Over recent years a lot of ink has been spilt considering the implications for Christians of the seismic changes in Australian society over the past 50 years. The reality is that we have seen a massive shift as our culture has moved further and further away from its Christian roots, such that we now realise that we live in a post-Christian society.
Of course, some like to point out that that that change does not mean there are fewer converted Christians than there were in the 1950s or 1960s, and that may be the case. Yet, the reality is that forty years ago, even if most Australians didn’t follow Jesus, they at least knew that the Lord they didn’t follow was Jesus. In the same way, even if they didn’t worship the one true God, they knew that the God they didn’t worship was the God of the Bible and they believed His ways were good.
However, most of our thinking in this area has been focused on the implications of this shift for our relationship to the world. In some circles this has led to a focus on politics and ensuring that Christian rights are maintained. In my own circles, the focus has been more on the implications for our evangelism. Paper after paper and conference after conference have helped us to think hard about how we need to do evangelism differently now that our mission field consists of people who have never been to church or Sunday School or youth group.
These are important discussions, and we need to keep thinking about how we present the gospel in this new world. As an example, we have had to work out that often this means we shouldn’t expect people to understand the gospel and its implications in just one conversation or one moment. I am convinced that this is one of the reasons churches are currently seeing the value of using evangelistic courses, rather than one-off events like churches used to do 30 years ago. The reality is that for most people now it takes more time to work through and grasp the gospel. Similar discussions abound about the place of apologetics, the form of gospel presentations we need to be utilising, and other such questions.
Of course, this thinking about our engagement with, and especially our gospel witness to, our post-Christian world is vitally important, and I hope we continue to think hard about these things. However, I don’t think we have realised quite how this change in society has impacted the church in other ways. Especially I wonder if we have put enough thought into how our thinking about godliness and the Christian life has to change because of these societal changes. By this, I mean both our thinking about our own personal godliness as well as the implications for our teaching and preaching to God’s people. Allow me to explain why I think this lack of attention is unfortunate and vitally important to address.
The wrong yardstick
Over my Christian life I have observed that many Christians (me included) often define godliness by using the world around us as our yardstick. We may not articulate it this way, but I think we often believe (even subconsciously) that what we need to be is 20 percent better than the world. Of course, I am not using that number scientifically. What I mean is that we believe that Jesus calls us to be substantially different to people who don’t know Jesus, but we still think we’re playing in the same ballpark.
To use sex and relationships as an example. While our society was “Christianised” that “20 percent better rule” generally worked out pretty well. When society thought that marriage was the basic building block of society, that sex was (at least in theory) preserved for, if not marriage, at least monogamous, heterosexual relationships, and that sexual promiscuity was to be frowned upon, then being 20 percent better than society might just have brought us close to God’s beautiful picture of relationships and sex. However, now that these things are not assumed or even considered to be good, what does 20 percent better look like? It is nowhere near the picture that Jesus has for this area of life! As a result, it is not uncommon today to talk to Christians (especially younger Christians) who say that they love Jesus and love God’s word, but they cannot comprehend that a committed, monogamous homosexual relationship could be sinful. Indeed, one might argue that that is still much more than 20 percent better than our world.
Another example is what we watch on television or the internet. The idea that we would watch programs with graphic nudity was foreign to Christians 30 years ago. However, we are sometimes now tempted to think that it’s okay, because “you should see how horrible the things our world watches and even encourages others to watch are!” Indeed, we might be far more than 20 percent better than our non-Christian friends who watch pornography on the internet.
Perhaps we don’t feel that struggle in those areas. Well even more subtle might be our attitude to money. Christians only one or two generations ago would never contemplate the level of disposable income most middle-class people in Australia have now (even in the midst of a so-called cost-of-living crisis!). As a result, the standard of living we accept as normal would probably have been considered sinfully profligate by many Christians even 40 years ago. A generation ago, a family might be able to go away once a year for a beach holiday. Now, many of us take for granted that we can go on overseas trips regularly. Of course, we’re not as greedy as our non-Christian neighbours (or perhaps we are!?), but is that really the measurement we are meant to be using?
I have just picked out those three examples. However, I fear that in many other ways, in many areas of godliness, we are like the proverbial frog in the pot, who does not realise that the temperature of the water is rising until it is too late. In the same way, we don’t take into account how much the environment we are comparing ourselves to has moved.
The correct yardstick
The reality is that seeking to be “a bit better” than the world was never what Jesus called his disciples to be. The Scriptures do not envisage the Christian life as a subtle improvement on how we lived before we came to know Jesus.
Jesus does not anticipate that his disciples will be slightly different to the world around us. Instead, when we become a Christian, we are told that our old worldly self has died and we are a new person in Christ. As Paul says in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me”. This shift is so radical that we can now be described as a “new creation” in Christ (2 Cor 5:17). As a result, through the renewing of our minds (Rom 12:1–2) we are called to undergo a radical transformation rather than a subtle renovation. We do not just seek to improve ourselves; instead we put off the old ways of the world and put on an entirely new person. Sometimes I wonder if I can ever fully grasp how radical these calls of the New Testament are? We are called “to take off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires, to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth” (Eph 4:22–24).
Our point of comparison is never the world. The world is not something to be a bit better than; instead the world’s values are totally opposed to those of a follower of Christ. The world’s moral compass is not slightly askew; its north is south and its south is north. This is why we are told to not be yoked in any way to those who do not believe, for “what fellowship does light have with darkness? What agreement does Christ have with Belial?” (2 Cor 6:14–15).
Instead, our point of comparison is always Jesus. Peter tells us, “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires of your former ignorance. But as the one who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct; for it is written, ‘Be holy, because I am holy’.” Similarly, the Apostle Paul challenges us to follow his example he follows that of Christ (1 Cor 11:1).
It is only if we grasp that our point of comparison is Jesus and not the world that we will ever even come close to seeking to live out the radical calling of our Lord and Saviour. If I might return to one of my earlier examples, how do we make decisions about what we watch and fill our minds with? It is wonderful if we avoid pornography and the graphic content that our world normalises for us. However, we are called to something far greater than just avoiding such filth. Paul exhorts us in this way: “Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable—if there is any moral excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy—dwell on these things” (Phil 4:8). In that light, of course we will avoid pornographic material, but it is also hard to see how an episode of Married at First Sight could ever be something considered “morally excellent”? Or for that matter, even the greed of an episode of The Block shows itself for what it is.
On that note, I have recently been preparing some talks on greed and contentment and so read through the New Testament with that topic in mind. I was struck at just how radical the calls Jesus makes were in his own generation. How much more radical are they when compared to a generation as wealthy as ours? However, as I then came to apply Jesus’ teaching to myself, I found myself trying to justify my lifestyle decisions by comparing myself to other people rather than to the example of my Lord. The reality is that while I am easily 20 percent better than the world, I am a long way from following the example of Christ. Am I alone in this?
I share these thoughts primarily for us to consider our own lives and decisions. However, I believe we need to remember this in our teaching and especially when we think about application. We need to make sure we do not tone down or “de-radicalise” the calls God makes on us to make them seem less foreign to our world. We need to remember that they were just as foreign to Jesus’ or Paul’s “pre-Christian” world as they are to our “post-Christian” one. We need to make clear that the Christian life is not a matter of tinkering at the edges but is instead a radical transformation.
This is also why I would argue that what some call “world-view” preaching is so important. By that, I mean teaching that exposes the lies of the world, deconstructs the entire framework that people have assumed and then reconstructs a new framework in line with God’s word. People are not starting with a slightly off world-view that needs to be corrected. Instead, we need to help people deconstruct a world-view that is opposed to God and then reconstruct a way of thinking and way of life that is radically different. I wonder if we need to especially think about this in our teaching of young people in the area of human sexuality? The reality is that most people under thirty today have been raised with an understanding totally at odds with God’s understanding. They do not merely need teaching about how to do relationships differently to our world. They need teaching that exposes the lies we have believed and helps them see that God’s way is totally different. More than that we need to show how God’s way is not just to be accepted, but delighted in. Twenty percent better than the world is not even in the ball-park of what God calls for from his people in this area.
Perhaps for a brief period of history, seeking to live 20 percent better than our world might have come close to the radical Christian life Jesus calls on his disciples to live. However, if that was the case, then it certainly is not the case anymore. Let’s not be people who seek to live a little better than our world. Instead let’s be people who seek to live like our Lord and Saviour. Isn’t that the yardstick we want to compare ourselves to?
This article was originally published in the ACR’s Synod 2025 Journal.