Escape the Cultural Captivity Infection

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Escape the cultural captivity infection
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Have you become dependent on the culture to satisfy your heart needs more than depending on Christ? Are you more likely to side with your culture rather than with Christ or the Bible, even on those religious practices or cultural issues clearly addressed in the Bible? If you answered “yes” to either of those questions, you have become infected by the culture! It will make you very sick. This is post #3 in our Healthy Living series from Colossians. In this article, we will show how you can escape the “Cultural Captivity” infection and stay spiritually healthy in an unhealthy world.

Listen to this post as a similar podcast from our  Healthy Living Bible Study of Colossians and Philemon:

In the first article in our Healthy Living series, I shared with you that any opinion or belief that contradicts established biblical truth can cause an infection in a Christian’s heart and mind. It’s usually not just error, but anti-truth. Such a spiritual infection always affects life so it must be addressed. A spiritual infection is usually fed by looking to the wrong places to get your heart needs satisfied. The results are disappointment, fear, resentment, and many other negative thoughts and behaviors.

Thankfully, the answer to all spiritual infections is the truth that has been given to us in the Bible. Like a prescribed medication or proper nutrition, holding onto God’s truth gives you a strong immune system to fight and prevent infection in your heart and mind. Truth is the prescription for healthy living. The key to spiritual health is to dwell in truth you can know, humbly accept what you can’t know or understand, and discern all teaching through the complete revelation of God’s word. That is how you tame the “look-imagine-see” dragon and stay spiritually healthy in an unhealthy world.

The first step on the road to regaining spiritual health is to recognize the infection.

Dr. Paul diagnosed infection in Colosse.

Like a doctor, Paul listened to what was being said by the Colossians and about them. He made a diagnosis. There was an infection in Colosse, a very serious one. It had to be identified and removed for healing to occur.

Paul knew that the Colossians had received the complete gospel from Epaphras because Paul had taught Epaphras and trusted him as a faithful servant of Christ to share that message. The gospel they heard was bearing fruit among them as well as everywhere it had been taught. They got God’s grace in all its truth. They got the real deal, and it was powerful enough to meet their every spiritual need.

So what happened? Paul gave us a clue in Colossians chapter 2.

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. (Colossians 2:8)

Two words: cultural captivity. That was the infection.

What is the “cultural captivity” infection?

You have seen enough movies to be able to picture in your mind what it would look like to be taken captive. You might have been in bondage to something that has taken you captive. You understand that.

Paul said hollow and deceptive philosophy had taken them captive. Philosophy is a pursuit of wisdom. It is a way of thinking about the world, the universe, and society. It works by asking very basic questions about the nature of human thought, the nature of the universe, and the connections between them. Human thoughts. Human ideas. Human traditions.

Whenever those human ideas are separated from Christ and the Bible, they are hollow and deceptive philosophies. As a result, they are like a hollow chocolate rabbit. It looks good on the outside but is empty so it crumbles easily. Hollow and deceptive.

But even more than that, those philosophies are extremely harmful because human philosophies that do not worship Christ are under the influence of Satan and his demons. This would include anything that leads you to believe you can live life without God.

When you study Ephesians, you learn that every human is subject to those “spiritual forces” before we trust in Christ.

1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. (Ephesians 2:1-5)

Through union with Christ, we die to those spiritual forces and are no longer bound to obey them. Yet, they are still there, ever present. They entice us to focus on the material and the external rather than on Christ. Some examples of this are astrology, a psychic hotline, superstitions, and any obsession with angels or ghosts.

Paul says stay away from any system of thought that depends on and gives credit to human thought and tradition more than to Jesus Christ. When considering anyone’s philosophy, the qualifying test is this: Where does Jesus fit into their thinking, into their philosophy? If their thinking says He is just a way to know God or just a good teacher, and we accept that thinking, then we trade the core and eternal truth of Christ for lies. We allow ourselves to be “taken captive” by the culture.

Why are we susceptible to this cultural captivity infection?

I found an answer to that question on one of my favorite sources for Christ and culture resources—Probe Ministries. Here’s what they said:

Cultural captivity looks to the culture rather than to Christ and the Bible as truth and a primary guide for living. Cultural captivity is usually caused by 3 things: Putting our trust in something other than the person or promises of Christ, misunderstanding the truths by which Christ has called us to live, or a combination of both. (“See The Threat: Cultural Captivity,” accessed at upperiscope.com)

When you  have the cultural captivity infection, you are putting your trust in something other than the person or promises of Christ for your personal peace and prosperity. You become easily led into misunderstanding of the truths by which Christ has called us to live.

The cultural captivity infection leads Christians to think the culture will satisfy your heart needs more than Christ. So you become more likely to side with your culture rather than with Christ or the Bible, even on those religious practices or cultural issues clearly addressed in the Bible. You become infected by the culture! For example, sexual immorality has permeated our culture and the Church of Jesus Christ so much so that as many Christians are practicing it as non-Christians. Infected!

Cultural captivity and the Colossians

The Colossian church had been infected with philosophy from their culture. There were three main symptoms of this infection:

Symptom #1: Dethroning Jesus Christ. The Colossians were being taught that Jesus was only a man, not fully God. He was not Lord over everything. Paul put a stop to the “Jesus Is Not Lord over All” infection (post #5).

Symptom #2: Emphasizing works. Jewish teachers were forcing Gentile converts to follow the Old Testament Law as part of their new Christian faith. The Colossians could also gain “perfection” through denying themselves the normal activities and pleasures of life. Paul had to help them conquer this “Manipulation by Guilt” infection (post #7).

Symptom #3: Elevating experiences. Seeking a higher plane of knowledge through pursuing Greek philosophy, mystical experiences, and worship of angels or spirit beings as mediators to God. Paul had to help them flee from the “Spiritual Substitutes” infection (post #8).

Among these false teachings, there was something for everyone, which is so dangerous! This heresy was not denying the Christian faith but lifting it to a “higher level” for the spiritually elite to attain. 

The “cultural captivity” infection was making the Colossians seriously ill. It will do the same to us!

Truth is the prescription for the cultural captivity infection.

The prescribed medication for all of these symptoms is the truth about Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross. In Colossians, Paul wrote the strongest statement of the supremacy and deity of Christ found anywhere in the New Testament. The Greek words he used are specific for this infection, just like a doctor’s prescription to treat a specific disease. There was no way those reading or listening to this letter could possibly misunderstand anything that Paul was telling them. The truth about Jesus would satisfy their heart needs. They would not need to look anywhere else!

It is always time to check for infection in our thinking. As you study Colossians, you may discover that you have a concept about Jesus Christ, salvation, or the Christian life that is based on man-made tradition or philosophy instead of on Scripture. Do you have the cultural captivity infection regarding who Jesus Christ is? For healthy living, you need to recognize that infection and escape from it by accepting the truth about Christ presented in God’s Word.

Infection is bad. Untreated infection can be deadly. Knowing the truth of God that you have in Jesus Christ gives you an immune system that fights and prevents spiritual infection. Let Jesus satisfy your heart needs with His truth and His love so you can get well and stay well.

Learn more about staying spiritually healthy in an unhealthy world through our Healthy Living Bible Study of Colossians and Philemon (11 lessons). 

Read other articles in this Healthy Living series. The next one is Resist the “Tyranny of the Urgent” Infection.

Image credit: sourced from a template at canva.com.

AI was not used to generate this post.

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