In the last couple posts, we discussed the fact that, because of General Revelation and Scriptural Revelation, a Christian artist’s works can be used by God’s Spirit as conduits of communication of the Truth of the reality of Christ.  We also saw how contexts helped the understanding of audiences in perceiving the insights embedded in those works of art.  We further saw how cultural contexts aided and hindered audiences in their grasp of, and embrace of, those same works of art.

Cultural contexts are, by their nature, vast and all-enveloping within any given culture (affecting even the smallest of artistic interactions in a culture).  This week, we will move to a consideration of two smaller, interlocking contexts: The Church and individual Christian artists’ lives and actions.

In some ways, this is the same situation on two levels, for Scripture teaches that Christians (despite modern tendencies to see the Faith as a strictly individual undertaking, and the Church as simply a collection of gathered individuals with common interests) are actually to find their identity in the corporate entity of the Church as “a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people” (1 Peter 2:4-10).

Thus, each individual Christian, as a royal priest of God’s Holy Nation, the Church, represents both the entity of the Church and the Lord Jesus Himself (since the Church is Christ’s Body on earth, of which He is the Head (Eph 4:7-16; Col 2:19).  As a priestly representative of Christ and His Church, every Christian’s actions reflect upon both his Lord and his brothers and sisters in Christ.  As John Donne said, “No man is an island.”

The individual Christian’s representative actions are one half of a sort of feedback loop, the corresponding action of which is the corporate action of the Church as a Body, especially in worship, wherein the individual Christians are taught from, and see acted out, the Word, which in turn forms each Christian’s idea of how their lives should be lived out in light of the Spirit’s Illumination of Scripture.  This work is of such importance that God has established a government of ministers over the Church (Jer 3:15, 23:4; Acts 20-28; Eph 4:11-13; etc.) to see that the Church’s tasks are well-ordered.  These servant leaders face a greater responsibility and a stricter judgement if they fail at their oversight, especially in their task of teaching the Bible (James 3:1; Heb 13:17; Ezek 33:6; etc.).

Thus, there are two spheres of interlocking contexts for every believer—the individual and the corporate (e.g., the Church).  Both of these spheres can (and will) radically affect each other.  They should do so positively.  They frequently do so negatively, unfortunately.

What we must realize is that each of these spheres represent Christ in the society around them, the individual representing Christ (and a small picture of the Church) in his solitary actions, and the corporate actions of the Church, as the larger Community of Christ, representing their Lord in a broader (and potentially much farther-reaching) fashion.  Each of us, as Christians, represent Christ both as members of Christ’s Body in our actions together as the Church and as individuals in our actions to the society around us.

Why?  To what purpose?  We are called and commanded to follow Christ’s example as His Body and priests so that the world can see acted out in our lives how Christ acted, and thus see how His actions have changed and cleansed us, so that unbelievers may come to believe in the gospel’s Truth and Power, and want Christ to change them as well (1 John 1:6; 1 Cor 11:1; etc.).  Thus, much stress is laid on the responsibility of Christians to obey His Commands (1 John 2:3-5; John 14:21, 23, 15:10; etc.).  If we do not act as Jesus did, the world will not take the gospel seriously, because they won’t believe it really changes lives.

The Lord Himself gave an example of this, as recorded by John the Apostle in John 13:34-35: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: as I have loved you, that you also love one another.  By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

This is as clear as a bell.  Love each other as He has loved us (e.g., act as He has acted), so that everyone will know that we are Christ’s disciples.  The converse is also true: if we do not love each other as Christ loved us (e.g., if we do not act as Jesus did), it will be known that we are not His followers, and thus we will fail to be what we are called by God to be.  We will, as individuals and the Church, be accounted hypocrites and irrelevant to the pagan culture around us (Dr. Francis Schaeffer treated this topic most excellently in his little book The Mark of the Christian, which I highly recommend).

What does this have to do with Christians and art?  Everything.  If our lives, both as individual believers, and as the Church, do not reflect the authentic Christ-like holiness that the Bible demands of us, then the culture around us will be justified in concluding that the insights and Truth embedded and carried in our works of art are, at worst, hypocritical or deluded lies, or, at best, either irrelevant or something other than they are represented to be.

Truth is not just rational, propositional concepts.  Nor is it only sentimental and emotional.  It is much broader than these things, though it does encompass them.  Truth is meant to touch and change the entire spectrum of human experience and reality.  Truth, though absolute, must be communicated in a context.  If the context (our individual and corporate lives) does not match up to the Truth of Christ carried in our art, it seems to the unbelieving audience to give the lie to God’s Truth and invalidate it.

If our walk doesn’t match our talk, then the infidels around us will conclude that the gospel is a lie (which is understandable, unfortunately).  Our art, even if it is not explicit in its presentation of the gospel (as we’ve discussed in the past four posts), should nonetheless be produced from the context of godly Christian lives.  The consistency between art and life will speak volumes to the surrounding unbelievers, and will gain us legitimate respect and the freedom to speak to people who will listen.

There has been much ballyhoo in recent years about outspoken Christian musicians and actors in positions of cultural prominence.  All too frequently, though, their proclamation of the gospel has been compromised and damaged in the eyes of the world by their subsequent ungodly actions and lifestyles, leaving their nonbelieving audiences feeling that Christianity is a farce.

May God deliver us as Christian artists from inconsistent lifestyles, so that we can establish contexts of holiness in our lives, from which can flow works of art which can be effectively used by God’s Spirit as channels of Christ’s Grace and Mercy.

For more information, go to www.patreon.com/kempercrabb