Cancel culture is a worldview in which anything or anyone that is deemed by a certain group to be wrong, intolerant, or undesirable should be ‘cancelled’ and done away with, removed from sight, and removed from conversation. There is no redemption; just an admission that you are forever wrong, someone else is forever right, and there is nothing you can do to change it.
The problem with this is that there is no foundational way to decide just exactly what and who is right or wrong, and no way to determine the final authority on anything. The only measuring stick seems to be propaganda with little thought of context.
Conservatives like to say that the left or liberals are the only ones engaged in cancel culture, but they can be just a guilty when faced with an opinion that is different from there's
The Scriptures present us with such a scenario. Adultery was an offense punishable by death. It was wrong and there was no excuse, and so it is not surprising that Jesus would encounter a situation where a woman was about to be stoned to death for doing it.
John 8:2-5 NIV At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”
Jesus does not join the Pharisees in condemnation, but neither does he ignore in the sin. He does not join the angry mob ready to kill someone, but he certainly does not encourage the sin. He shows the perfect balance between grace and truth, and speaks in love that he is unaccepting of the sin, but offers an opportunity for repentance and redemption.
John 8:7-11 NIV When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
In a culture driven by social media we spend time debating people have never met, and will likely never meet, arguing about things we can’t control. We divide ourselves over politics, over candidates, over sports teams, over sporting events, over favorite colors, over favorite foods, and over about anything. We feel the need to weigh in on every issue, it is easier than ever to make enemies.
We have gone from a ‘Judeo-Christian’ based culture, to a ‘everyone should do what is right for themselves’ culture, and currently find ourselves in a ‘cancel culture’. Show me a condemning, hyper judgmental person, and I’ll show you someone with a sign of possible sin in his or her life. In fact, the thing they’re always criticizing other people for may be their issue. Maybe they’re projecting their own sin onto others.
Matthew 7:3-4 NIV “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?
Jesus was saying, “Why are you looking for a tiny piece of sawdust in your friend’s eye when you have a telephone pole in your eye?”
We’re so quick to go after minutiae in another Christian’s life when we are guilty of a lot worse in our own lives. Just maybe the reason we’re so quick to see sin in someone else is because we’re so familiar with it ourselves.
So be careful. If we’re so quick to judge, then are we prepared to be judged with the same type of judgment we use for others?
Matthew 7:1-2 NIV “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
The problem with this is that there is no foundational way to decide just exactly what and who is right or wrong, and no way to determine the final authority on anything. The only measuring stick seems to be propaganda with little thought of context.
Conservatives like to say that the left or liberals are the only ones engaged in cancel culture, but they can be just a guilty when faced with an opinion that is different from there's
The Scriptures present us with such a scenario. Adultery was an offense punishable by death. It was wrong and there was no excuse, and so it is not surprising that Jesus would encounter a situation where a woman was about to be stoned to death for doing it.
John 8:2-5 NIV At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”
Jesus does not join the Pharisees in condemnation, but neither does he ignore in the sin. He does not join the angry mob ready to kill someone, but he certainly does not encourage the sin. He shows the perfect balance between grace and truth, and speaks in love that he is unaccepting of the sin, but offers an opportunity for repentance and redemption.
John 8:7-11 NIV When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
In a culture driven by social media we spend time debating people have never met, and will likely never meet, arguing about things we can’t control. We divide ourselves over politics, over candidates, over sports teams, over sporting events, over favorite colors, over favorite foods, and over about anything. We feel the need to weigh in on every issue, it is easier than ever to make enemies.
We have gone from a ‘Judeo-Christian’ based culture, to a ‘everyone should do what is right for themselves’ culture, and currently find ourselves in a ‘cancel culture’. Show me a condemning, hyper judgmental person, and I’ll show you someone with a sign of possible sin in his or her life. In fact, the thing they’re always criticizing other people for may be their issue. Maybe they’re projecting their own sin onto others.
Matthew 7:3-4 NIV “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?
Jesus was saying, “Why are you looking for a tiny piece of sawdust in your friend’s eye when you have a telephone pole in your eye?”
We’re so quick to go after minutiae in another Christian’s life when we are guilty of a lot worse in our own lives. Just maybe the reason we’re so quick to see sin in someone else is because we’re so familiar with it ourselves.
So be careful. If we’re so quick to judge, then are we prepared to be judged with the same type of judgment we use for others?
Matthew 7:1-2 NIV “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
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