Brian Orchard
Broken Culture
Our social order is broken and increasingly fragmented, as a consequence of the individualistic culture engineered by Satan to consume us. In the Biblical instruction “love not the world”, the “world” means an ordered system of Satan’s design that is antagonistic to God and the culture of His Family. The self-centered micro-communities we attach to under this system are fragile because they are predicated on self-serving motivations. Any challenge to the individualistic underpinnings of our society causes fractures. We are enveloped by this culture unless we active turn away from it.
The Body of Christ
It has taken its toll on the Church of God. We live between this individualistic culture of the world, and the sanctified God Family culture that purely reflects His righteous nature. By Satan’s corrupting influence, Body of Christ is now divided into a broad spectrum of mini-cultures, reflecting the same destructive individualism we see Satan foisting on the world at large. God’s people are attaching themselves to diverse groups to suit their personal preferences. Division within the Church is the symptom of a syncretistic culture that attempts to blend the sacred with the profane.
But we are supposed to be of God’s culture. There is clear distinction between what is of God, and what is of the world. Our calling then is to overcome the world; to be separated from it.
Consequently we remove leaven in preparation for Passover. Once the Days of Unleavened Bread begin, sin is supposedly already removed. Our focus during these days is actively consuming Unleavened Bread.
Sanctification
The Law of the Firstborn is interwoven with commandments about the Feast of Unleavened Bread. These laws of firstborn dedication are closely related to removing sin, and consuming truth; that is, they underpin the delineation of the God Family culture. Sanctification is central to the relationship between God and His people. God demands that His people are set apart from the world in order to enter into a relationship with Him. We are to be sanctified as the “Church of the Firstborn”, existing in a distinct cultural network of influence that sustains and preserves the culture of the God family.
The Israelites, conversely, did not leave Egypt behind. So when they encountered adversity, they quickly reverted to their association with it, as manifest in their propensity to divide themselves. Their culture did not reflect the complete separation indicative of a people under God. Their culture reflected the same worldly proliferation of individualistic mini-cultures we observe today. Rather than putting down sovereignty of self, this worldly culture promotes it.
It was God’s power that brought the Israelites out of Egypt, as it is His power alone that draws us out of this world. That power is creating sanctification and separation, leading to a relationship with Him, and ultimately glorification into His family. For that process to proceed, Christ must abide in us. Separating from sin, as pictured by this important Holy Day season, is imperative to sustaining and building that relationship.
We are to keep the cultures separate. The culture of the world, under Satan’s influence, is malice and wickedness. The culture of God’s family is sincerity and truth. So we actively eat unleavened bread, rather than just not eating leavened bread, because imbibing Christ’s body in sincerity and truth is imperative to Christ abiding in us.
The Bread of Life
Christ is the bread of life. The Father brought us to Christ by the power of His hand, and gave us into His care. Christ, in turn, is diligently preparing those God gave Him. This preparatory work is Christ’s commission, and He takes it very seriously. He is laboring to present complete and perfect children to the Father. Our life then, consists of consuming this bread of life, being sanctified by the indwelling of God’s Holy Spirit, and yielding to Christ that He might abide in us.
God’s word, supplied in the text of the Bible, is our food. Keeping this word is the means by which Christ will abide in us. The ruler of this world, who is leaven, the progenitor of the anti-God culture, has nothing in us. We eat the bread of sincerity and truth.
Keywords:
Culture – Mini-Cultures – Identity – Community – Individualism – Virtue – Morality – Division – I John 2:15 – John 7:7, 19 – I John 4:5, 5:4 – Exodus 13:1 – Unleavened Bread – Deuteronomy 6:4 – Numbers 8:14 – Hosea 11:1 – Sanctification – Law of the Firstborn – Matthew 2:13 – Romans 8:28 – Col 1:15, 18 – Hebrews 12:23 – James 1:18 – I John 2:24 – II John 1:9 – I Corinthians 5:1 – John 15:9, 6:32 – Bread of Life – John 14:23 – Deuteronomy 16:1