Downstream from God

One of my favorite chapters in all of Scripture is Acts 19. This passage informs and guides many of the decisions I make in my ministry pursuits, both as a pastor and as a gaming missionary. I’d encourage you to read the chapter and study it, but I’ll give you an overview.

Paul settled down in Ephesus for an extended period of time, making it his base of operations in Asia Minor for several years (Acts 19:1-10)1. While he was there, he shared the gospel message to both Jews and Gentiles and taught converts how to live a life that honors God (see Romans 12:1-13:14 and Galatians 5:1-25 as two examples). His teaching was so effective that local magicians attempted to exorcise demons in Jesus’ and Paul’s name. These magicians got beaten up and mocked by the demons, and a giant collection of magical texts were burned out of fear (Acts 19:11-20)1. Next up, various tradesmen who made a living off of articles of cultic worship saw a decline in sales because of how many Christians followed Paul’s teaching and stopped their pagan worship (Acts 19:21-41)1. Whether the change in the Ephesian culture and economy was significantly affected or just an overreaction from the tradesmen2, the fact is that people got worried enough to riot.

This is all a very brief overview of the chapter, but there is a clear progression of events:

1. Paul preached the Gospel.

2. People listened, accepted salvation from Jesus, and received the Holy Spirit.

3. The Holy Spirit changed the people and empowered them to obey God’s commands (see, for example, John 15:26, 16:4-15; Acts 2:1-13, 10:34-48; and Colossians 3:1-17).

Without diving into a masterclass on God’s redemptive plan for humankind, let’s proceed with the understanding that, because of Jesus’ ministry on earth, death, and resurrection (Matthew 1:1-Acts 1:8, and all the books in between), Paul was an instrument of God’s in Ephesus. In fact, before item one above, God directly acted to transform Paul from a murderer into a missionary (Acts 8:1-8, 9:1-31)1. So, we see God acted, people responded, culture changed.

Why does this matter? What’s the point of this essay/blog post? Well, this is where we get at the purpose of my mission: to bring the gospel to gamers. I grew up surrounded by a “Christian” subculture that appeared to be more concerned with making culture reflect God’s standards than reaching people to allow God to transform them. I won’t claim to know the hearts of those leading the charge, but the impression I got, along with many of the Christians I knew at the time (and I knew a lot of them), was that the goal was to change culture so that people would see how much better God’s standards are so they would then turn to God for salvation.

This is backwards. We (humans, broken and sinful) cannot fix culture. Only God can do that. Hence this post’s title. Everything, salvation, transformation, culture, it all flows downstream from God. Or a person’s belief or unbelief in God.

I’ll take a moment to state emphatically that Christians all around the world should absolutely, without apology, stand up for what is morally right. The lifestyles we endorse, the music, movies, and books we recommend, and the games we play should all reflect the standard of the One whom we follow (see James 2:14-26). But it’s important to remember that Paul didn’t hold non-Christians to Christian lifestyle standards (see 1 Corinthians 5:12-13). If we attempt to do the same thing, rather than focusing on the work of spreading the good news of Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins (see Matthew 28:19-20, John 3:16), we’re going to spend our lives fighting a losing battle.

At Disciple Gaming Ministry, my goal is to play games as if God is watching, use games to teach the gospel and biblical doctrine, and let God transform culture. The only way culture will reflect God is if more people are transformed by him. I won’t recommend media that contradicts God’s standards, but I’m also not going to force non-Christians to only consume media that I recommend (though of course I’ll recommend God-honoring movies, games, and music).

Together, let’s seek God and allow him to transform us, save people, and change the culture. It all flows downstream from him, so we need to tell people how to be changed, just as Paul did in Ephesus.

Sources and Notes

1 For a detailed commentary on the events in this chapter, and all of Acts, see Eckhard J. Schnabel, Acts. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2016). Chapter 33 deals with Acts 19.

2 To understand arguments surrounding whether the tradesmen’s economic concerns were real or exaggerated, see pp. 576-579 in I. Howard Marshal, Acts: An Introduction and Commentary. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1980).