What is Culture?
What Does the Bible Say about How to Form a Good Culture?

The “culture” of any human organization is the outward expression of the inwardly held values shared by those who participate in the organization.

Every human organization has a culture. The expected behavior within that organization is determined by whatever values are enforced. Enforcement comes through what behavior is honored or even tolerated, and what is shamed. What people have sufficient care to honor or shame reflects what values are sufficiently esteemed to trigger action on behalf of the organization.

Culture is typically set both by leaders who provide incentives and by informal enforcement. Great sports teams commonly have a captain who will take fellow players aside and tell them, “We don’t do that here.” For great teams, the captain will be aligned with the coach. Each will honor and shame the same behaviors, and thus the same values.

To use an example, in the USA there is a strong culture of “first come first served.” When people cut in line, they typically hear about it; they are shamed for not honoring the value of “first come first served.” In many other countries, “first come first served” is not a cherished value and pushing and shoving to get to the front is behavior that is both tolerated and accepted.

We can see that scripture exhorts the church to build a strong culture based on a value for truth. Faith that God’s way is for our best should underly all the church’s values. The church’s elders or shepherds are tasked with honoring what is true and contending against those who say things that are not true, thus shaming that behavior. We see this in Paul’s letter to Titus, where he speaks of what sort of men should be appointed as elders in the church:

“holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict. For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision…”
(Titus 1:9-10)

Another example is the Corinthian church. It was charting its own way apart from God’s word. Paul calls the Corinthians arrogant and boastful because they were tolerating open immorality rather than shaming it through expelling those in open rebellion. He likens such sin to “leaven” which is yeast. It takes only a small amount of yeast to cause bread to rise. Yeast roughly makes up less than one percent of a loaf of bread yet causes the loaf to double in size when it rises. Paul says that only a “little leaven” will affect the entire loaf, meaning the church leadership must not look the other way and say “It is only a few people” when overt sin is on display.

So, when a church tolerates open sin, it leads to a culture of sin. When sin is honored, it encourages the entire assembly to sin, which is to walk apart from God’s design. Sin leads to death, which is separation from God’s design. When we separate from God’s design, following our own way, we pursue a path that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13-14, Romans 1:18, 24, 26, 28).

This principle can be applied to any organization, for good or evil. Leaders can design honor and shame structures in order to build consensus around shared values. When they do this, they align the organization with the shared purpose.

Scripture exhorts believers to be Servant Leaders and serve a transcendent purpose, to make disciples for Jesus and teach them to walk in His ways (Matthew 28:18-20). Those who commit to this purpose are committing to pursue life, which is connection with God’s design for humanity (for more, see our article “Why Did God Create Humanity, and What is Our Divine Purpose?”). When we do this wisely, we can build self-governing organizations centered on Christ, rather than men, which is the leadership example given us by the Apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 1:10-13).