A Note from Michael Gossett
Finding Peace in a Culture of Outrage
It is clear that we are living in an age of outrage. It simply seems to be as common as the air we breathe. News outlets, social media, and even casual conversations seem charged with constant tension. Every headline feels like a spark looking for gasoline. Every social post and comment section is boiling with anger.
It is actually not hard to see. We continue to watch our nation erupt with outrage after every political conversation, every debate, and every judicial ruling. We have seen protests turn into violence, arguments turn into insults and disagreements fracture lifelong friendships. Outrage has become the language of our culture.
Social media platforms, which once promised connection, now seem to only fuel division. Algorithms favor controversy over truth because it seems to keep people longer. The louder the voice, the more attention it receives. The more extreme the opinion, the faster it spreads. What people have learned is that outrage is more profitable than peace, and therefore dominates the public square. Even Christians find themselves in the middle of the storm, angry about the world and the events around them.
But there is a spiritual cost to this constant outrage. It is exhausting. It hardens the heart and clouds the mind. It robs us of joy, steals our peace, and leaves us suspicious of everyone around us. In many ways, outrage is a form of bondage. It traps us in a cycle of frustration and self-righteousness.
The Bible offers a different way. Jesus, in His Sermon on the Mount, said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:9). In a world addicted to conflict, Christ calls His people to live differently.
The Crisis of a Culture Consumed by Anger
What makes our cultural moment so unique is that outrage has become not just common but celebrated. We have built a culture that rewards fury and punishes gentleness. The louder the outrage, the more virtuous it seems.
Sociologists now describe ours as a “performative” age. People perform their outrage publicly because outrage signals righteousness. This is what some call virtue signaling. It is the idea that expressing your anger loudly about the right issue earns moral credibility. Yet this modern morality has no room for grace. It replaces repentance with public humiliation and forgiveness with cancellation.
In that sense, we are living in a neo-pharisaical age. The Pharisees of the first century measured holiness by external performance. Our culture measures it by online outrage. Both are rooted in self-righteousness rather than humility before God.
The result is a restless, divided society. But this also takes place within the church as well. People are quick to share their dislikes and their disappointments in the arena of social media. This does not bode well for the follower of Christ or His Church that He purchased with His own blood. Studies show that political polarization in America is higher today than at any time since the Civil War. Families have stopped speaking to one another. Churches have split over cultural and political disagreements. Even our hearts have grown suspicious of those who differ from us.
But none of this is new. Church history shows that when cultures lose their sense of divine authority, they fill the vacuum with moral chaos and anger. During the Reformation, Martin Luther confronted a religious world torn by corruption and outrage. The medieval church wielded anger as a weapon, excommunicating opponents and silencing dissent. Luther’s rediscovery of the gospel of grace reintroduced peace, which is truly peace with God through justification by faith and peace among believers through reconciliation in Christ.
Outrage has always been a symptom of misplaced hope. When people lose faith in God’s sovereignty, they cling to control. When control slips away, anger fills the void.
The Biblical Foundation of Peace
The peace that Jesus describes is not wishful or shallow. It is rooted in the character and covenant of God. The Hebrew word, shalom, means more than the absence of conflict. It means wholeness, harmony, and completeness. It describes a life in right relationship with God, others, and creation.
When sin entered the world, that peace was shattered. Humanity became alienated from God and from one another. Cain rose against Abel. Nations were at war with one another. Families were fractured. Division and anger became part of the human condition.
But the gospel is God’s restoration of peace. Through Christ, God reconciles the world to Himself. This past week, you saw in our text in Luke 7:36-50 that Jesus’ last words to the broken woman was, “go in peace.” Paul writes, “Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). Because of the cross, we are no longer enemies of God but children of God as we place our faith in Him. That vertical reconciliation becomes the foundation for horizontal peace among people.
Jesus himself is called the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). On the night before His death, He told His disciples, “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives” (John 14:27). The peace He gives is not political or circumstantial. It is the spiritual peace that every person desires. It is the steady assurance that God reigns and that His purposes cannot fail.
When Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers,” He is calling us to sanctification. To be a peacemaker is to embody the peace of God and extend it into a broken world.
Peacemaking in a Time of Rage
Peacemakers are not passive observers. They are active in the role of reconciling others in Christ. They do not ignore truth to keep the peace, but they speak the truth in love in order to make peace. This is the key difference.
Jesus Himself modeled this perfectly. He confronted sin without cruelty. He spoke truth with gentleness. He could rebuke the Pharisees one moment and forgive the repentant sinner the next. His peace was not weakness. It was power restrained by the love and truth of the gospel.
That is the kind of peace our culture desperately needs today. Our world confuses gentleness with compromise. But in Scripture, gentleness is strength under control. It is the fruit of a heart anchored in God’s sovereignty.
If God rules over all things, then we do not need to respond to every cultural storm with panic. We can live with calm conviction. Outrage comes from fear that the world is out of control. Peace comes from faith that Christ is on the throne.
Augustine described peace as “the tranquility of order” which is the harmony that comes when all things are rightly related under God. When our hearts are ordered around His glory, we no longer need to win every argument or have the last word. We can love our enemies, pray for those who persecute us, and bless those who curse us. That is not weakness. That is supernatural strength.
Recovering Peace in Our Own Hearts
Before we can bring peace to others, we must first be people at peace with God. Many Christians live with internal conflict because they have forgotten who they are in Christ. They allow the world’s outrage to seep into their hearts. They live as though the world is falling apart, when in reality, the kingdom of God is unshaken.
The way to recover peace is to return to the gospel daily. Spend more time in prayer than on social media. Let Scripture form your responses instead of headlines. Saturate your mind with the sovereignty and goodness of God. The peace that flows from communion with Christ cannot be manufactured by human will. It is the supernatural fruit of abiding in Him.
The Puritan Jeremiah Burroughs called contentment “a rare jewel.” In our day, we might say peace is the rare jewel of the Christian life. It shines brightest when the world is darkest.
Practical Steps for Today
- Begin each day in Scripture and prayer before consuming news or social media. Let your heart be formed by the voice of God, not the noise of culture.
- When anger rises, pause and pray. Ask God to give you grace to respond as His ambassador.
- Speak truth, but speak it with gentleness. The goal is not to win arguments but to win hearts.
- Refuse to let bitterness or cynicism take root. Extend forgiveness quickly and fully.
- Look for opportunities to be a peacemaker in your home, workplace, and community. Peace often starts small but grows by the Spirit’s power.
This Sunday at Green Acres
This Sunday, we will continue through our study in the Gospel of Luke with a message titled “The Heart of the Matter” from Luke 8:1–15. In this passage, Jesus tells the Parable of the Sower, revealing that the real issue in life is not the seed of the Word, but the condition of the heart.
The same Word of God that softens one heart can harden another. Some hear the gospel and receive it with joy, only to fade away when trials come. Others allow the worries and riches of life to choke out what God has planted. But there are also hearts made ready by grace with hearts that receive the Word, bear fruit, and show what true discipleship looks like.
If your heart has grown distracted, hardened, or weary, this message is for you. God’s Word still has power to change lives when it falls on hearts that are ready to receive it. Come hungry for the Word this Sunday and invite a friend who needs to be reminded that God can still bring life where the soil seems dry.
You are loved and prayed for!
Michael Gossett