03 | Know Your Lines
Daniel and his friends are faithful Israelites, born and raised. But they are no longer in the Promised Land where daily life is governed by biblical morality and the broader culture is shaped by and encourages their faith. Instead, they’re surrounded by a cultural reality with which they feel deeply at odds, under a great deal of pressure to conform to the ways of Babylon while the consequences for holding faith and conviction are steadily increasing. And while we’re 2 millennia away from them, the parallels are remarkable: The West is increasingly post-Christian, resulting in a rapid rise in both a liberal secularism and conservative religionism. Disciples of Jesus are waking up to the reality that America is not our true home. We are Exiles here, sojourners in a land that we’ve been sent to and called to serve, but we do not belong to the American empire any more than Daniel belonged to Babylon. This posture—in the city, for the city, but not of the city—is what makes the church both faithful and winsome, even though the position is often costly. This week we look at Daniel 3, and talk about how and when to draw hard lines of conviction, particularly as the pressure to conform increases.
Read the full narrative of Daniel 3, focusing on v.16-18. What stands out?
What is the King demanding? What do the Chaldeans do in v.8-12?
What might be parallels for us today? Where do we feel pressure to bow to cultural idols?
How do the 3 faithful exiles respond? What is their stance?
What does it look like to draw hard lines in our culture? Read 1 Peter 2.13-17.
March 13, 2022 - Steve Hart