Cross Cultural

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A new phase of the year has begun. Kids are starting back to school, and the relative simplicity of the summer is transitioning to controlled chaos as schedules get more complicated. This is true for my wife and me as we take on something we haven't done in about six years. Just this past Saturday, we welcomed an exchange student into our home. As if our schedules couldn't get busier, we have the added school events, sports practices, etc. to the mix. One of the things we've appreciate about hosting students is the chance to interact with people from such different cultures, languages, and customs. Although the program is intended to be an educational experience for the student, we find that it is just as much one for us.

   The Apostle Paul was a man who knew all about engaging with different cultures. Over the course of at least three missionary journeys, he connected with Jews and Gentiles, with rich and poor, with Romans and Greeks, men and women, slaves and free men. To believers in Corinth, a city that was very much a cultural crossroad in the Mediterranean, he wrote, "For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may win more. To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under the Law though not being myself under the Law, so that I might win those who are under the Law; to those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some. I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I might become a fellow partaker of it (1 Corinthians 9:19-23)."

   What is Paul saying here? I believe what he is saying is that he is so passionate that the gospel be proclaimed to every nation and culture that he is willing to do whatever it takes to make much of the gospel and little of himself. He is aware that his personal conduct could become a hindrance to people from other cultures hearing the gospel. The gospel carries its own offense (See 1 Corinthians 1:22-24), and Paul is not afraid of that. However, he desires to keep himself from being offensive so that the offense of the gospel may shine forth.

   Here in the Pacific Northwest, we seem to be very sensitive about being offensive to other people, or we prize being offended as a virtue. Other people are so "anti-politically correct" that they work to find more ways to offend others. As Christians, we must not be afraid of the inherently offensive nature of the gospel, yet we must seek as far as we can not to make ourselves the offense. Like Paul, let us "...do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that [we] may become fellow partakers of it.