During its first fifteen years, my software company only worked with domestic clients. In the late nineties, we landed Oxford University Press (a terrific feather in our cap), and a few years later, a French company approached us.
Actually, they approached two U.S. software companies. For the next six months, both companies passionately courted the French company, but in the end, they engaged us. Our new partner explained to me why we were chosen.
He said that their old software solution was custom built with 1980’s features in mind, so it lacked many modern marketing offerings, and it had been repaired so many times they feared it would implode under the weight of its own patches.
When our rival visited Paris, they “oohed and aahed” over the French wine, they praised the functionality of the client’s software, and they complimented the French company for their marketing savvy. They panted after the French way of life.
When we visited Paris, we demonstrated our software’s answers to their problems.
My new French friend said, “We were desperate for a solution to our difficulties. Your competitor tried to charm us into liking them, whereas your company simply showed us the answers we needed. We nicknamed your company, La Réalisation and your competitor, Les Amoureux.” He ended,
Why would we spend millions of dollars on someone so desperate for our affection?
Syncretism
More than any other prohibition in the Old and New Testaments, God warns against cultural assimilation—its practices and its idols. He repeatedly commands that we reject the thinking, answers, and gods of the nations around us.
His First Commandment is, “You shall have no other gods before me.” He also required Israel to reject the customs of the occupants of the Promised Land and to abhor their practices. The narratives, psalms, and prophets constantly rebuke Israel for their frenzy for that worldly cultural absorption. Psalm 106 reprimands Israel because:
They did not destroy the peoples, as the Lord commanded them, but they mixed with the nations and learned to do as they did. (vss. 34-35)
Not only does God command us not to mix with the nations, he does so ten times more than he commands us not to commit adultery. In fact, he says that such assimilation is adultery:
You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. (James 4:4)
Besides, It’s Just Stupid
It’s not that God wants us to live insignificant lives in inconsequential Christian ghettos. In hundreds of passages, he calls his people to be a blessing to the nations. We simply cannot be that blessing when we constantly curry their favor by begging for their blessings. God’s answers will never be blessings for others when we Christians embrace the false answers of the world.
Attraction is born of distinction and Vive la difference! Apple Corporation flourished when they offered something new; they weren’t your daddy’s IBM. When believers lust after this-world-solutions, we are crying, “Me too. Please like me. I can be cool too.”
Besides, when we crave the world’s approval, we will be disdained:
What are you doing, O devastated one? Why dress yourself in scarlet and adorn yourself with gold? Why enlarge your eyes with paint? You beautify yourself in vain. Your lovers despise you; they seek your life. (Jer. 4:30)
Stalking the world may land a date or two, but it will never seal the deal.
Sam
Rewiring My Fears
Very good article! It is going to get harder here in Estonia to practice christianity, because our country is so fearful of radical movements at the moment, the police has made a decree which states many different principles that explain the society’s views on different matters. There is also a guide to call the police when somebody has different views and decides to let others know about them…
Hi Chris,
I didn’t know about the life you now experience, of the State’s open oppression of views that differ. I think we in the west forget that Jesus said we will be persecuted; that the “world” that hated him will hate us also.
But I think we in the west are lulled into complacency by more lenient rules; and yet the world still hates us. Without the obvious restraints, I think we just try to get the world to like us. Which will not work unless we compromise the core of what Jesus taught us.
We are not living for this world but for the Kingdom that will come.
Thanks for sharing, and my prayers are with you,
Sam
We sometimes seize on Paul’s comment of being “all things to all people,” forgetting that the purpose is “that I by all means may save some.” My persona should not be a barrier to verbalizing and living the gospel, but the purpose of engaging relationship is to fully express that “the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel.” However, God has not given a twelve-step protocol for living a life of gospel engagement. We must learn to listen to him in conversation.
Disclosure: I signed a contributor’s agreement with Oxford University Press yesterday, after they provided satisfactory answers to a series of clarifying questions.
Hi Doctor,
Good to hear from you again. Like many of the commands and teachings of Jesus, this requires deep thought: to be IN the world but not OF the world. Mostly we Christians either escape the world (and thus do not save any) or embrace the world (and thus do not save any).
Thanks
As a christian artist that works in the marketplace, I really appreciate your perspective and reminder. I always enjoy your posts! God bless you!
Thanks! Feel free to leave a link to your art sometime. We’d all love it.
Recently I heard the ideal Christian voice being described as “prophetic dissonance.” Dovetails nicely with your article.
I’m going to use that phrase someday. I like it!
Syncretism is so dangerous, and so sneaky! You did a great job illustrating this in your article, reminding me once again of Hosea’s wife. Like her, we run after other lovers because they satisfy our human desires. God wants to satisfy our spiritual desires, which in turn satisfy our human desires in ways we could never imagine. I’ve talked to Christians
who go to church on Sunday but then twice a week take yoga or martial arts because it teaches them “disipline and inner peace.” I have nothing against yoga and martial arts as a sport, but, I ask them, did you know that inner peace and discipline are already on God’s docket? He can teach us both in ways that are both eternal and satisfying. God longs to provide for us what we need – as long as we are ready to turn to Him. Thanks so much for your wisdom. God bless!
Hi Havalyn,
Thanks for sharing. I agree with your comments, even though hundreds of thousands of believers are practicing the syncretism you object to here.
Anything we look to for life’s deep answers–anything apart from God–is part of the world’s solutions which love to offer answers that do not depend on God. God abhors our mixing spiritual practices.
Thanks