How Should We Then Live?

The question was asked, “How do we move forward as a moral and ethical minority in a secular and pluralistic society?” Perhaps you might simply be asking, “How can I live more faithfully for my Lord in my little arena of life?”

These are good questions for any follower of Jesus.

Before I propose an answer, let’s examine some of this question’s unspoken presumptions.

Presumptions

We know who “I” is in your question. Who is “we” in the first question?

That question was posed by a Christian in North America during the recent pandemic. Fine-tuning identifies the questioner more as an Evangelical Christian within Canada—but it need not be.

One presumption is that North America is a secular and pluralistic society. Although this is a generalization, it is largely true.

Another presumption is more difficult to accept: that the modern Western Christian (even the Evangelical) is “a moral and ethical minority.” My issue is not with “minority,” but with the belief that we are moral and ethical within our society.

What does it mean to be “moral and ethical,” and by what standard is it judged? Do we have the right to that claim? These are more significant questions for another time. For now, it is enough to raise a challenge to the claim of being “a moral and ethical minority” and to ask the question: “Are we?”

Indictment

As I read and listen to some of the more vocal modern Western Christians, the issues appear more about rights than righteousness, politics than piety, leadership than servanthood, and security than sacrifice.

More space could be devoted to analyzing the dismal state of modern Western Christianity, but my proposed answer will also expose that. Before moving on, I recognize that there are followers of Jesus who seek to live as He desires—but not nearly enough.

A foundational cause for this malaise has been well-attested, but little heeded. I speak of modern Western Christians’ biblical illiteracy. A search of “biblical illiteracy” produces a host of results. In 2014, Ed Stetzer wrote several insightful articles on this subject for Christianity Today.

God invites us to live in His ‘Story.’ That ‘Story’ is laid out for us in the 66 books of the Bible—from Genesis to Revelation—and continues to unfold in your life and mine. Are we living in His ‘Story?’

If we do not know God’s ‘Story,’ we cannot live God’s ‘Story.’ And therein lies the problem!

Moving forward

I propose that we get to know God’s ‘Story’ better. We can only do that by reading or listening to large sections of that ‘Story.’ Instead of an isolated verse with a little tidbit of illustration—what Philip Yancey calls “moral McNuggets”—we should regularly read whole books of the Bible in one or a few sittings.

I recommend you begin by reading the “Historical Backbone of the Bible,” 370 chapters (about 30% of the Bible). Starting with Genesis, this leads you through the history, which is the backbone of the ‘Story.’ There are other great resources available online, including the Bible Project.

Once you are familiar with the historical backbone, you can add the circulatory system of the Psalms, the central nervous system of the Prophets, the sinews of the Corinthian letters, and so on.

As you immerse yourself in God’s ‘Story,’ you encounter people like yourself in situations much like yours, involving faithfulness and failure, prosperity and adversity, distress and victory. Before long, you have climbed into the ‘Story’ and are living life in ways that honor God and bless others.

Are there other issues? Yes, but we can all start—here and now—to know God’s ‘Story’ better so that we can live God’s ‘Story’ better.

I recently added the video “Why Read the Bible,” in which I give five reasons arranged around my growth in listening, learning, and living God’s ‘Story.’ (feel free to subscribe and ‘like’)

FORWARD TO the Historical Backbone of the Bible