food for thought - on birthday parties & the like
September 5, 2011
I was reading a Christian blogpost and read the following -
The yellow highlighting is mine. This caught my eye. Many times when I discuss certain hot topic issues with fellow Christians today, and bring up the idea that we should be set apart and reject certain activities because of their role in secular culture, I am most often met with "the Bible doesn't say it's wrong, so why should I reject it?" Here then, is a perfect example of where the Bible does not explicitly say it is wrong, and really, birthday celebrations are not wrong, but the early Christians had rejected this practice precisely to set themselves apart from the surrounding pagan culture.
I wonder how this would apply to us Christians today. Have we become too lax in our standards and have become just 'one of' the rest of this secular culture? Is it not ironic that today we again place such a huge emphasis on birthdays - going out and getting drunk/buzzed, or partying/dancing, or doing some big trip/activity? Do our birthday parties glorify ourselves, our birth, our day? Or do they glorify God? It's all up to personal conviction really, and a personal reflection of our motives for what we do. There is no right or wrong. Personally, I've stopped taking the initiative in celebrating my birthday. I decided to stop precisely because all the emphasis on throwing surprises or planning a 'big' event became a bit meaningless to me and seemed to me to place a bit too much attention and glory on myself and definitely not on God. May I decrease, and He increase in my life.
Now aside from birthdays, what about the rest of what our secular culture values, loves, and is big on? What about things like drinking? The Bible doesn't forbid it; it definitely has PLENTY of verses talking of precautions, and also relating drinkers to fools (read Proverbs), but yes, it doesn't outright forbid it. But in light of how heavily saturated our culture is in drinking, what should be our practice? How should we be set apart for the glory of God? Or what about crude movies? Or crude jokes? Or gambling? Or going to certain party hot spots?
Too often we look merely at the 'do's' or 'don'ts' of the Bible and stop there. We throw out the 'don'ts' that we know were cultural to Biblical times and yet we fail to realize that there are certain distinctions we must make dependent upon our culture, just like in Bible times, there were certain distinctions to be made dependent on their culture. May we stop merely looking at the 'do's' and 'don't's, like children who cannot think for themselves. But may we start taking to heart the principles presented to us in the Bible and apply them to our lives - particularly the call that is repeated in just about all of Paul's letters : the call to live a life of holiness, a life worthy of the calling of God.
If people looked at the way you lived your everyday life, the things you do, the activities you partake in, would they see a transformed Christian? Or just one who does the rituals - Bible reading, prayer, church. Are you living a life worthy of the calling of God?
I was reading a Christian blogpost and read the following -
Apparently, birthdays used to be a big deal for Christians, and not in a good way. Early in the church’s history, birthday celebrations–particularly those of emperors or kings–were associated with pagan culture and were consequently condemned.
For instance, early church theologian Origen (ca. 185-254 ca.) wrote rather scathingly,
Indeed one of our predecessors has observed that the birthday of Pharaoh is recorded in Genesis and recounts that it is the wicked man who, being in love with the affairs of birth and becoming, celebrates his birthday. But we, taking our cure from that interpreter, discover that nowhere in the scriptures is a birthday celebrated by a righteous person.At that time, Roman society was big on birthdays. You might even remember that John the Baptist was beheaded in celebration of Herod’s birthday (Matt. 14). The early Christians therefore rejected this practice as a sign of distinction from the surrounding pagan culture. As a result, Christians did not formally observe Christmas for the first 300 years of the church’s existence. (source)
The yellow highlighting is mine. This caught my eye. Many times when I discuss certain hot topic issues with fellow Christians today, and bring up the idea that we should be set apart and reject certain activities because of their role in secular culture, I am most often met with "the Bible doesn't say it's wrong, so why should I reject it?" Here then, is a perfect example of where the Bible does not explicitly say it is wrong, and really, birthday celebrations are not wrong, but the early Christians had rejected this practice precisely to set themselves apart from the surrounding pagan culture.
I wonder how this would apply to us Christians today. Have we become too lax in our standards and have become just 'one of' the rest of this secular culture? Is it not ironic that today we again place such a huge emphasis on birthdays - going out and getting drunk/buzzed, or partying/dancing, or doing some big trip/activity? Do our birthday parties glorify ourselves, our birth, our day? Or do they glorify God? It's all up to personal conviction really, and a personal reflection of our motives for what we do. There is no right or wrong. Personally, I've stopped taking the initiative in celebrating my birthday. I decided to stop precisely because all the emphasis on throwing surprises or planning a 'big' event became a bit meaningless to me and seemed to me to place a bit too much attention and glory on myself and definitely not on God. May I decrease, and He increase in my life.
Now aside from birthdays, what about the rest of what our secular culture values, loves, and is big on? What about things like drinking? The Bible doesn't forbid it; it definitely has PLENTY of verses talking of precautions, and also relating drinkers to fools (read Proverbs), but yes, it doesn't outright forbid it. But in light of how heavily saturated our culture is in drinking, what should be our practice? How should we be set apart for the glory of God? Or what about crude movies? Or crude jokes? Or gambling? Or going to certain party hot spots?
Too often we look merely at the 'do's' or 'don'ts' of the Bible and stop there. We throw out the 'don'ts' that we know were cultural to Biblical times and yet we fail to realize that there are certain distinctions we must make dependent upon our culture, just like in Bible times, there were certain distinctions to be made dependent on their culture. May we stop merely looking at the 'do's' and 'don't's, like children who cannot think for themselves. But may we start taking to heart the principles presented to us in the Bible and apply them to our lives - particularly the call that is repeated in just about all of Paul's letters : the call to live a life of holiness, a life worthy of the calling of God.
If people looked at the way you lived your everyday life, the things you do, the activities you partake in, would they see a transformed Christian? Or just one who does the rituals - Bible reading, prayer, church. Are you living a life worthy of the calling of God?
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