Across Divides

Acts 10

You know it is against our laws for a Jewish man to enter a Gentile home like this or to associate with you. But God has shown me that I should no longer think of anyone as impure or unclean. (Acts 10:28)

BY THE EARLY 1600S, more than 100,000 Japanese men and women had converted to Christianity. But some Japanese leaders feared that the growing number of Christians was a precursor to the threat of European colonial influence, and their fears prompted a wave of brutal persecution. Many Japanese Christians died; others fled to various parts of Asia or Europe. Few actually revoked their faith. These seventeenth-century Christians were seen as dangerous to Japanese customs—and from what we know of the transforming power of the gospel, perhaps they were. But the true gospel should never threaten cultural expressions and styles; instead, it should transform humanity’s desire to build their own kingdoms apart from God.

In one respect, Christianity is a threat to every culture, seeking to redeem, restore, and transform. In another sense, it doesn’t threaten any culture but honors a diversity of appearances, languages, and ways of thinking, exemplified by the multitude of distinguishable nations around God’s throne. This was one of the themes of the New Testament era, when the barriers between Jews and Gentiles were being broken down. Peter went to a centurion’s home and ate with him, and Paul tried to find common ground with everyone he met (1 Corinthians 9:22). The Jewish Messiah was going global, and it took some time to sort out the interaction between human cultures and the Kingdom of God. It was often a contentious process.

That’s why we have to be careful. We are often perceived as a threat in areas we should never threaten—as promoters of an American or European gospel, advocates for our cultural assumptions about our faith, imperialists cloaked in religion. We need to be able to break down fear of the “foreign,” whether cultural or spiritual, with kindness and selfless agendas. Like Peter, learn to consider no one inferior. Adapt, honor, and communicate truth—unconcerned by diverse expressions and unhindered by false divides.

{Lord, your gospel was once foreign to all of us—culturally and spiritually. It crossed many barriers to get to me; let me take it across barriers into the lives of others. Give me discernment to know what is absolute, what is relative, and how to honor both. Amen.