In our new series, Anomaly, we are looking at the life of Daniel to learn how to live a God-honoring life in an ungodly culture. We live in a culture that is continually shifting away from God, relentlessly pressuring us to embrace its values about money, time, success, relationships, sexuality and our personal identity and self-worth. An anomaly, by definition, is something that deviates from the norm. The Bible instructs us to live in this way—counter-culturally.
“Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” (Romans 12.1–2)
The question, then, that every child of God must continually answer is, “Will I influence and change the world with God’s truth, love, compassion and power, or will the world influence and change me?” This is a question God’s followers have been answering for themselves for all of history. In the book of Daniel, there is a constant clash between God-fearing men and the pagan, Godless culture of Babylon. Daniel and his friends lived in the constant tension of wanting to obey God while national law and culture dictated compromise. Given that we in America face daily similar challenges, we can look to the book of Daniel for guidance.
Question: How do we live in a culture that is always shifting away from God without compromising our faith? How do we engage with our culture while staying faithful to Jesus?
To give us historical context, we know that Daniel lived around 600 B.C. after Israel was invaded by Babylon (modern-day Iraq). Many Israelites, including Daniel, were carried away to Babylon as prisoners, which began the period of exile. Daniel is considered one of the Bible’s major prophets, and his book is the most-quoted by John in the book of Revelation.
Read Daniel 1.1–8.
If we want to live uniquely in a world of conformity, there are five takeaways we need to embrace from this passage.
1. We must know that culture wants us to serve it.
Just like Daniel, we live in a culture that wants to strip us of God’s purpose and make us its slaves. Our lives are not a series of random events. Our family, education and life experiences (even the most painful ones) all equip us to serve God’s plan and destiny for our lives. Ephesians 2.10 tells us that “we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Our culture wants us to serve its purposes for our lives by enticing or intimidating us toward conformity. We cannot let that happen.
2. We must not allow culture to label us.
Our culture wants to rename us to rob our identity in Christ. In fact, when Daniel and his friends were brought into Babylon, they were each assigned new names that were associated with the various gods of the Babylonians. In Hebrew, Daniel means “God is my judge”, yet he was assigned the Babylonian name Belteshazzar, which means “keeper of the hidden treasures of Bel”. Daniel went from believing he lived to please God to being told he answered only to Bel, the god of his new culture. The enemy was attempting to change his focus from God to man.
Hananiah’s name went from “Yahweh is gracious” to Shadrach, which means “inspiration of the sun”. This was an attempt to change his focus from God to himself, in all of his greatness. Mishael’s name meant “Who is like Yahweh?” His new name Meshach meant “Who is like Shach/Venus (a Babylonian goddess)?” The enemy’s strategy was to emasculate Mishael and lead him from confidence in God to confusion and even cowardice. Azariah (“God is my help”) was renamed Abednego (“servant of Nego (god of fire)”. He went from believing God was personally and relationally invested in his life to being told he had no relationship, no rights, no future and no hope. The enemy wanted him to believe he was no longer a son but a slave.
We must decide if our identity will come from God or from our culture. We cannot accept the world’s labels—we must listen to God and who He declares us to be in Christ.
Question: How have man’s labels changed your personal sense of identity?
3. We must live by God-honoring convictions.
The food that Daniel and his friends refused to eat (verse 8) was likely not kosher or ritually pure, and it had been offered to idols prior to being served. Neither quality was good for a Jewish man to partake of, so if Daniel had eaten the food, he would have been compromising his convictions. Culture wants to shape us into people without convictions, making us fearful to even have a different opinion. Daniel had resolved in his heart to be faithful to God, no matter what. His ability to walk out his convictions was a result of his decisions before his decisions. His commitment was developed before the testing.
Read Daniel 1.15, 20.
Their obedience created room for the Spirit of God to strengthen them in the time of testing and enable them beyond their natural abilities. They did not succumb to the pressure, and they were rewarded.
Question: What are “decisions before decisions”? How does God lead us toward these decisions before the decisions?
4. We must engage culture with respectful boldness.
To effectively influence our culture toward God, we need to engage it respectfully, demonstrate unity and offer real answers. Daniel demonstrated a great deal of respect and honor for those who were in authority over him, even when this authority was not of his choosing. He did not demand or protest, or he would have been killed. Instead, he used diplomacy, demonstrated submission and offered alternatives. We must avoid going into our “holy huddles”, and instead, engage culture courageously, intelligibly and respectfully. We as Christians have a responsibility to demonstrate what courtesy, honor and respect for authority (and each other) look like. We need to reflect Jesus.
5. We must define success differently.
We must rethink what success looks like. If we don’t, we will do everything everyone else does to attain what everyone else wants—we will be just like everyone else. There was something much more valuable to Daniel than fitting in, avoiding ridicule, being admired, or even protecting his own safety. He wanted a life that would be pleasing to God, no matter the cost. True success in life is knowing what God wants us to do, and doing it. It requires us to be different, sacrificing what is temporary in order to obtain what is eternal.
Read Colossians 1.1–3.
This life is not all there is, so let’s live for what will last forever. Let’s “let [our] light shine before others, that they may see [our] good deeds and glorify [our] Father in heaven” (Matthew 5.16). As the culture shifts, will we constantly shift with it, or will we take a stand? Will we change the world, or be changed by it?
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