“All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up. Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience. For “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.” If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience. But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for the sake of conscience— I do not mean your conscience, but his. For why should my liberty be determined by someone else’s conscience? If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks?
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.
(1 Corinthians 10:23-33 ESV)

Mission drives community into culture

The Church’s battle cry must be that we are changed people changing people through the hope that is found in Jesus. This does not happen without the movement that God brings about in our lives by which we go from redeemed to redeeming.  The redemption that takes place in our lives must translate into redemption taking root in other peoples’ lives through the power of the Gospel. We form community around the hope of the Gospel. We must realize though that the mission that formed the community also is a driving force for the community to engage culture with the Gospel.

When we are truly growing in our relationship with Jesus (which no Christian would deny the desire for) we will necessarily become more passionate about the mission of Jesus.  We will begin to see a desire to find the best way possible to take the redemption that Jesus has brought to our lives and take it to the lives of others. The problem is that most people never get past the desire stage to actually setting up lifestyle strategies inside of their community in order to see the Church actually making an impact in the lives of culture.

Engaging culture requires strategy (1 Corinthians 10:23-27)

“All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful.” Paul constantly sought a strategy that would help him to take the Gospel into the culture in the best way possible. Paul pens this phrase or a version of this phrase a few times throughout this book of 1 Corinthians. In chapter 6 it is followed by the phrase, “All things are lawful, but I will not be enslaved by anything.” He uses the same terminology in chapter 9 when he says he has made himself a “servant” or “slave” to [people] that he could win them to the Gospel.

Often, when dealing with the issue of relating to the culture in order that we may take the mission of Jesus to them, we focus on the “things” of culture rather than the “people” of culture. Throughout 1 Corinthians Paul is careful to draw Corinth to the point that they can see that they completely lose sight of the Gospel while they are attempting to delve into the culture. This is why strategy is so important. The church at Corinth had gone into the culture without any type of strategy, and what resulted was that they had begun to blend with the culture.

There was no strategy, so they faced problems on two fronts. Their engagement with the culture had led them to lose their fervor for Gospel saturation and the community began to suffer through the lack of discipleship that was obviously taking place as they did not care enough about the people they should have formed Gospel community with in order to help them grow past their cultural and idolatrous offenses.

Culture must not sacrifice community (1 Corinthians 10:28-29; Romans 14:13-19

The quality of our cultural engagement is determined by the health of our community. How we go into the culture is going to be determined by the types of disciples the church is making.  If we bypass community in order to engage the culture we will be drawing them into an unhealthy, uncaring, and unloving community, and that is not how the Kingdom of God is going to be built.

The way in which we react to the struggles and temptations of those in community will be aid us in loving those outside of the community with the mission. Romans 14:15 reveals that our conduct with one another must be one that propels the mission of Jesus in the lives of those within the community of the Church.  1 Cor. 10:28 exhibits an example of how community must not be placed on the backburner for the mission.   You are not more missional when you forsake Gospel community because you think it is better to be unhindered by the very people that Jesus has redeemed.

Community must not hinder Mission (Romans 14:20; Galatians 2:11-14; 1 Cor. 10:31-32)

If my action causes someone to be tempted to fall back into a life of sin, then I have failed. Romans 14:20 shows us that those things that are offensive and cause the weaker brother problems are actual sin issues. But if your problems and offenses come from religious self-righteousness, your problem is that you are unmissional and you actually need to be offended. Sometimes the kindest thing you can do for a person is to tell him he is wrong. Sometimes the weaker brother would rather stay weak than grow and become more missional.

Paul did this for Peter in Galatians 2. Peter was in Antioch, which was a church of mostly Gentiles, discipling them in close relationship. But when Jewish Pharisees came through town, rather than opposing their religious legalism, he wouldn’t have anything to do with the Gentiles while they were there. When Paul rolled through Antioch, he opposed Peter and told him he was wrong and needed to grow in the mission of Jesus and change. We must not forsake our call to mission for the sake of harmony within our community.  Harmony does not always equal a missional community.

Culture is engaged for redemption (1 Corinthians 10:31-33; Jeremiah 29:7-9)

We started this series with Jeremiah 29:7-9. God has placed us in the culture in order to engage it with the Gospel as it works redemption into and out of our lives. When we make the issue of culture about things or activities that we can and can’t take part in because we are Christians we begin to set up barriers to the mission of Jesus in our lives.

Revolutionary movement comes from real life change that is only possible through the Gospel. This is what Paul is talking about in 1 Cor. 10:33.  He is seeing a vision of people living out the vision of God in Jeremiah 29.  This is what it looks like to believe the Gospel. We begin to redeem even the sinful hang-ups we have with the culture around us so that we can better engage them on their own turf. We begin to be the light of the world, and that isn’t about religious morality, it is about hope.  We must exercise hope to this culture, because that is what the Gospel brings.  Jesus has redeemed His people for the good of the many different cultures that they are in so that they may be His instruments to take the message of change through Jesus to the world.