approval

It’s hard not to live for approval. We learn that from an early age - life is better when Mom and Dad like what we’re doing, when teachers and classmates like us, and when our crushes turn out to crush us back. 

In fact, that’s how cultures are said to form. A school or business culture is shaped by what social science calls social rewards. When we do things our peers like, they affirm us. When we do things they don’t think much of, there are many ways, subtle and overt, by which they show us their disapproval. 

As I think about culture this morning, I consider Galatians 1:10: “Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.”

Paul didn’t care much whether others were happy with him, so long as Jesus was. What would our various cultures look like if we all were that way? What if the only actions or interactions that received cultural rewards were the same ones Jesus would affirm? 

That kind of culture would value love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. I know that, because these are the fruits of the Spirit. It would value faith, hope and love, as Paul wrote so eloquently in 1 Corinthians 13. It would affirm honoring your parents, and not bearing false witness, and having no other gods than the one true God, as we learn from the Ten Commandments.

That’s what our churches should all look like, and any other institution over which we fly the banner of Christ. But it’s also what our homes and businesses and social circles and political parties should be. It should be our goal for all our cultures.

That’s why I’m a Reformed Christian - because to follow Jesus is to be involved in reforming this world. And it starts with who and what I give my social reward to and for, and who I seek them from.