What in the "world" is the problem?

Powerful men are falling all around us while millions of women are saying,"me too."The biggest mass shooting in history is a mystery. Marriage is whatever we want it to be. Laws don't seem to matter, unless we want them to. Pastors, theologians, writers and worldview thought leaders like the Colson Center and Barna claim our culture is broken and needs fixing. If we could just go back a few generations when the culture was better, things would be all right.

I DON'T THINK SO!!

Let's ponder this a bit. I am going to make my point and then explain it (I usually do it in reverse but I'd likely lose most people that way.) My point

Social exchange explains why someone does what they do and culture is the criterion that society uses to determine if the exchange is right or wrong. However, social exchange, regardless of  culture, is an obsession of human nature that keeps us from the privileges and provisions of God's Kingdom.

Let's take Harvey W. for example. In his mind if he exchanged with a young woman what he deemed she wanted to get what he wanted, this is a fair exchange and therefore acceptable behavior. That is why he first couldn't understand the uproar and why his defense is, "this is the way it was when I was coming up and the sex was consensual." His claim - it was fair and culture deemed the exchange OK. However, society today says that when the one with power forces another to do something they don't want to, then the exchange is not fair and therefore unacceptable. Exchange explains the behavior, culture rules whether the exchange is right or wrong based on a view of justice.

Take the  Las Vegas shooter. No one can find his motive. The only answer is that he was evil. Consider this possibility. He assumed that certain people deserved to be killed for what they believed so it was necessary for him to act on behalf of those who believed like he did. In his mind this was a "fair exchange." Their death balances out with their belief and enacting justice is his responsibility. However, society says that it is not OK to use power against someone who didn't agree that the exchange was fair. In other words, the actor (shooter) saw a fair exchange but culture did not agree. The actions of the shooter were wrong only because culture finds the exchange is not fair.

So what is going on from God's perspective. "God so loved the world that He gave His only Son." Yet, God tells us, "love not the world, nor anything that is in the world." The word for "world" is Kosmos, which means 'an ordered system', specifically relating to the physical universe. This ordered system is controlled by equilibrium, reciprocity, cause and effect, justice. Right or wrong is determined by whether the exchange is fair or not. Culture makes that distinction. Therefore, anything that is in balance is fair and considered OK. BUT, this ordered system is futile and needed redemption.

God sent his son out of His love to provide an alternative, or a solution to this order in the physical world. Nature is subjected to the subjectivity of culture and the futility of equilibrium. Even hurricanes are explained by nature trying to restore equilibrium. So, God tells us to not make this ordered system of exchange our priority. In doing so we miss His solution, a Kingdom we can dwell in that is governed by Grace, unmerited favor, not subject to equilibrium, not based on cause/effect relationships.

Its the ordered system of this world, one based on equilibrium, reciprocity and justice, that is the problem - NOT culture. Culture is merely the referee for which a system of exchange is deemed OK by society. When Paul says, "do not conform to this world. but be transformed," he is now talking about not fashioning our life around (attaching ourselves to) the forces of this age (word for world in this verse), a time in which the natural order is equilibrium. BUT, rather become new by having a mind that sees him/herself as a part of another order, a spiritual Kingdom, the one in which a Sovereign father chooses Grace, unmerited favor, a system of disequilibrium.

So, when you are tempted to believe that the problem is around us (culture), think deeply that the problem may be within us (an attachment to this world). People do things to get or maintain equilibrium with the world around them - culture decides whether the exchange is acceptable (fair) or not.

At least its worth a little pondering ...