I grew up in South Africa (1947-1965), and in particular Zululand in the southeastern province of Natal. I learned local cultural values from one of my Zulu playmates. I also grew up in a home in Zululand with parents who came from Michigan with their own cultural values. Then I also attended government schools in northern Zululand with British and Afrikaner (local Dutch) cultures. But most importantly, I grew up in a home that valued a ‘Christian culture’. This is the culture that influenced most of my thinking, so that when I started reading the Bible for myself, I identified with values that were instilled in me by godly parents. I slowly discovered that the ‘Christian culture’ is trans-cultural; it is exemplified through all cultures and provides stability in all types of cultural situations. The most important lesson I discovered is that the Christian life is really about a lifestyle that learns to ‘watch God at work’ in others. I’ve since come to appreciate that the Bible records God’s Story so that I learn what He does in the lives of others in their journey of faith. It becomes quite personal when I see how He uses me to touch the lives of others for Him! It has become a lifelong journey for me to learn to appreciate the God of the Bible who wrote HIStory for me to read and think about.
We are typically egocentric – we believe our perspective is correct and better than others – so that when we read and think through the Bible, we make little effort to understand another culture. To truly appreciate how God related to individuals, families, and nations, we need to adapt to the cultural lenses of those in the Bible. This does not require putting our cultural values aside, but adding theirs. This allows us to appreciate their responses to God.
While Jayne and I prepared for her to move to South Africa, and for me to return there, we attended some classes covering the importance of cultural diversity. As beneficial as this was, it was easy to assume that since we had an ‘education’ in cultural awareness, our judgments were better. When ‘short-termers’ stayed in our home for exposure to cross-cultural ministry, we suggested they relate to a new culture by asking why they did things the way they did instead of asking why others did things differently. This helped them address any personal attitude of superiority. It wasn’t long before they put aside their personal agendas and focused on the diversity found in other cultures. This approach helps in receiving a genuine appreciation of God’s work in others through diversity. God’s grace is active in all cultures, and we appreciate this in new ways not obvious to us in our own cultures. We are compelled to love others, and this love is expressed to the degree we understand others. We truly love others when it is expressed in ways they understand love. An example of this is how friendship is expressed. In Africa we are expected to visit friends unannounced, and accept that at least a cup of tea, if not a full meal, is included in the visit, no matter how much preparation time is involved. If a time, place and agenda for meeting are always prearranged, the relationship cannot be open and spontaneous.
If we are accustomed to making quick judgments about people’s motives and character, we won’t do very well in understanding God’s Story that describes His unexpected visits with people from the beginning of time!
As we read and think about their responses to God’s visitations in faith, or their rebellion, we are able to suspend judgment and think more before drawing conclusions. We easily believe the worst in others, which is really called prejudice. The Bible calls it sin!
If we approach ‘Thinking through the Bible’ as intended, we can learn from our mistaken understandings of the past. We easily confuse facts with our interpretation of the facts. Our cultures teach us to make quick decisions and judgments so that we are restricted from keeping our minds open to culturally appropriate explanations. When we do this in our Bible reading, we are slow to accept the description of God from the Bible. This leads to biased answers that make more sense to our own cultural context. Then we justify our conclusions and ignore facts that contradict our positions. If we follow this pattern long enough, we develop a diminished view of others as our selfish view inflates. It isn’t long before others find it quite difficult to relate to our attitude of superiority.
God created human diversity, and the more we appreciate it, the more we gain insight about God and His world. His Story starts with declaring that all He created was “very good” (Genesis 1:31). For God to display variety in the human, plant, animal and inorganic world, He allows us to capture His character, grace and glory. We learn more about God, not in a creation of similarities, but in diversity.
“Thinking through the Bible’ is just another ‘diverse’ way of appreciating God’s Story. It is not intended to replace other ways; it’s an additional way to learn more about HIStory and learn about God. I pray that this leads you to better ‘know’ God!
(My thoughts for this article were stimulated by Duane Elmer’s book, ‘Cross-Cultural Conflict’, chapter 1)
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