Regardless of how much we mirror the world’s patterns, unless we embrace their sin and reject the core teaching of Jesus, they will continue to condemn. Scripture calls us a peculiar people. We are not to conform to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2). One of the things that made John the Baptist a great man of God was that he was not a reed shaken by the wind; he did not bow to cultural and political pressures. He also knew how to suffer discomfort when necessary. He was not a man in soft clothing seeking to live in earthly palaces (Matthew 11:7).

Society is filled with voices trying to tell us what to think and how to live, and we often spend too much time trying to please the unpleasable. Too often, churches spend more time trying to charm the culture rather than serving our Savior. We seek to entice the lost with entertainment when they are drowning in it already, and we conform our talking points to mimic their topics of the day. The problem is we gain nothing by it; we compromise our calling, and the world maintains its displeasure.

Even in the time of Jesus, the world could not be appeased. In instructing us, our Savior once compared his culture to children in the marketplace calling out to their peers (Matthew 11:16). Kids in the public square do not contribute to the commerce, but they do begin to imitate their parents’ authority.

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