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High humidity, road construction, and traffic delays are three signs that you’re on a Michigan highway in summer. Temperatures and tempers rise as drivers battle the “right way” to navigate the zipper merge, a common system used when two lanes are reduced to one. Drivers are to merge just before the lane ends; when properly followed, the zipper merge results in fewer delays and accidents. But this clashes with Midwest niceness, which demands that you merge far earlier than needed so that you don’t “cut the line.”
Big trucks often pull out and straddle both lanes to keep people from moving ahead, enforcing their understanding of road morality and etiquette. Some honk angrily at drivers driving ahead and merging correctly, perceiving a moral high ground when the reality is the opposite. This road virtue-signaling results in accidents and delays and, if caught, can be ticketed.
False virtue is not limited to the roadways. It’s a small picture of the culture wars we are navigating. From the local store to national news headlines, the loudest voices demand that we fall in line and celebrate corrupt and harmful ideas masquerading as virtue. Moral condemnation is reserved for anyone who does not do so. Identity, gender, personhood, and sexuality are battlegrounds from the local library shelves to the White House. Evil is called virtue, and virtue evil.
False virtue is only an illusion of goodness and beauty. It promises life but brings dysfunction and death. In contrast, Christ is the source of truth, beauty, and life, and following Him sets us free, transforms us, and leads to blessing and fruitfulness in society. The waves of culture might be relentless, but Paul reminds us in Ephesians that our hearts and minds will be purified and kept as we are washed and renewed by the Word.
As we saturate ourselves with truth, the fear of God outweighs the fear of man, reorients our thinking, and makes us salt and light. The need to appear right is overruled by the desire to do right. Love for God and our neighbor results in acts of obedience, courage, and love rather than compliance and resignation. We may not “win” a cultural battle, but we are called to be faithful, giving glory to God and bringing rescue and relief for many who are fighting the battle.
Scripture uses word pictures of permanence, security, and immovability in describing how to live with these pressures: “Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist” (Eph. 6:14). Proverbs also calls us to bind what is lasting—mercy and truth—to our necks and to write them in our hearts. These are images of permanence, resolve, security, and immovability.
“Stay strong, Mom! Do what’s right, not what everyone thinks is right,” my kids joke as we approach another zipper merge. In all areas of life, may we be marked as people who know and practice whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, and commendable, and as we do, the God of peace will be with us.