God’s Culture Is Counter Culture!

God’s Culture Is Counter Culture                                         10-20-13     by Kelly Durant

1.Acts 21:27 Now when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews from Asia, seeing him in the temple, stirred up the whole crowd and laid hands on him, 28 crying out, “Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against the people, the law, and this place; and furthermore he also brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.” 29 (For they had previously[e] seen Trophimus the Ephesian with him in the city, whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple.) 30 And all the city was disturbed; and the people ran together, seized Paul, and dragged him out of the temple; and immediately the doors were shut. 31 Now as they were seeking to kill him, news came to the commander of the garrison that all Jerusalem was in an uproar.

2. I hope by now you have learned to laugh at yourself when you are in one of those cultural situations that you just don’t know what’s going on. Like when I was young and before I met my wife I recall I arrived to Sta. Cruz on some holiday and everyone would say, “felicidades” to each other. I thought that was the way to say “good-bye” so for a few months I would say, “felicidades” to everyone after every conversation. People I noticed would smile really big.  Later finally they told me I should use that only for holidays, ha! Mistakes can be funny, right? Or my wife when she asked me, Why do Americans like to drink medicine in a soda?  I curiously asked, what do you mean? She replied, “Why do people think this Dr. Pepper will make them better, isn’t soda bad for you?” It tastes like medicine!  LOL!

3. Most of you here are culturally blessed by God! You know more than one language (sort of anyway, ha!) You also have a deep perspective of the United States culture and that of another one: the Caribbean Islands, South, or Central America. This gives you a great advantage in life with a broader perspective on life’s issues, believe it or not! You have lived extremes; you have experienced things others can only imagine. People of one culture may never imagine the traumatic events you have lived because their world is so very different from other realities.

Many of you have survived in circumstances that many people would go crazy under because you have been through horrible political persecutions, started a new life with just the clothes on your back, and gave up many things you grew up with.  Many of you have even given up ever seeing again your blood relatives as well! Well, today we can celebrate cultures with just a little nostalgia by bringing back some of the food & familiar things! These things you lived at one time but now you live a different life. Even those that visit their home birthplace often find it so dangerous criminally and politically they do not want to live there ever again!

4. So what culture are you now after all these years? Waiting for replies…Does it matter really? What is culture? The dictionary from “google” says it is: the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively (that of a certain society). The Bing search says: Culture is transmitted, through language, material objects, ritual, institutions, and art, from one generation to the next. The basics of culture are specific influences and I personally categorize them as this: (geographical) environmental influences, language, religious, artistic and political (philosophical) persuasions! And, in life anyone can change these!

The obvious is that God created everyone on the earth making made each one of us different but in many ways similar, and He loves everyone the same! As we say today, “without discrimination”! This embarks people of any skin color, of all races, and of all languages, and from all places. One of my favorite verses is Revelation 7:9 “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands,” Each of us as Christians must adapt to our differences and contrasting cultures in this life, because heaven will be full of not just the cultures of today but of the past nations as well! That is a challenge! To love means to help anyone as the Good Samaritan did!

5. In the verses of today in Acts 21:27-31, Paul, being a Jew, broke away from the Jewish law and way of life and teachings, and he even invited the Greeks in the synagogue to teach them about Christ! This was shocking and very counter-culture!  The Jews got a mob together there wanting to kill him for disrespecting their race, place, and non-grace (the Law)! He was going against their norms. Sadly today some churches still reject new comers from other races & places! Some churches have doctrines that tell them only they have the truth, a shame, right?

But on the flip side of the coin Paul had a God given talent to be able to step into other cultures and relate to them in order to rebuke and convict them to live in the righteousness of Jesus. I Cor. 9:19 “For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.20 And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law;21 To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law.22 To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some”.

What a great example of adapting to others to persuasively love them with the gospel! Being a Jew, he wrote to the Jews about not confiding in their traditions and in their race inheritance in the books of Hebrews and in Galatians. Being a Roman he wrote to the Romans about their sexual perversions and about the true application of grace and the law. Growing up with Greeks, he exposed their pride and mental vanities of empty philosophies in the Corinthians.

6. In other words, Paul could contextualize and be as a chameleon changing colors and mindsets. He could get into the minds of his specific audience and call out their sins, correct with them, rebuke them, and also praise their good! I admire him so much that my oldest son’s name is Paul! Paul should be one of the Biblical leaders you want to imitate! I do my best!

But here is something to consider, before Paul became a Christian, he as Saul looked upon all of the other cultures as being inferior segregated groups with their own cultural practices. For example, being a Jew, it was normal for him to kill another person for subverting the faith away from the Jews. He was killing Christians because his culture had the expectancy that he should!

The trick of Satan in all cultures is to get you or I to believe that one’s race, or country, or music, or food, language, or even politics is superior to the neighbors around you near or far.  This is pure pride!  This is never a license to kill and dominate, but men do! All nations have their merits of achievements but there is the ugly truth that all nations have their sins, corruptions and perversions.  One of the best ways to get your eyes opened to see the corruption within your culture is to step out of it for a long time into a different one. This allows you to compare differences and then you will see your original culture is not as wonderful as you think!

After Paul’s Damascus experience with Jesus’ light he radically and totally changed mentally, culturally, and morally! After accepting Jesus, none of us can ever look upon our own culture, or other cultures, the same anymore. Suddenly there is no more willingness to participate in or tolerate the corruption, pride, and abuse most accept as normal. Jesus must rule within totally!

7. Christians with Jesus essentially become counter-culture! They receive a new culture of love and holiness that overrides all other cultural influences of their past, present, and future! I Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new”.

There comes a time when you must denounce your own culture for its corruption! What happened to Moses while he was governing in Egypt? Hebrews 11: 24 “By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; 25 Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; 26 Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward”. Moses had a foreigner as his wife too! He rejected his own cultural upbringing (Egypt), and gave up everything living in the desert for the ways of God.

The term counter-culture in modern day terms was applied first to people of the love and peace hippie culture. But even today the youth take pride in saving the environment and resisting the huge rip-off corporations that produce fast food or name brand clothes and shoes by exploiting the ultra-poor in sweat shops. Certain counters and resistance is good. We should always go against the grain of abusive and corrupted systems! The problem is entire nations and media with propaganda are brain washing the youth to resist the good and accept the evil!

8. Being counter-culture is Biblical! It is better to obey God than man, right? Today Christians in this hostile world over and over get demonized as unpatriotic, uncouth, racist, pro-life, pro-marriage, antiquated conservative freaks! What an injustice, expose his filth! It is Satan’s people who are pretending to be better than you by being evil saying it is good! His motive is always the destruction of individual souls and all nations with divisiveness, perversions, hate, murder, and chaos! The haters of good  are on the rise and today many Christians are suffering!

Most of the Christians I know are the most non-racist loving people you could ever meet! Satan’s people always accuse others of what they are guilty of! Nero accused the Christians of burning Rome, but actually he started it! He blamed them so he could rebuild Rome as he wanted and eliminate the strange people who were exposing Rome’s false gods and sinfulness resisting him and his taste for blood. The irony is that later Rome converted to Christianity a few hundred years later! Paul was martyred in Rome for preaching Jesus essentially exposing the evil in their culture. Be prepared, some of us might even die in the future for Jesus as well as the world becomes more Satanic, anti-love, anti-Christian, which is anti-christ!  

9. The frustrating part is ever since the world was founded, people have gone from place to place hoping to find a better world, people, and land.  Possibly here in the U.S.A. some things are more still more favorable than in the former counties.  But this is summed up in Hebrews 11:16 “But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city”.

All cultures will pass away! This world is not our home, we are just a passing through! The love you have for Jesus, God and others will not pass away though! 1 Corinthians 13:8 “Love never fails: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away”.  One day we will all flourish in a borderless, unified theocratic heavenly city with God’s love reigning over everyone! How wonderful, no more sin and pain, no more corrupt politics and murderous military coups, no more prideful abuse people to put up with; it will just be heaven to enjoy forever!

10. It does not really matter what culture you identify with or what you prefer in the way of food, language, art, music & dance, (as long as its use is not for temptation or divisiveness) We all should make a serious effort to culturally adapt or at least respect others. I have grown to like every food I have every tried in other countries. And music, I grew up on Country & Western, then switched to Rock & Roll, then Blues, then Hard Rock, but then in South America I grew to love Andean music, Salsa, Bolero, Bossa Nova, all of it! And Praise and Worship now is above all that!

What you like is a matter of choice and I have always told myself I can like everything! If you take a good attitude, you will always be enjoying the moment because you like everything, no matter how different! I love Spainish, Portuguese, Sign Language, as well as English, I love it all because all of it is a part of what God created! God loves cultures but reject their sins!

In the end what matters is whether you are living within the culture of Jesus Christ, in His holiness, righteousness and peace, authentically loving and serving unconditionally those next to you no matter their race, social status, or culture!  Come now and pray and ask God forgiveness if you think you have not loved your neighbor as yourself! If you haven’t loved others enough to adapt you are offending God by offending others, because God made everyone! Today more than ever we must be counter-culture and it is a new day for us to be depend on God to be new people molded into Christ’s culture of love winning souls to heaven! Use your cultural knowledge for the good of God!