonder if we truly believe one of the deepest convictions underlying the Christian faith. That sin pervades every layer of our world, ultimately invading every society and infusing every culture— including Christian homes and institutions.

“Sin,” at its root, is not merely moral depravity but the state of natural dysfunction permeating creation. More specifically, it is humanity’s state of relational separation, as well as spiritual dis-integration in our inherent propensity to pursue a life away from God.

It is not wrong for us to be offended, to challenge and disagree with others, nor to advocate for our values in the public square. But we do so with an awareness that sin shapes and shadows it all.

Even as those who entrust ourselves to God, sin remains a reality we endure as our souls are both reoriented and reintegrated into the life of God. This is the context of our transformative journey as followers of Jesus, becoming more like Jesus as we align our will, mind, desires, emotions, and actions to his.

Let us not forget, that Jesus entered into the fulness of our humanity, moving into the darkness and brokenness of our sin-dominated world, full of grace and truth, not reviling when mocked and insulted, nor retaliating when abused and scorned. Instead, keeping the greater purpose of his mission in view.

This is likewise our call, brothers and sisters, to confront and ruthlessly root out sinful appetites, attitudes, and actions in our lives, modeling the way to wholeness and fullness in life with God. As we do so, we should not be surprised when a sin-saturated world rejects, mocks, and attacks us.

This does not suggest we passively approve of sin vigorously on display in our culture. But that we consider the implications of what we believe and reorient our responses to the mission of God in Christ. To consistently live out the gospel in both word and deed.

Engaging as Jesus engaged, personally and compassionately. Honestly and humbly. His harshest critiques were not against overt sinners nor pagan culture but against the moralistic gatekeepers within the house of Israel.

Likewise, Paul, Peter, John, and James after him, could’ve called out and protested the prevailing pagan culture of their day over a plethora of moral grievances. Yet, we hear relatively little on such matters in their letters. Instead, they emphasized the ongoing sanctification and purgation of the people of God for their own good and for the good of the cities and cultures in which they lived. For the beautifying of the Church’s gospel witness amid a “crooked and perverse generation,” even under through threat of persecution and death.

Fortunately, we live in a culture where we have a voice. It’s not a question of whether we should speak up but what we say and, just as important, how we say it. It’s a question of what drives us. What we hope to achieve in the process. What sort of kingdom we are aiming to build.

Maybe this matters even more in our day than for the NT writers. They spoke as a fringe group, marginalized and oppressed in their cultural context. We speak with 1500 years of power and influence, abuse and controversy casting a shadow, for good or for ill over our words.

An increasingly post-Christian West is not merely resistant to our voice but antagonistic and even hostile, and not without cause. We would do well to bear this in mind as we consider the cross we carry and seek to presence Christ in our culture.

This is not easily accomplished in our highly reactive culture. We must resist the knee-jerk responses, which are often filled with more of us than Him. We must enter into such conversations with a posture of prayerful vigilance, humility, curiosity, graciousness, and compassionate conviction, “looking to Jesus as the author and finisher of our faith.”

“Therefore, my dear friends…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good purpose. Do everything without grumbling and arguing, so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world, by holding firm to the word of life.”

(Philippians 2:12–16)