Yet there is more than apologetics at play in the transcultural nature of Christianity. It isn’t merely that God “put eternity into man’s heart” (Ecc 3:11) so that we look for ways that the truths of Christianity overlap with a pagan culture. Rather, it’s that the gospel is transcultural. It enters every culture and takes on many of the external forms of the culture, yet it always functions as a transformative agent within a culture.
This is not a novel idea read back into Scripture to justify contemporary efforts at contextualization. The transcultural nature of the gospel was evident in the early church’s experience. In The Letter to Diognetus, the anonymous author defends Christians from the accusation they are cultural traitors by pointing toward their unique relationship to the dominant culture:
- “Christians cannot be distinguished from the rest of the human race by country or language or customs. They do not live in cities of their own; they do not use a peculiar form of speech; they do not follow an eccentric manner of life.”
These second century Christians looked and sounded just like their neighbors. They didn’t create a parallel culture, but lived as faithful members of their home culture. It was not the culture that distinguished Christians from their neighbors, but their manner of life within the culture.
Transformative Nature of Christianity
Though Christians should, in many ways, live like their neighbors, the gospel makes transformative demands. As The Letter to Diognetus continues:
- “Yet, although they live in Greek and barbarian cities alike, as each man’s lot has been cast, and follow the customs of the country in clothing and food and other matters of daily living, at the same time they give proof of the remarkable and admittedly extraordinary constitution of their own commonwealth. They live in their own countries, but only as aliens. . . . They marry, like everyone else, and they beget children, but they do not cast out their offspring. They share their board with each other, but not their marriage bed.”
Thus, we see that the ethos of the early church was morally distinct from the surrounding culture. The transcultural gospel is also transformative of culture. As Jesus prayed for his disciples, we are to be simultaneously in the world, but not of the world (cf. John 17:14–19). We seek the good of the communities we live in, even as we find ourselves at odds with the morality of the world around us (cf. Jer 29:4–7).
The challenge, of course, is to find the dividing line between benign cultural elements and those that carry moral implications. As Paul shows in 1 Corinthians 8–10, these decisions can be murky because of unclear boundaries between false worship and discounted groceries. This is why he concludes that lengthy discussion with an appeal to avoid offense (1 Cor. 10:32) by doing everything “to the glory of God” (1 Cor 10:31).
And yet, despite ambiguity about the goodness of particular elements of every culture, the transformative nature of our transcultural Christianity should shape the way we live. When we cross cultural boundaries to make disciples, we ought to think carefully about which cultural elements actually conflict with the gospel. As we push back against the increasing moral decadence of our home culture, we should pursue gospel renewal of our culture rather than simply preserving traditions. As music, programs, and popular fashions change within our local fashions, we need to remember that Christianity critiques every culture and is native to none.
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