However, the opposite is true with our culture. The emphasis on self has grown exponentially in the last 20 years. The idea that we are to be self-interested and self-loving is regarded as a fundamental, universal truth. So much is this the case that for many people God is not the object of devotion and service, but the means whereby we can get what we want. To the selfish He is a Tool -- a supernatural, celestial Tool, but still a Tool. If we adopt this view, we ll have to play down sacrifice. We'll have to go easy on words like "sin" and "repentance" too, because they are real downers. The result of that kind of approach (and many adopt it) is what J. I. Packer calls "hot tub religion" -- it makes you feel good and asks nothing of you. Charles Colson calls it McChurch -- millions are being served, but no one's getting fed a balanced spiritual diet.
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The church ought to tell people that following Christ and obeying His word will help them, because it will in the life to come and in this life. I enjoy opening the Bible to show how God's Word gives us insight, direction, and help with modern problems. The church is going to have to do a good job of that if we are going to reach this generation. But at some point we have to tell them that we are intended to love God first, not self.
We who belong to Christ are not to be conformed to this world. We are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. One of the ways that we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds is through a change in that which we love the most -- no longer self but God. How about you? Have you made that change? Or was there a time when your greatest love was love for God, but now you have left your first love? If so, you have lost the difference between Christians and the world, and today you can find it again.
A second way in which we are different than the culture around us is that for Christians, the greater goal is truth, not tolerance. Don't misunderstand. Tolerance is a virtue that ought to be developed by Christians, as long as it is defined as the ability to coexist with and love those who are different from you. But that is not the way tolerance is being defined today. To be tolerant these days means to be open-minded enough to accept any idea or philosophy as correct, as long as someone wants to believe it. That kind of tolerance flourishes in an environment of relativism, which is exactly the philosophy of our time. Everything is relative, and nothing is absolute, except for the absolute truth that everything is relative. Did you know that a recent survey indicates that 67% of Americans believe that there is no such thing as absolute truth? Among those who are members of evangelical churches, 52% said that there is no absolute truth.
There is no possible way that Christians can be consistent in their thinking and remain relativists. Christians are absolutists. What God has said is truth. As Isaiah said, "The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever" (Isaiah 40:8). Or as Jesus said, "Until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the Law, until all is accomplished" (Mat. 5:18).
