When the Israelites left Egypt, God was their supreme leader. He used leaders like Moses and Joshua to take them to the land He had prepared. He then used a combination of judges and prophets to lead His people to victory and to call them back to repentance. That lasted about 400 years. In 1 Samuel 8, the people said, “Give us a king to judge us like all the other nations have.” Samuel was upset and cried out to God. He was reminded that Israel wasn’t rejecting him. They were rejecting God as their leader. They were saying that they preferred to be culturally relevant instead of spiritually distinct. God had set them apart from all the other nations to be holy and devoted, but they decided they would rather blend in culturally than to stand out spiritually.
This isn’t just a story in the Bible. It’s a reflection of who we are as humans and how our desires tempt us to choose cultural conformity over spiritual conviction. The culture we live in is at odds with the teachings of the Bible. Jesus says He is the Truth, yet our world says that each person can have their own truth. When there is no absolute truth, there is no standard of what is right and wrong instead of God. We all face the temptation to look and act like everyone else, but God called us to be separate. 1 Peter 2:9 says, “But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.” How can you show others the goodness of God if you are no different than the culture around you? When there is no difference, we risk losing the very distinction that makes us God’s people.
Romans 12:2 says, “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.” We are specifically told to not imitate the behavior and customs of the world. The idol of approval tempts us to conform to cultural norms by sacrificing our intimacy with God in order to look like everyone else. God wants us to live transformed lives starting with changing how we think about what we value. When we value what He wants, we live our lives following His lead. We become less concerned with what others think and more concerned with pleasing Him. We then put our relationship with God over all others.
Devotions by Chris Hendrix 