Every family in the world has its own unique culture. Culture is values that influence our daily lifestyle, our habits, our traditions, what we do and what we don’t do. Some families eat hot dish and jello salad, others eat beans and rice. Some families go to Las Vegas for vacation, others go camping in the woods.
Where do we get this culture? Children learn through watching and listening to everyday experiences at home. As they grow, they copy their parents. What the parents say, the children say; what the parents do, the children do (for better, or for worse). Soon or later, children are exposed to different families and different lifestyles. I can remember, when I was a child, copying one of my friends and afterwards hearing my parents say, “Don’t do that.” Of course, my reply was, “But, Jason does it. His mom lets him do it.” I bet you already know the reply, “I don’t care what Jason does. We don’t do that.”
This is what God is telling us. We are his own dear children, adopted into his family. Our new heavenly family has a different culture, and different values. There is a world all around us, promoting values and lifestyles opposed to those of our heavenly Father; as irreconcilable as darkness and light. But God says we don’t do that. We are children of light, and these things are not for us, these things have no place in our family. We imitate our Father. We imitate Jesus, our Savior. Because God loved us, we love too. We love God, we love what He loves, we love those He loves, we live in love. This is our family culture.