Why are so many professing Christians indistinguishable from the world? How can so many Christians be seduced by sin? It has to be a lack of discernment. In the third session, Dr. Albert Mohler speaks of discerning culture.

Dr. Mohler opens by looking at the the conundrum of the fish. You cannot ask a fish what it is like to be wet. He can’t give you an honest answer, because all he knows is wetness. Most human beings are just like the fish. They’re swimming in culture and they don’t even know that it’s there.

In that light, here are five wrong ways of understanding the culture:

1.) Getting completely wet.

This is the mindset that says, “Let’s just give ourselves to culture. Let’s just assume that it’s all neutral.” No. Culture is never neutral. Everything has an agenda and a worldview.

2.) Trying to stay completely dry.

This is the mindset that says, “We’re going to separate ourselves. We’re just going to avoid culture.” It just doesn’t work. We cannot live entirely disconnected from the world.

3.) Reducing our engagement with culture to “taking a dip.”

This is the mindset of people who think they can “dip” themselves in culture and then just “dry themselves off.” Culture is a system. You can’t touch one part of it without being in contact with the entire system.

4.) Taking a sip.

This is like saying that we’re going to understand what it means to be Italian by going to an Italian restaurant. Or like saying that we’re going to understand a foreign culture by going on a short-term missions trip. Culture is not understood by taking a sip.

5.) Thinking we can understand culture by watching an aquarium.

Dr. Mohler calls this the National Geographic Effect. We can look at other cultures and think they’re really odd, but to them, our culture is just as odd and/or offensive. Culture is not that simple.

Summary: The overall thrust of the session was that avoiding culture is futile. We have unprecedented access to culture today and the most dangerous aspects of culture are the parts that we don’t even notice anymore. It is so easy for us to be seduced in this culture. Discernment means realizing that we are fish swimming in a giant toxic sea. We’re not supposed to jump out of the water. Someday we’ll be snatched out of the water. In the meantime our role is two-fold: loving God and loving neighbor—our two great prioritizing factors in discerning culture.

Sorry for the shortage of notes this session. We got so engaged in listening that it limited our note-taking. Make sure you get a copy of the recording.