When Gospel Meets Culture
Feb. 29 2008
I’ll never forget the feelings of discouragement.
As an intern on my church staff, I was responsible for an English as a Second Language (ESL) ministry that was flourishing in our local migrant Mexican community. As a result, we decided to offer a bible-based course exploring Christianity in Spanish, inviting our ESL students to come and hear the gospel in their native tongue. After the current ESL course was over, we told them, this new class would begin the next Wednesday night (same night as ESL to make it easy). There seemed to be a lot of genuine interest, and we were excited that a number of our ESL students told us they were planning to come.
When that first night of Spanish Alpha came, we were ready. We cooked tacos, we bought Mexican sodas, we prayed…but no one came. Later that week we made phone calls to all the people who had said they would come. We told them we missed them, they apologized, and they said they would be there next time. When the next Wednesday night came, we prayed, we made tacos, we bought pineapple soda… and the same thing happened. After repeating this dance for three weeks, we figured no one was coming and we canceled the class.
When Culture Meets Culture
In Mexican culture (as in many other cultures around the world), it is considered distasteful to openly refuse a person’s invitation. To avoid the unpleasant experience of disappointing someone face to face, many people who have been shaped by this culture will routinely tell people they are going to do something they have no intention of doing. Rather than saying “I have another commitment that night,” or “I’ve been working hard and I really feel like I need to rest,” they will promise to attend a gathering knowing full well they will not attend. They consider this the best way to refuse your invitation, because your honor is protected and you’re not embarrassed publicly by their denial of your request.
As Westerners, this strikes us as incredibly odd. How could anyone see this as a less offensive way to refuse an invitation? To us, it is more offensive to stand someone up than it is to politely inform them that we won’t be able to accept their invitation.
The difference in the way a typical American and a typical Mexican would act in this situation is driven by culture. And this raises an important question for us to consider: Is one culture right and another culture wrong? Is one culture better than the other? Do we simply need to somehow understand cultures so we can navigate our way through them, rather than trying to judge their relative merits?
When Gospel Meets Culture
Most of the reading I’ve done on culture has been focused on helping Westerners understand and adapt for the purpose of cross-cultural ministry. It’s tremendously helpful to gain insight into cultural differences so that we’re not easily discouraged or confused by experiences like my Spanish class strikeout, and so we can extend grace where we might otherwise have taken offense. However, there is one important question that often seems to be left out in our discussions of culture: Does the Bible have anything to say about this? Does the gospel place any limits on culture’s authority to define the way we order our lives and interpret our experiences?
In a world that has declared culture to be the unassailable arbiter of what is right and normal for its own people, we must answer with an unequivocal “yes.”
Yes, the gospel trumps culture in defining who we are and in evaluating how we’re doing at living up to our high calling. Culture must be challenged if ever it forms the basis for a manner of living that is out of step with the gospel.
Truth, Individualism, and the Shirt Off Your Back
Here’s an example of what I mean: some cultures tend to play fast and loose with the truth about intentions. While it may be helpful to understand the sociological forces that are at work in these cultures, a Christian in Latin America or Africa cannot say, “Let me explain this to you. We would rather tell you something we know to be false, because we’re sure the truth will disappoint you and we want to avoid that. That’s just the way we operate in our culture.” It may be true that this is the way people operate in that culture, but it cannot form the justification for a behavior that is out of step with the truth of the gospel.
The gospel transforms us into a people whose “yes” is “yes” and whose “no” is “no.” When Paul was accused by some in the Corinthian church of speaking out of both sides of his mouth regarding a planned visit (“ready to say ‘Yes, yes’ and ‘no, no’ at the same time” 2 Cor. 1:17), his reply demonstrates how incongruous any such double-tongued speech is for a Christian. “All God’s promises find their Yes in Jesus,” Paul says. If God has fulfilled all his promises in Christ, surely those who belong to Christ must also speak with truthfulness and precision. No amount of ambiguousness in the culture can trump this. The gospel transcends culture, forming us into a new kind of people who are careful to speak the truth.
Lest you consider this a diatribe against people from other cultures who transgress our precious Western mores, let me examine the inclinations of my own culture for a moment. American culture is ruggedly individualistic. We tend to wear this as a badge of honor, and surely there are some honorable qualities that come from the propensity to take personal responsibility. However, the American tendency toward privacy and individualism can make us averse to the shared community life portrayed in Scripture as the norm for believers. Our culture leads us to believe that we are primarily responsible only for ourselves and our nuclear family. Sure, we might lend a helping hand to others if we have some excess, but even our extended family is outside our purview except in the most drastic of circumstances. This cultural esteem for the rugged individualist can blind us to opportunities to love one another, care for one another, encourage one another (ever notice how many “one anothers” there are in the New Testament?) because so much of our lives are organized around our own individual goals.
My African brothers and sisters have been such an example to me in this area. While I struggle to free up a couple of hours to visit a sick brother in the hospital, I have witnessed them (on multiple occasions) laying down weeks of their lives to go and nurse an injured friend back to health. While I treasure a quiet night at home alone with my family, they treasure an opportunity to slaughter a chicken – something they may do only once or twice in a year – to celebrate the visit of a cherished friend (even if the guest could buy a hundred chickens with the money in his pocket). While I have trouble comprehending my responsibility for the needs of anyone beyond my nuclear family, they will spontaneously give the shirt off their backs to someone who is in need… and that’s not coming from a closet full of extra shirts.
When Christians Meet Culture
So here’s the point in all this: The gospel, not culture, defines who we are and how we should live. The gospel says that our first allegiance is always to Christ, not to culture. My American culture leads me away from the biblical value of shared community living, but I cannot say, “That’s just who I am. As an American, I’m not bent toward a shared life.” As a disciple of Christ, I’m not a product of my culture. I’m a product of the gospel. My primary identity is no longer American, but Christian. Peter tells us we are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” (1 Peter 2:9). Paul tells us not to be conformed any longer to “the pattern of this world” (great definition of culture), but rather to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Rom. 12:2). As we reorient our minds in Christ, we shed those aspects of culture that are not worthy of him.
Culture is powerful, but it’s not gospel. Through the gospel Jesus creates a new people for his own possession, with an identity in Him that transcends all cultural distinctions. With Christ in common we can all proclaim together with people from every tribe, nation, and tongue, the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness and into his marvelous light.
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This is a big topic and this article just scratches the surface. For more on gospel and culture we recommend
_Al Mohler’s message “Discern Your Culture” from Na 2007
_John Stott’s book “Christian Mission In the Modern World”
This article was part of our series applying the gospel to daily life. See more from the series.
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