How Should Christians Engage with Arts and Culture?

Reflections of Basic Human Nature

We live in a fallen world. Oftentimes it looks as if it’s falling as well as fallen. Human culture seems to get worse and worse. Whole armies of commentators, both political conservatives and Judeo-Christian culture supporters, flood the bookracks, magazine pages, airwaves, and social media with warnings of amoral cultural doom and proclaim that if we do not fight back to preserve the moral center of Western culture, we will be overrun by the evils of the “isms.” You may supply the “ism” of your choice: Marxism, postmodernism, feminism, and so on.

Ironically, it is both easy and common for Christians to look at the area of life called the humanities—art, culture, literature, philosophy, and so forth—and identify these human achievements as the source of much of the evil in the world. But perhaps we should consider the possibility that these cultural achievements—as well as all the “isms” from both the Left and the Right—are not simply sources of ideas but are also reflections of the basic nature of humans. These reflections should be interpreted by a standard that is biblically based and not culturally determined. If Christians attempt to approach culture—literature, film, the arts and philosophies of humanity—from a human standpoint, they will be acting in disobedience to God. Culture’s reference point is relative and ever-changing, while God’s standard is absolute and immutable.

What Does Scripture Say?

Since the issue simply does not always resolve itself with clear biblical passages, it is necessary to look at principles. Because God’s word is utterly sufficient and entirely perfect for all matters of faith and practice and is inerrant and infallible, these principles provide all that is needed to effectively interact with culture. The Spirit does not hold a believer’s hand and provide a simple yes or no to every possible option, but he does provide wisdom for making right choices and an uncomfortable conscience when making wrong choices (Rom. 2:15).

Think Biblically

John MacArthur, Abner Chou

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Certainly, creativity itself is not inherently evil. God is the Creator of everything, including creativity. Human creative ability directly reflects the image of God in man (Gen. 1:26–27). Scripture never forbids creativity, but idolizing the objects created is clearly sinful (Ex. 20:4–6). Because of the fall, humanity is now utterly corrupt; he can do no good, though he knows what good is (Rom. 1; 3:10–12), and he cannot help but do evil (Eph. 2:3). Men sometimes appear to be doing good, but even this is evidence of human depravity. When a fallen, unredeemed person does a “good deed,” there is often at least some underlying selfish motivation, and even if (theoretically speaking) there isn’t, the mere fact that the person performing the deed is inherently sinful makes the deed corrupt in God’s eyes (Prov. 21:4). Dirty hands handling good deeds make the good deeds dirty. Holiness is utter purity, not general cleanliness.

Perhaps the most familiar and useful passage when considering a Christian’s response to artistic culture is Philippians 4:8. This is a positive list of qualities that characterize the things believers should think about, the things to set their minds on, the things to fill themselves with. Philippians 4:8 is enclosed within two references to the peace of God (Phil. 4:7, 9); God’s peace leads Christians to meditate on the things that are good in Philippians 4:8, and that meditation fills them even more with the peace of God. It should also be noted that this passage contains a general presupposition: if believers are to think on the things that Paul explicitly lists, then they must discover these things.

Culture’s reference point is relative and ever-changing, while God’s standard is absolute and immutable.

This, then, is a process of discernment—of seeing what is out there and then deliberately, obediently choosing the good over the evil and making it the object of our meditation. This exhortation must not be used as an excuse to expose oneself to things that will inflame sensual desires, dishonor God, and pollute the mind. Discernment may result in immediate outright rejection and refusal to explore the object or idea, or it may communicate a sense of freedom of conscience to pursue study in that area. Philippians 4:8 should always be used in harmony with 1 Thessalonians 5:21: “Test everything; hold fast what is good.” Unfortunately, the flesh wants to read that as carte blanche permission to try out everything that comes along, instilling a false confidence that it will be easy to keep a safe distance from any damaging sinful material. To cut off this line of thinking, the apostle immediately follows this admonition with a terse command in 1 Thessalonians 5:22: “Abstain from every form of evil.” The KJV is perhaps even more vivid: “Abstain from all appearance of evil.”

The principle is clear. When in doubt, the question must be asked, Does participation in this activity even look evil? Evil often masquerades as good, but only rarely and briefly can a discerning Christian be fooled into thinking that something good is actually evil. Goodness is essentially open and clear; it has nothing to hide. Evil works by misdirection, disguise, and deception. Again, the key is discernment: good and evil are often intermixed in this world and difficult to discern, owing to fallen and therefore limited perceptual abilities. A poem, for instance, will never have all the positive qualities of Philippians 4:8. It may be “true” but not “commendable”; it may be “lovely” in an aesthetic sense but not “just.” Many a “beautiful” poem is radically opposed to God and his justice.

Another crucial passage is 2 Corinthians 10:2–7. One often hears the central part of this passage (2 Cor. 10:4–5), but the context is extremely enlightening. Paul contrasts walking “in the flesh” with walking “according to the flesh” (2 Cor. 10:3).¹ He says that although he has a normal fleshly body and lives in a fleshly world filled with flesh-feeding opportunities for disobedience, he will not walk under the power or control of the flesh. Further, believers should never expect to fight against the flesh with fleshly weapons. It is only because of the power that God provides that “weapons” of spiritual warfare are mighty through God to pull down “strongholds” (2 Cor. 10:4).

The meaning of the “strongholds” metaphor is contested, but in context it refers to the fleshly thoughts that characterize a world of ideas—a human culture at enmity with a holy God. This enmity is ultimately idolatry, and Paul sees it in the form of reasonings, imaginations (KJV), and ideas exalting themselves against “the knowledge of God” (2 Cor. 10:5). The believer’s task is to bring all these reasonings, thoughts, theories, philosophies, literary works, artistic creations—everything, the sum total of human thought and creativity—into a place of submission before the knowledge of God. The knowledge of God is revealed most clearly in Scripture. Paul is urging us to gauge everything, to measure everything, to discern everything with the standard of Scripture.

One may ask, How is it possible to look up a Bible verse while watching a movie or reading a magazine or a poem? It isn’t. But as James 1:21 explains, the believer is to “receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.” The KJV translation uses the word “engrafted,” and the Greek figure of speech means “rooted word.” Scripture commands the Christian to let Scripture take root in one’s being through constant reading, meditation, memorization, and obedience. The implanted, engrafted, rooted-in-us word remakes, rebuilds, and renews the mind, conforming it to the mind of Christ. Then issues and events can be judged properly. This does not provide license to expose oneself to everything in equal measure. A person doesn’t have to get close to either pornography or a salivating Bengal tiger to know they’re dangerous. But even judging from a distance is judging; it is discernment, and it honors God.

The more one practices biblical-critical discernment, the better one will develop the skill. With the mind thus armed and renewed (Rom. 12:2;2 Cor. 4:16; Eph. 4:23; Col. 3:10; 1 Pet. 2:2), a believer can encounter anything and make a right judgment. Hebrews 5:11–14 urges that the mind be saturated with Scripture, which enables proper discernment during the daily, unavoidable interaction within the culture. Christians are not being called to saturate their minds with culture, which they then try to understand by whipping out Strong’s Concordance. Overconfidence in one’s abilities of discernment and self-control (Prov. 25:28) is itself very poor discernment.

Proverbs 21:12 states that the wise man wisely considers the house of the wicked. It is possible to learn by negative example. It is important, however, to beware of the human tendency (Prov. 23:17) to linger too long over such examples and to become envious of the apparent pleasures of evil.

Notes:

“Flesh” (Gk. sarx) here means the “natural attainments of men,” which are, of course, limited and tainted by sin. W. E. Vine, An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words (London: Oliphants, 1940), 1:108.

This article is by Grant Horner and is adapted from Think Biblically: Recovering a Christian Worldview.

Grant Horner (MA, University of Alabama) is associate professor of renaissance and reformation studies at the Master's College in Santa Clarita, California. He is a frequent speaker on a number of radio and television programs. He and his wife, Joanne, have three children, and they live in Santa Clarita, California.

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