How does this guide our own stance toward our pagan culture?

First, Daniel models to us that we cannot simply rely on “keeping the Christian rules.” The food was not “against the rules,” but in some way Daniel knew that eating the food would pull his heart away from complete commitment to the Lord toward other, idolatrous commitments. Everyone must watch for the same dangers. We have to know our own hearts and the true idols of our culture. In traditional cultures, the idols are family, ancestors, tribal connections, duty, and custom; in more secular cultures, the idols are personal fulfillment, status, beauty, and power. Then there are intellectual idols of all sorts that reign in different times and eras. It is not the formal idols of other religions but the “idols of the heart” that can be smuggled into our lives even when we formally subscribe to right doctrine and ethics.

Second, by keeping their commitment to the Lord rather than falling into idol commitments, the young men came to see through the wisdom of the Babylonians. They became masters of it, rather than being mastered by it. They understood it thoroughly but they also saw its weaknesses, limits, and errors. What a model! We too must not separate from the pagan culture but must come to understand all it teaches.  We must expose the false, bankrupt commitments at the root of all non-believing systems of thought. Then we too can become “masters” of wisdom.

Third, we need to see that the main way we witness to people is not through arguments. They need to see the fruit of God's wisdom in our lives. They want to see how our family, business, and psychological lives are all under the lordship of Christ. The chief official learned respect for the God of Israel because he saw the fruit of the Lord's service concretely in the health, understanding, and character of these young men. (He also saw Daniel's courage in taking this stand.) This is the best witness. Do our lives have anything remarkable or different about them? Is our character and wisdom different from anyone else's? If we have to tell a pagan why we are different, can we do so as winsomely as Daniel?

Summary: We must not imbibe the world's education and values while superficially and formally keeping God's rules (“privatization of faith”). Nor should we keep ourselves in Christian ghettoes, disengaged from the culture (“separation of faith”). Rather, we must be immersed and engaged in the culture, mastering its wisdom and remembering who we are as God's people.