On the Relationship Between Church and Culture

"Christians are often tempted to get into 'weed pulling'. Do you know what I mean by that? We are so anxious to clean this world up for God that we say, 'God, we're going to pull the weeds up.' The owner of the field says, 'Don't pull the weeds up, you might destroy the wheat.' When the harvest is ripe, the angels, says Jesus, will come. They are the reapers, not us. We are the labourers, to produce the harvest. It is the angels who will come and take the tares out of the harvest field which is the world - not the church. They will take out of the world everyone who does evil and everything that causes evil, and throw the weeds on the fire.

In fact, by the grace of God we are called to turn weeds into wheat. When I went to Winnipeg, I was intrigued. They put me on television as soon as I arrived. I happen to have read a bit of the history of Winnipeg and discovered to my astonishment that an ancestor of mine had founded that city by emptying the Scottish highlands of people to make room for sheep, and sending them off to the Red River. So I said, 'I'm happy to be here because you wouldn't be here but for my family, so I'm really interested to be here.' That really got them listening, even the cameraman. But I said: 'In the early days, the pioneers came here and they established the city, and the next group to come along were the prostitutes, and the women came to take the money off the pioneers. The next groups to come along were the families, and then after the families came the evangelists and the pastors to start churches, and that was how the mid-west towns were established. Then the churches decided to have a united anti-evil crusade, run the prostitutes out of Winnipeg and close down the red light district. All the churches rose up in enthusiastic union. They did it, and they cleaned the town up and the women moved further West, and all the Christians thought this was a great victory. I am not sure that the Lord thought it was. They pulled the weeds up, but Christians did not go to those prostitutes and tell them of the love of God. The gospel is not getting rid of them that way - and not one preacher preached to the men who had been their customers to tell them to repent.'

If we are not careful we are going to get into a 'weed pulling' crusade in this country and think that that is Christianity. Think that though very carefully. The Lord will come with his angels to deal with godlessness and we must look for his coming and pray for it, and leave judgement to Him. Our task is the task of getting people saved and making sure there is wheat growing, because the wheat and weeds will both grow together. Some Christians talk as if the church is going to get so strong we are going to push Satan across the English Channel. He can go to France and they can cope with him - as if we are going to clean up England. We are not. The kingdom of Satan is going to get stronger in England. There are other Christians, who are natural pessimists and take the opposite view, saying, 'Oh, we're in the last days. Aren't things terrible? Things are going down and down - in fact, when the Lord comes back, there could be only you and me, and I'm not sure if you're sound.' Have you heard that kind of talk? I am a realist who believes with Jesus that both are going to grow together - the kingdom of God is going to get stronger and stronger and the kingdom of Satan is going to get stronger and stronger, and there will be an increasing battle between them and increasing confrontation, until finally Jesus Christ and Antichrist face each other, and I know who is going to win because that is when Jesus will come with ten thousand angels. He has not told the church to establish the kingdom. The angels will establish it finally, but Jesus has told us to get on and announce it, and get everybody we can into the kingdom. That is a balance which is needed in Christian thinking." - David Pawson (A Commentary on Jude, 2011)