We often hear speakers mention diversity of cultures as being cherished by God and embraced by Christ. This is a curious viewpoint because in my Christian growth and study, I have come to realize we are to be transformed to Christ (Romans 12:2). In fact, we are not to be conformed to this world.
Biblical passages telling us to have the mind of Christ, to put off the old man and to put on the new man created in Christ Jesus, it encourages us to be less like ourselves and more like Christ. It seems, as more and more believers of God yield to this transformation, that we will display less and less earthly culture(s) in our lives.
Prior to the Tower of Babel fiasco, people had one language. Various cultural languages grew out of the result of God confounding the language of the people for their sin. (Genesis 11)
The questions present themselves, “Should we indeed embrace and, indeed, cherish our various earth cultures? Does God love and enjoy these cultures?” Or does God prefer and encourage us to embrace and live out a Kingdom Culture?
The culture of God’s kingdom is the preferred existence. In Kingdom Culture we speak the language of God or the Bible. In Kingdom Culture we are not self-ruled, but under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. In Kingdom Culture we love God which, by God’s definition, means we obey God’s commandments.
One of the more amazing elements of God’s Kingdom Culture is found in the book of Galatians 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Our earth cultures try to legislate justice, fairness and equality. Our courts are filled with lawsuits for discrimination. However, if Kingdom Culture were applied in our societies, it seems in Christ Jesus, we would not enslave, display bigotry nor discriminate for any reason, but rather evangelize the unsaved.
Philippians 3:20 tells us that, as Christians, our citizenship is in Heaven. We do not hold dual citizenship. If we are saved, we are citizens of Heaven and not of any culture of the earth. I was born in the United States of America, but I was born-again in Heaven through Christ Jesus. Therefore, the culture of heaven is more real to me than my earthly environment.
My personal earthly culture was of Appalachia where poverty was the norm, sickness is tolerated, family feuds a fact of life. My Kingdom Culture offers healing, provision, love.
There are many things about our various earth cultures that are good: food, music, entertainment for example. We can certainly enjoy such niceties when they don’t offend the Kingdom Culture. Let’s face it; nothing beats the milk and meat of the Word of God. No music is superior to the music of heaven. God’s creation is a constant source of entertainment and blessing.
We forget that many of our traditions are born out of a desire to display the truth of the Word of God; for example, many holiday traditions or traditional religious practices. Unfortunately, all too often, our traditions became the goal and began to twist away from the truth of scripture. No matter how long standing the tradition may be, if it offends the Word of God, it needs to cease to be a tradition. (Mark 7 and Colossians 2).
Traditions and cultural diversities are not in and of themselves bad and are, in fact, enjoyable in many instances. However, our familial or societal cultures of earth must not become sacred cows that keep us from living out the culture provided through being adopted into the family of God. We are Christians first and foremost. Let’s cultivate the Kingdom of God.
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