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Ask Everyonce: Our Role in Society
By daniel | May 16, 2007
Question from tylor23: What is the cardinal role of a christian in this modern society?
This is a fabulous question. Before we talk about some answers, let's define some terms. Christian, we'll assume, is someone who follows the living Christ, who walked in Nazareth, died at the hands of Rome and Jewish authorities, and was raised on the third day, validating his message and his claim to be King of Kings. Modern society is where we live now. Cardinal role, let's say, is the foremost of many roles played.
I think if we look at the individual disciple of Christ only, we will miss a great part of what Christ himself is doing in the world (and society). The living Christ is redeeming the entire world through His Body, the global and local Church. The individual follower is a participant in that redemption, and is not effective apart from the movement of the church they exist within. Truly, the individual believer does know, is known by, and walks with the Lord as an individual, but this alone cannot capture the magnitude of Christ's impact through a person upon the world. The believer's contribution to the unity of the Church is as critical as anything specifically individual that he or she does. (See Jn 17:20-23, Eph 4:1-16, Phil 1:27-30)
In my own opinion, the follower of Christ, within the context of the Body of Christ, is first and foremost the expression of Christ to the world and society. Christ's body is to be a reflection of who He is, and so is the individual believer. Interacting with a believer should ring true as if one were interacting with Jesus Christ himself. The individual believer can communicate and live a life that expresses the Rule and Kingship of Jesus Christ, offering him as the true source of truth and life-that-cannot-be-extinguished. (See 2 Cor 5:18-21, Phil 2:14-15, Col 1:15-20)
In practice, my own life is woefully short of this, but that doesn't make what I was designed for any less true. I was designed to shine forth like the sun in the Kingdom of my Father, and I still work toward that, even today.
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