The book of Colossians reveals that the all-inclusive, extensive Christ should replace every factor, element, and aspect of our natural human life. To a great degree, our human living is composed of culture. Humanly speaking, culture is very good. Every society is preserved and maintained by culture. If people did not have culture, there would be much more work for the police department and the law courts. At present, the work of the police and the courts is a supplement to the culture of a society. When a person does not conduct himself properly according to culture, the police may intervene. Every nation, society, and community is preserved by culture, the law, and the police.
If, after reading these messages on Christ versus culture, Christian parents tell their children that they no longer need culture, this will be a serious mistake. Without culture, children would act like animals. Children must be raised according to the standards of culture. Before they are of a proper age to receive Christ, the children must be built up in culture. The more the children are trained according to culture, the better it will be for them. The children must be trained to honor their parents, to love their brothers and sisters, to behave properly toward their neighbors, to be good students in school, to obey all laws, and to respect their teachers and other adults. Because children are too young to behave according to Christ, they must be taught to behave according to culture. If we did not have culture, we would be barbarians.
The use of culture can be compared to the function of the law in the Scriptures. The law was decreed by God. Romans 7:12 says that “the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.” Used rightly, the law kept God’s chosen people in custody until the coming of Christ. Rich families in ancient times had custodians who exercised custody over the children. In like manner, culture keeps children in custody today. However, as the book of Galatians indicates, the law was misused by the Judaizers. Now that Christ has come, the law should deliver God’s chosen people to Christ. But the Judaizers misused the law, even over-using it. Instead of allowing the law to release God’s chosen people and to give them over to Christ, the Judaizers used the law to keep people from Christ. The concept of the Judaizers even crept into the church to distract some of the genuine Jewish believers in Christ back to the law. Although culture is right and necessary, it is also subject to misuse and can actually keep people from Christ. Culture should be used to keep the children until they are able to receive Christ and live according to Christ. Children need to be preserved by culture while they are growing up.
As Moses gave the commandments to God’s chosen people, parents must give commandments to their children. But when the children are able to realize their need for Christ and repent, we should minister the rich Christ to them and help them to receive Him. We should tell our children that the culture we gave them was only good for a certain time and that now they need to receive Christ. Hence, culture is used by God through parents to keep their children in custody until the time comes for them to receive the Lord. It is important to see this proper use of culture.
Now that we have received Christ, He, the all-inclusive, extensive One, must replace every aspect of our culture with Himself. We have seen that fallen man uses culture as a substitute for God. First, such a culture is a substitute for God. Then Christ comes in to replace this substitute with Himself. Since we are no longer children, we need Christ to replace every element of our culture. This does not mean that we should despise culture. Rather, it means that we should love Christ. If we are filled to the brim with Christ, there will not be any room in our being for anything else. Every part of us will be occupied by Christ and with Christ. Then in our experience we shall have the fullness of Christ. We shall be filled with Christ to the extent of our capacity. The Christ who fills our being will replace our culture with Himself. This is the revelation in the book of Colossians.
Because Christ is extensive and all-inclusive, with Him there is no scarcity. If we have such a Christ in our experience, we shall not need anything else. There is no need that He cannot meet, and no capacity to receive Him that He cannot fill. Since we have the all-inclusive Christ, we do not need Judaism, Gnosticism, or asceticism. We have the all-inclusive and extensive Christ with His fullness. He could fill the whole universe, and still He would not be exhausted. We do not need anything, ancient or modern, in place of Christ. We do not even need our self-made and self-imposed culture. I am concerned that many among us still live according to their self-imposed culture. These saints are always imposing restrictions on themselves and living according to them. There is no need for us to remain in the custody of our self-made culture. Instead, we should stay in Christ and in the freedom we have in Christ. We need to be filled to the brim with Christ. This is the underlying concept of the book of Colossians. Christ, the extensive One, must replace every element of our natural human life. This requires that we not hold on to anything of our culture, for that would produce a mixture. Let us allow the pure Christ to fill our being and replace every aspect of our natural human life with Himself.