thoughts on culture Part 2
(this picks up right at the end of the first part)
The principle of measuring culture based on the Bible and God's standard is how we interact with other world cultures. Every culture, American culture in the south or in the north, latino culture, asian culture, French culture, all have parts of them that reflect God's plan of the perfect culture and have good elements to them because God's way is the standard. Every culture also has neutral aspects that are not good or bad because they do not detract from honoring God nor do they cause people to disobey Him. And lastly, every culture has parts of it that are displeasing to God because they dispbey how wants us to live, they go against they way we were created, and they lead others to sin. Here's an example:
Helping the poor and needy - any culture that helps those in need is reflecting what God desires for us to do. All throughout the Bible are countless passages that say that God cares for those who are afflicted, the orphans, and the widows. So any culture that takes part in helping the needy reflects God's design for how we are to live in the kingdom. It meets the standard set in the Bible and reflects the heart of God. One important note here: This does not mean that those who do this are IN God's Kingdom but that the REFLECT the values of God's Kingdom. We know that to enter the Kingdom of God you must be born again by faith in Jesus. We can still encourage cultural views and practices that reflect Bible because they still serve in giving attention to God.
Eating chicken feet - now this sound funny but this happens often where I live. I weekly get flyers in the mail from the local supermarket and they often have a big color photo of chicken feet to stir up my appetite and get me to rush over and buy some. Personally I don't have a taste for chicken feet. But what we eat and how we see food is part of culture. There are many reasons we eat what we do. Where I live people eat every part of the chicken and its partly because of economic reasons. If they spend what little money they have on a chicken they are going to get the most out of it. We did this in America not too long ago (not me personally but I do remember as a kid going to the grocery store and seeing everypart of the pig for sale - feet, heart, snout - at Kroger of all places) but we have stopped because our tastes have changed.
Some may place this on the good/bad culture practice but I think this is a good example of the neutral. There are things in foreign cultures that are strange to us because they are different but they are not wrong. They are just different. Our first meal here was chicken heart. It was an accident. I didn't like it. They are very chewy. But they are things in every culture that don't serve to reflect or diminsh the glory of God.
Pink lights - I debated using this as an example because its edgey but you need to know. About a block from where I live are little establishments that are known as massage parlors with their pink lights advertising their business. There about a dozen of them in a row. To do anything more than massage someone is illegal here. On paper. Across the INTERSECTION from these dozen businesses is the POLICE STATION! This would be an example of a part of a culture that does not honor God and is to be rejected. People will justify evil with excuses "they are lots of single migrant workers here, if we have these businesses they won't cause trouble" "if they agree to it then what's the big deal?". "There are other crimes for the police to deal with." All could be statements used to defend this but the truth is clear, man is to have but one wife and the marriage bed is to be kept pure. By rejecting what God has laid out as they way to live and making it easier to disobey Him by not shutting these places down is to promote immorality and a rebellion from God.
As those in the Kingdom of God we are to support what is good in the cultures around us and point out how they honor God, we are to reject what is evil in culture and point out how it displeases God and as a result is destructive. We can learn from those before us. There was a man in England, Wilberforce, who hated slavery and saw it as a wickedness that should be abolished. It became his life goal to erradicate it from the whole British empire. He did not say "It's cultural so its okay" By God's grace He succeeded and all those who fought him were proved wrong. They said the empire would financially collapse, it didn't.
As we interact with those around us what reflects what God values? What goes against what God values? We must search the scriptures and analyze our hearts so that we will be in line with God's culture.
The principle of measuring culture based on the Bible and God's standard is how we interact with other world cultures. Every culture, American culture in the south or in the north, latino culture, asian culture, French culture, all have parts of them that reflect God's plan of the perfect culture and have good elements to them because God's way is the standard. Every culture also has neutral aspects that are not good or bad because they do not detract from honoring God nor do they cause people to disobey Him. And lastly, every culture has parts of it that are displeasing to God because they dispbey how wants us to live, they go against they way we were created, and they lead others to sin. Here's an example:
Helping the poor and needy - any culture that helps those in need is reflecting what God desires for us to do. All throughout the Bible are countless passages that say that God cares for those who are afflicted, the orphans, and the widows. So any culture that takes part in helping the needy reflects God's design for how we are to live in the kingdom. It meets the standard set in the Bible and reflects the heart of God. One important note here: This does not mean that those who do this are IN God's Kingdom but that the REFLECT the values of God's Kingdom. We know that to enter the Kingdom of God you must be born again by faith in Jesus. We can still encourage cultural views and practices that reflect Bible because they still serve in giving attention to God.
Eating chicken feet - now this sound funny but this happens often where I live. I weekly get flyers in the mail from the local supermarket and they often have a big color photo of chicken feet to stir up my appetite and get me to rush over and buy some. Personally I don't have a taste for chicken feet. But what we eat and how we see food is part of culture. There are many reasons we eat what we do. Where I live people eat every part of the chicken and its partly because of economic reasons. If they spend what little money they have on a chicken they are going to get the most out of it. We did this in America not too long ago (not me personally but I do remember as a kid going to the grocery store and seeing everypart of the pig for sale - feet, heart, snout - at Kroger of all places) but we have stopped because our tastes have changed.
Some may place this on the good/bad culture practice but I think this is a good example of the neutral. There are things in foreign cultures that are strange to us because they are different but they are not wrong. They are just different. Our first meal here was chicken heart. It was an accident. I didn't like it. They are very chewy. But they are things in every culture that don't serve to reflect or diminsh the glory of God.
Pink lights - I debated using this as an example because its edgey but you need to know. About a block from where I live are little establishments that are known as massage parlors with their pink lights advertising their business. There about a dozen of them in a row. To do anything more than massage someone is illegal here. On paper. Across the INTERSECTION from these dozen businesses is the POLICE STATION! This would be an example of a part of a culture that does not honor God and is to be rejected. People will justify evil with excuses "they are lots of single migrant workers here, if we have these businesses they won't cause trouble" "if they agree to it then what's the big deal?". "There are other crimes for the police to deal with." All could be statements used to defend this but the truth is clear, man is to have but one wife and the marriage bed is to be kept pure. By rejecting what God has laid out as they way to live and making it easier to disobey Him by not shutting these places down is to promote immorality and a rebellion from God.
As those in the Kingdom of God we are to support what is good in the cultures around us and point out how they honor God, we are to reject what is evil in culture and point out how it displeases God and as a result is destructive. We can learn from those before us. There was a man in England, Wilberforce, who hated slavery and saw it as a wickedness that should be abolished. It became his life goal to erradicate it from the whole British empire. He did not say "It's cultural so its okay" By God's grace He succeeded and all those who fought him were proved wrong. They said the empire would financially collapse, it didn't.
As we interact with those around us what reflects what God values? What goes against what God values? We must search the scriptures and analyze our hearts so that we will be in line with God's culture.
posted by Joshua at 1:11 AM
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