How can we make connections between what we see in our world around us, and the good news of what God has done for us in Jesus? How can we build bridges of understanding from the things that engage the time and attention of those around us, within but especially outside the church, and into the good news which an increasing number in Britain today have no understanding, no folk memory from school days?
I was recently passed this example, written for a local magazine, which takes the popularity of The Traitors television series, and draws out a key idea that connects with the gospel.
Faithful in a World of Traitors
If you’ve watched The Traitors, you’ll know the tension that runs through every episode. Contestants live together, talk together, share meals and laughter—yet all the while, a few of them are secretly plotting the others’ downfall. The rest are left to guess who’s genuine and who’s faking it.
It’s clever television because it taps into something deeply human: our fascination—and our fear—of betrayal. We want to trust people, but we also know that trust can be broken. And when it is, the damage can cut deep.
The Game and the Heart
In The Traitors, suspicion becomes a survival skill. Every conversation is loaded, every smile analysed. Even acts of kindness can be doubted. It’s a world built on paranoia, where self-preservation trumps relationship.
It makes for great drama—but it’s a miserable way to live.
When you stop and think about it, that atmosphere isn’t confined to reality TV. Our own world often feels like a giant round table of suspicion. We learn to put up emotional walls, to second-guess motives, to protect ourselves from being hurt. Social media thrives on exposure and mistrust—we’re all detectives, all accusers, all potential traitors.
And yet, in the middle of that, the Christian faith makes a radical claim: trust is still possible—because God is utterly faithful.
A Faithful God Among Fickle Hearts
The Bible tells a long story of divine faithfulness meeting human betrayal. From Adam and Eve’s disobedience to Peter’s denial of Jesus, people have again and again proven capable of treachery. Even the best of us falter when fear or self-interest take over.
But the wonder of the gospel is that God doesn’t respond in kind. He doesn’t turn the game back on us. Instead, He remains constant. As Paul writes in 2 Timothy 2:13: “If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.”
At the heart of Christianity is the conviction that truth and trust win—not because humans always manage to keep faith, but because Christ did. He was betrayed for thirty pieces of silver and abandoned by his closest friends, yet he never became a traitor to his own mission of love. In his resurrection, the ultimate betrayal was undone by the ultimate fidelity.
Belief as Trust, Not Guesswork
That’s good news for anyone who feels weary of suspicion. Christian belief isn’t about joining a new round of The Traitors where we must guess what God is really up to. It’s not a psychological test of who can spot the liar in the room. It’s a relationship built on revealed truth: God has shown his character in Jesus Christ.
When we talk about “believing in God,” the New Testament word for believe is the same as trust. To believe isn’t just to nod in agreement with doctrines; it’s to stake your life on Someone who’s trustworthy. In other words, faith isn’t a guessing game—it’s an act of confidence in a faithful Person.
Building Communities of Trust
The church, then, is called to be the opposite of The Traitors’ castle. It should be the one place where we don’t have to hide behind masks, where honesty and forgiveness are normal. Of course, churches aren’t perfect—Christians fail and hurt one another too. But our calling is to build communities that reflect God’s faithfulness—spaces where truth is spoken in love and betrayal is met with grace, not vengeance.
Every time a Christian keeps a promise, forgives an offence, or chooses transparency over manipulation, the spell of suspicion weakens. The world needs those signs of faithfulness desperately.
Choosing the Better Story
When the final episodes of The Traitors roll around, what fascinates viewers most isn’t just who wins the prize—it’s who stays true. We admire the rare contestant who manages to keep integrity amid deception.
That longing for truthfulness points beyond the game to the God who calls us to live by a different story. In a world trained to distrust, Jesus invites us to trust—to risk love, to forgive, and to live openly before the One who will never betray us.
Because in the end, the Christian story isn’t about traitors getting what they deserve. It’s about the faithful One who took the traitors’ place, so that even we might become faithful again.
Let me know what you think about this attempt in the comments. There are four things that strike me as really helpful in this piece, and offer a good model for us to engage with.
1. It critically reflects on culture
I am always a bit puzzled when some people claim that a particular phenomenon in culture, be it a game show, drama series, or John Lewis Christmas ad, ‘express the gospel’, or something close to it. Yes, it is of course possible for important elements of our culture to express profound truth about the human condition—but our understanding of sin and the fall means that we should always expect the truth to be distorted, or obscured, or veiled in self interest.
This means that, in listening to our culture, we need to listen with critical reflection, asking where the truth lies, and where it is missing or has been hidden. I think this piece does a good job of that, noting the appeal of The Traitors—but also noting that this is ‘a miserable way to live’. As we engage in cultural phenomena, we need to understand why this particular thing captures people’s attention, but also to critically evaluate what this tells us.
2. It reflects critically on the gospel
This short essay also exhibits critical awareness of the nature of the gospel. When I first read it, I was struck by this key insight (which is in fact based on the Greek of the New Testament):
When we talk about “believing in God,” the New Testament word for believe is the same as trust.
Although this will be well known by some, it addresses what can be a common misconception—that Christian faith involves assent to a series of facts or truth claims, rather than being at its heart a relationship. It also addresses the misconception, not uncommon with the church, that relationship with God, following Jesus, and believing his teaching are distinct things which can be separated out or disconnected.
3. It gets to the heart of the matter
Having critically reflected on the key issue in The Traitors, and done some work on understanding the good news of Jesus, this piece then brings them together, and identifies the issue at the heart of the programme in such a way that it opens the door to express the heart of the gospel: we have a great longing to live by trust, not by suspicion and betrayal, and that longing is only met by the one who was betrayed for our sakes, the one whom we can truly trust.
And it expresses this in ways which are classically (and ‘conservatively’?) Christian. The final summary focuses on that Great Exchange, in which Jesus takes our place in order to offer us a new life, his life, which is the answer to our longings.
4. It is neither twee nor complacent
When I read this, it felt as though it was touching on a key issue for human life in a genuine way, without finding a short-cut to score gospel points on the back of the programme’s appeal. I am not sure that there is an easy formula for that, but (as with preaching) it springs from the intention to say something true and meaningful in a genuine way.
And I think it is important that this article avoids having a tone of ‘Christians have all the answers’ or ‘Come to church and it will all be fine’. The shortcomings of the church are measured by the same standard as The Traitors: the trustworthiness of God in Christ.
So I think those are my reasons for enjoying this reflection. And, with the new John Lewis Christmas ad now out, there will be opportunities for others.
But we don’t need to offer such extended reflections in order to make these connections. This is the bread and butter of finding good illustrations for our preaching, week in, week out. And I think these four tests are ones that all our illustrations need to pass—but offering more extended reflections like this make passing these tests a little more demanding.
If such observations can serve to help people see why the gospel is such good news, then it will be worth it.
And here is one such reflection on the new John Lewis ad, written for a parish magazine. I don’t think it is perfect (Jesus came as the fulfilment of God’s actions in the Old Testament, not the contradiction of it), but it is a great place to start.
This year’s John Lewis Christmas advert, ‘Where Love Lives,’ tells a moving story. A teenage son gives his dad a vinyl record. When the father drops the needle, the familiar tune takes him back—to dancing, to laughter, to the joy of being alive. No speeches, no explanations. Just a gift that says what words can’t.
The tagline reads: “If you can’t find the words, find the gift.” It’s clever marketing, of course. But it also brushes up against something deeply Christian. Because the first Christmas was exactly that: God finding the gift when words were no longer enough.
For centuries, God had spoken through prophets, through Scripture, through acts of mercy and rescue as he came to his people. But still, we didn’t quite get it. We could quote his words but not always hear his heart. And so, as John’s Gospel tells it, ’The Word became flesh and lived among us.’
That is the astonishing claim of Christmas: God came himself. Not as a distant idea, not as a feeling or philosophy but as a person—Jesus Christ. Born in weakness, wrapped in ordinary cloth, placed in a manger. In him, the love of God stopped being explained, and became human, touchable, visible.
In the advert, the father and son reconnect through a record, a song that bridges the silence between them. At Bethlehem, God and humanity are reconciled through a person, a Saviour who bridges the gap between heaven and earth. The Bible puts it like this: ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself’ (2 Corinthians 5.19).
And this isn’t just sentiment. Jesus didn’t come merely to make us feel loved. He came to restore us to God. The baby in the manger grew up to stretch out his arms on a cross, taking upon himself the weight of all that separates us from our Maker: our guilt, our pride, our failures, our sorrow. His resurrection is God’s declaration that love is stronger than death, and forgiveness is real.
We live in a world hungry for connection. So many of us, like the father in the advert, long for a moment of recognition, to know we are seen and loved. Christmas tells us that we already are. The light has come. God has spoken, not just in words, but in a life given for us.
So this Christmas, by all means find the right gift for those you love. But don’t miss the one gift that has already been given to you. The invitation still stands: to receive Jesus Christ, to know forgiveness, to walk with him as Lord and Friend.
If you’ve been away from church, or faith feels out of reach, Christmas is the gentlest time to come close again. You don’t have to have the right words. God already found them, in Jesus.
“If you can’t find the words, find the gift.” At Christmas, the gift has found you. Like the father in the ad, will you open it and receive it for yourself?
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Very good, and moving, article. Thank you.
Ian
re your comment on “believing”. I have always liked the idea that “believing” in the NT equates to “be living”. Simplistic of course, but a good starting point …
“To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything. It liberates us from pretense, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us.”
Tim Keller
How true.
Great article, thanks. Even though none of the programme has been watched.
Believing God, is not the same as believing ‘in’ God.
The lie from the beginning, is that God is not Good.
Ian introduces to us a primer on the similarities
of Belief and Trust.
They are different but critically essential co-dependants.
One may have belief in any number of creeds,
doctrines or theologies but at the same time
have little or no actual Trust in God.
The Holy Scriptures which are able to make one wise
about what Salvation means are replete with Trust statements
and many instances of the consequences of lack of trust.
For the Israelites distrust was their besetting sin and
consequent defeats and judgement.
Trust was always the blessings and enrichment of the
righteous man.
Sadly this aspect of the glorious Gospel has long been neglected
in preaching and teaching for many decades to my knowledge.
What is the evidence?
Well in part it is Lacking in much Arminian teaching which
has a lot of Anglican and non-Anglican adherents.
For me it is a form of godliness that denies the Power
Knowing the Scriptures but denying the power thereof.
Simply put Trust is believing in the integrity of someone, that they are who they say they are and will do what they said they will do. It is believing with confident expectation. Biblically, trust is a firm reliance, assurance, and belief on God and His Word. When someone has “trust issues”, it means they lack trust in a person, a relationship, or God.
Before we can begin to preach the Gospel we need to sort out
our Trust issues, which are endemic in today’s churches.
How so? Well people with trust issues have lots of fears.
Worries that things will fall apart.
Worry that we will fall apart, our false selves, our protectiveness and our striving need to be dismembered and dismantled by the Spirit.
We were helpless and, in some cases, victimized. So now, as adults, we resist letting go of our control of life. We have a need to be “in control”
of our stories or issues.
Past betrayals especialy by so called Christians.
A distorted image of God.
A Lack of stillness. Anger, frustration, anxieties, doubt, cynicisms
feelings of hopelessness, trapped and looking for a way out.
Perfectionism. Many of us who seek excellence carry the shadow of a driving perfectionism.
When we begin to learn to let go, we find that God is passionate that we become excellent at letting go and trusting him (an interior state). And that is much more important to him than having our environment marked by order and perfection (an exterior state).
. Denial. . To think that we can be and are in control is an illusion.
Constant defeat.
( some excerpts from biblicalcounselingdatabase.net/Trust Issues )
Trust issues are central to the Bible economy as one writer points out
In Outreach magazine “ This what the Bible says in Psalm 118:
verse 8.(N.I.V) ““IT IS BETTER TO TAKE REFUGE IN THE LORD THAN TO TRUST IN MAN”.
This verse is a special verse, as it is the middle verse of the 66 books of the BIBLE , BOTH NEW TESTATMENT and the OLD FROM GENESIS to REVELATION.. IT is the middle verse because GOD is trying to tell humanity a very important lesson.
The one who trusts in God has few anxieties, worries
or frustrations etc. filled with all the fulness of rectitude
and equilibrium that is in Christ Jesus,
he is enabled to walk as He walked,
has His Mind and His will [pleasure] and meekness
His patience and longsuffering.
The trusting soul is a resting soul, filled withal all joy and peace through
believing that God will do what He says He can do
i.e. “conform us to the image of His Son.” and to be partakers of the Divine Nature”
Shalom.
Even the devils believe….
I’m concerned you’re falling into a trap of saying that someone with anxieties and worries must be a bad Christian and not trusting in God (or worse not a Christian at all). For me invalidating those worries like that overlooks a couple of important things:
Firstly, there’s plenty of Scripture that’s about anxiety and worry and the associated suffering. Whether it’s the disasters that befall Job, or the depression being wrestled with in Ecclesiastes, or the despair of Lamentations, these feelings aren’t dismissed or waved away. Rather they are given proper expression and exploration. God’s faithfulness is a resolution, not a dismissal.
Secondly, one of the key aspects of the incarnation is that God dwells with us. He shares our sufferings, anxieties and worries. It’s less about saying just don’t worry, and more about giving those anxieties and worries to God.
“I’m concerned you’re falling into a trap of saying that someone with anxieties and worries must be a bad Christian and not trusting in God (or worse not a Christian at all).”
Not at all, saints with such issues are an opportunity to proclaim
The Gospel for their comfort and liberation, a gospel in our
[ Church] culture that is not often preached.
You say quite correctly “God’s faithfulness is a resolution, not a dismissal.”
Your references of the books you mention would take some considerable time to discuss; sufficient for now to say
that the prophets though detailing the failures of the people
were given words of hope and comfort.
Isa 22:4 Therefore said I, Look away from me: I will weep bitterly, labour not to comfort me, because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people.
Isa 40:1 Comfort ye, Comfort ye my people, saith your God.
Isa 51:3 For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody
He is after all the God of all Comfort. Shalom.
“Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, Power and the Only Hope that Matters” by Tim Keller is also a a huge cultural critique, that applies inside and outside the church.
Here are some strong meat, quotations:
https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/6592533-counterfeit-gods-the-empty-promises-of-money-sex-and-power-and-the-o
Thanks for this reflection on the Traitors. It is a fascinating experiment in how we cope (or don’t) when trust is undermined at every turn.
It would surely be surprising if we didn’t discover insights, glimpses of grace and truth in our wider society, as we might in every society, for the simple fact that God is never absent. Or to put it more positively, God is the always and everywhere present one in ways that we cannot imagine. There cannot be a place, time or people he is not being present to, but what ‘being present to’ means is another question and how we catch sight of what his presence means is a perpetual challenge! (And of course, words never come close to what this is all about and are always slippery.) Maybe it’s not ‘the gospel’ we should be looking out for, which can sound a bit abstract as though we’re looking for a set of beliefs or statements to be identified, but the presence of God in Christ in his creation including through each encounter with another person. Sam Wells’ exploration of a theology of ‘being with’ is really helpful here, I think, especially as we approach Christmas.
Selling Christmas. What are the main cultural themes, in news, entertainment, adverts, media, even in churches.
It is submitted that Keller, nails it and in these there Emmanuel is not, having been displaced and replaced by counterfeits,
Are you saying that God can actually be displaced or excluded from the creation by human activity? Or that there are forms of life, language and interaction that do not reveal his presence?
And if your presence does not go with us…
was a response of his people, not the world at large, not the worship of idols.
The question of God’s sovereignty is seperate as is the question of evil and sin. Are you suggesting God is present there?
The question of God’s omnipresence and common grace and providence are also to be reckoned with.
Not keen on quotes from Keller, it seems, Tim. It seems doubtful you’d read the whole book for the biblical context.
I think that in my previous comment I could have been clearer: I was contrasting the two questions, not repeating the point. I’d be happy to read Keller, but I’m not arguing with him, (or anyone really) only suggesting that human action cannot exclude God from God’s creation and that we should expect to discover signs of God’s presence in every culture and with every person. It isn’t easy or obvious a lot of the time because there are many forms of life and language that seek to deny God but we keep looking. That helps us to avoid that tendency in some traditions to label ‘the world’ as evil or godless and find God only amongst people like ourselves.
People like ourselves, Tim ? Hardly. You seem to be seeking to create or perpetuate a category, a divison that Keller doesn’t and trenchantly denounces. That is not the Gospel. Creation was pronounced ‘good’, ‘very good’ , humanity in God’s image, yet shattered after the fall, the curse, the whole of creation, groans. Let everything that has breath praise… The Lord.
And how about the questions posed about, selling Christmas?
I think we may be talking at cross purposes here. I’m not denying the tragic and desperate consequences in every area of life of our denial of God and our efforts to push him out of ‘our’ world. Only that in spite of all that, God is still God, is still with us, is still faithful to his creation and still to be discovered wherever we are and whoever we’re with, including those with whom we may disagree profoundly. As I said, I haven’t read Keller’s book, but I’d be surprised if he didn’t believe that God is to be encountered everywhere.
Just seen this quote from Keller, which is on the link you posted: ‘Why did our culture largely abandon God as its Hope? I believe it was because our religious communities have been and continue to be filled with these false gods. Making an idol out of doctrinal accuracy, ministry success, or moral rectitude leads to constant internal conflict, arrogance and self-righteousness, and oppression of those whose views differ. These toxic effects of religious idolatry have led to widespread disaffection with religion in general and Christianity in particular.’
That brilliantly speaks to so many internal debates in the church over the centuries, including in our own day. The desire for doctrinal accuracy – ‘my group’s view is the correct one (God’s) so all others are wrong’ – or moral rectitude – ‘my group is holy, the others aren’t’. We could learn a lot from Keller I suspect – must read the book! Thanks.
You are welcome, Tim.
The book needs to be read as a whole, not merely quotes you agree with.
Idolatry is to be found in other quotes such as on sex and identity which will be considered odious.
In Keller’s Roman’s for You, the relevant passage in Romans 1 is categorised as idolatry.
And Tim,
if you want to know more of Kelller’s beliefs, theology, maybe “The Whole Christ – Legalism, Antinomianism & Gospel Assurance + Why the Marrow Controversy still Matters, by Sinclair B Ferguson , for which Keller has written the Foreword, will provide more information.
It is also notable that Keller, as a Presbyterian, subscribed to the Westminster Confession of Faith, notwithstanding the quotation you have pulled out with approval ( which does not a form a contradiction).
Thanks. Perhaps the at times massive cultural gap between the USA and the UK (and the rest of Europe) needs to inform our reading of writers such as Keller.
You may find Rowan Williams’ lecture on how to live with profound disagreements in the church interesting at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0nIod5f5EY
Obviously coming from a different stable to Keller, from what I know of the latter, but his immense erudition means that he’s open to Reformed and catholic views but never absolutizes either.
It is suggested that for Keller the Gospel is absolute: the person of Jesus Himself, and union with Him, all of grace.
The Marrow Controversy arose within Presbyterian Scotland not across the Pond. It is clear that the controversy is alive and kicking, in the CoE, if unknowingly so, throughout LLF, as is idolatry, in embrace of counterfeits, Dr facto God’s, a la Keller.
Here is one review of “The Whole Christ”
https://www.9marks.org/article/book-review-the-whole-christ-by-sinclair-ferguson/
The review even mentions new perspectives!
While I’m slowly re-reading the book, I’ve not come across that yet, as I’m still in the detail of the history.
Thanks Ian for this article. Unlike those in the traitors castle, Jesus knew who the traitor was, and still loved him. Which is so encouraging for us, because the reality is that we’ve all betrayed him.