Understanding
Christianity in terms of the salvation of our souls has led to a seriously
reduced understanding of the “Great Commission” to make disciples of all
nations. We will only get a fuller
understanding if we go back to the first commission God gave to humans. That is the “cultural commission”, often
referred to as the “cultural mandate”.
In Genesis 1:26-30 and 2:15 God gives Adam and Eve oversight of the whole of creation. We are to act as the stewards of creation both to preserve and to develop. It is this role of authority concerning creation given to humans, both male and female, that is the central meaning of the image of God. We reflect to the world the character of God through continuing God’s work of ordering and developing creation. As with the goodness of creation this is a point that is reaffirmed in many of the Psalms (Psalm 19; 104). It is also central to the picture the New Testament gives us of God's coming kingdom (Matthew 19:28; Luke 22:24-30; Matthew 25:23; 1 Corinthians 6:1-6; Revelation 5:10).
This is a neglected theme, and is of great relevance for understanding the whole-of-life implications of Christianity needed to sustain an authentic Christian philosophy. Therefore, we will spend a little time drawing out three elements of the human task to develop creation:
a. God’s task to humans is creation-wide.
b. Human authority is always limited
c. Our task is always to be seen in the context of
service
The
first point is foundational. To all
those who would say that the primary task of a Christian is to evangelise, and
that everything else is of secondary or even of no importance, it should be
pointed out that evangelism has no meaning unless it is a discipleship of every
nation in the Gospel of Christ. It is
worth remembering that the Gospel of Jesus was the announcement of the coming
kingdom (Mark 1:15, Matthew 4:17), that is the rule of God over all things, for
which we are taught to pray (Matthew 6:10, Luke 11:2). Everything is to be done to the glory of God
and for the blessing of one’s neighbour as affirmed in Jesus’ summary of the
law (Matthew 22:34-40). Nothing can be excluded from this, from the making of
clothes to farming, governing to refuse collection, artistic crafts to
commerce. Each of these tasks can be engaged in so as to invite God’s kingdom
to come or so as to take a share of God’s inheritance while refusing to
recognise him as Father. Anything less than this is a reduction of the Gospel.
An
implication of this is that we are to develop creation and its great
potential. Our task involves an opening
up of the richness of creation bringing forth new possibilities. This means that historical development and
change is a natural and good part of God’s purposes for human life. Historical change can often be guided by a
spirit of human rebellion against God, as made clear at the tower of Babel.
Nevertheless, as Christians we should not be reactionary in our evaluation of
historical change.
Our
freedom to get involved in cultural activities is creation wide. However, there is also an important sense of
limitation. We do not own the world,
“the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it”. Therefore, our cultural activities and social roles always take on a limited form
in contrast to God’s unlimited sovereignty.
These activities and roles have the quality of tasks and
responsibilities we hold before God. For
example: to maintain justice and order in public life, to bring children into
the world, to worship God and proclaim the message of salvation, to pass on the
wisdom of one generation to the next, to produce goods for human use and
enjoyment.
Each of these tasks should be seen as a genuine Christian vocation. When we pray; “your will be done here on earth as it is in heaven”, we should be reminded of our own role in fulfilling these tasks, and others as well, all in the service of God. The Lord’s Prayer must be prayed from within the work office, within the board meeting, within the courtroom. God’s Will is to be done in each and every situation.
We are touching here on a basic perspective on social institutions that is quite different from that commonly held today. We shall explore this more later on. For now, it is enough to say that in understanding a school, or a business, a government or hospital as something formed in response to God-given tasks means that we must reject the view that such institution are basically arbitrary structures that exist to serve the interests and goals of the individuals that make them up.
Within the framework of limited responsibility before God and for the blessing of our neighbour we can outline a different approach. God appoints humans to perform certain tasks that are communal in character. Humans respond through the formation of different social organizations. So we have marriages, families, businesses, churches, governing authorities, schools and so on. Each exists by responding to distinct cultural tasks. These tasks are neither all-encompassing nor individualistic; they are limited and communal tasks. We can evaluate institutions on the basis of their openness to God and others and on the basis of their distinctive tasks. We can also be critical when one particular task starts to dominate and usurp or undermine the role of other societal tasks. In such a situation we can see the real danger of a move away from recognising God’s total authority over human culture and towards an assertion of human authority based in one of the social spheres.
The
final point is that human cultural activity is designed to be honouring to God,
a blessing to those it affects and an act of stewardly love to the rest of
creation. Dooyeweerd summarised the
cultural mandate by saying that God created humans as rulers of creation so that the powers and potentials which God has enclosed within creation are to be disclosed by men and women in their
service of love to God and neighbour.
This will have a radical impact on the way we think about the role of an
artist or the place of a business enterprise in society, the task of national
governments and the role of universities, and indeed about the vital task of
philosophy.
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