Most Christians live in blissful ignorance of the reality of Ephesians 6:12, which tells us that in a rapidly re-paganising West we are in the midst of spiritual and moral warfare. This spiritual struggle around us is going to metastasise massively, and the only way to survive as Christians is to draw in deep to the faith, and to a community of the faithful, to take refuge in God and His people.

Toxic environment

In our post-Christian society, practices which once were the province of dubious characters and were conducted under threat of criminal sanction are now socially legitimised big businesses. There was a time when society saw it as its responsibility to protect people from such harms through bans or restrictions and by the power of social condemnation. Those days are long gone. What was condemned is now celebrated, and our government is a major player.

The gambling industry demonstrates this. We no longer have bookies’ runners linked to crime gangs taking bets on the sly. The UK’s largest digital gambling company, Bet365, is posted on the Stock Exchange with revenue of £2.8 billion in 2023. The government-franchised National Lottery, the world’s biggest digital gambling organisation, dwarfed Bet365 with sales of £8.19 billion in the year ending March 2023.

The culture in which we live is one of growing idolatry; we cannot escape it.

This is the sea in which we swim, an environment which is drawing away from its Christian roots at an increasing pace. The culture in which we live is one of growing idolatry; we cannot escape it. So the question is, how do we live within it? There are three broad options:

Integration

We live in the world and, in an effort to reach the world and speak its language, we integrate with it. However faithful we might consider ourselves, the lines quickly become blurred, and we find that rather than influencing the world, the world influences us. Eventually we find ourselves accepting standards and outlooks, such as Pride flags in church, which would have shocked us at the beginning of our journey.

This option is to follow the Israelites in the Old Testament who again and again chose to be like their neighbours, with disastrous consequences. In the New Testament, we find the church planted in Corinth, one of the most licentious of cities, adapting to the surrounding culture to the extent of incest amongst the members and drunkenness at the Lord’s Table (1 Cor 5:1,2; 11:20-21).

When we take the integration option, we inevitably become Christians in name only. Why do we risk this? We integrate because we are a shrinking minority, and because we feel vulnerable and scared and alone, and fitting in feels safer than standing apart - ultimately because we have lost faith.

We integrate because we are a shrinking minority, and because we feel vulnerable and scared and alone, and fitting in feels safer than standing apart - ultimately because we have lost faith.

Isolation

We draw into ourselves and in an attempt to protect our faith, isolate ourselves from the world. This is disobedience: Jesus sends us ‘into the world’ (John 17:18) to be about His business. Any attempt to isolate Christians from the world quickly descends into a self-regarding, censorious, ‘holier than thou’ group of Pharisaical scolds who turn people from the gospel.

Bonhoeffer emphatically rejected withdrawal: ‘Luther’s return from the cloister to the world was the worst blow the world had suffered since the days of early Christianity. The renunciation he made when he became a monk was child’s play compared with that which he had to make when he returned to the world. Now came the frontal assault. The only way to follow Jesus was by living in the world . . .'

Insulation

We can be in the midst of the world whilst insulating ourselves from the forces which would pull us in; physically present in the world without adopting its spiritual and moral values.

Every house has numerous electrical cables hidden from sight which carry the power we need to run our technically dependent lifestyles. Every cable is insulated so that the power-conducting wire never touches the house itself but carries the power to where it is needed. Without insulation the wires would be worse than useless.

Any attempt to isolate Christians from the world quickly descends into a self-regarding, censorious, ‘holier than thou’ group of Pharisaical scolds who turn people from the gospel.

Unless we Christians can insulate ourselves whilst living powerful lives in the midst of the world, we too will be worse than useless. We can live and work in the world, have non-Christian friends and share their lives whilst maintaining biblical standards. This is difficult: in our day decaffeinated Christianity is acceptable but orthodox Christianity is scorned.

Swimming against the cultural tide is easiest when you are part of an alternative moral environment, part of a community that lives by a different set of rules, that holds itself to a higher standard, that expects more, and elevates your life.

Distinct community

Personal insulation from the influence of the world is necessary, but we need to do more than that. We need to support each other in building moral communities which are distinct. Christians have done this before.

During the 19th century, England’s Quakers believed in utter honesty and did business by it. They lived in a day with very little regulation and no consumer protection. Traders could, and many did, get away with anything including the most dangerous adulteration of foodstuffs.

If we are to escape the deluge, we had better begin building arks now.

In the midst of this free-for-all, the Quakers dealt honestly and people, including non-Christians, wanted to do business with them. They knew that they could trust Quakers not to cheat them. Cadbury's and Fry’s grew to be great businesses not just because of the quality of their products or marketing skills, but because they could be relied on to meet their commitments and pay their bills. In an era of worker exploitation, people wanted to work for them because they knew they would get a fair deal.

Today we need to be consciously thinking about creating moral communities which say; ‘the rest of the world may operate on this set of principles, but that’s not how we operate’. If we are to escape the deluge, we had better begin building arks now.

Being a Christian tomorrow is going to be bigger than taking a stand on things like abortion or same sex marriage.

The Rev. Dr Campbell Campbell-Jack is a retired Church of Scotland minister; now a member of the Free Church of Scotland. Check out his many incisive articles on his blog,A Grain of Sand.