Lesson 101 · Unit 15 · His Heart for the Nations
The Gospel Across Cultures
The gospel does not change; the packaging comes off first — to whatever kind of person, become that kind of person.
Open
Before he flew home, a foreign colleague asked you, "That saying you use all the time — enter the village and follow its customs — how do you say it in English?" You translated it straight: enter the village, follow the customs. He looked blank. So you tried another way: "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." He laughed at once — they have that one too.
You thought about it the whole way home. The meaning did not change and every word did. Keep the words, and the meaning would not have crossed over at all.
On Sunday it was your turn to share at Bible study, and you got to "justified by faith." A friend who had just started coming asked quietly, "Justified — what does that mean?" It struck you that when you talk about your faith, you are the one who only knows how to translate literally.
Scripture
Paul states his own principle, and then acts it out on the spot in Athens. (1 Corinthians 9:19-23; Acts 17:22-23, WEB)
19For though I was free from all, I brought myself under bondage to all, that I might gain the more.
20To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain those who are under the law;
21to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law.
22To the weak I became as weak, that I might gain the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some.
23Now I do this for the sake of the Good News, that I may be a joint partaker of it.
22Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said, “You men of Athens, I perceive that you are very religious in all things.
23For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription: ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ What therefore you worship in ignorance, I announce to you.
See
A free man who chose to be a servant
Paul was free — he owed nobody a favor and was under nobody's authority. And he "brought himself under bondage to all." See clearly what changes and what does not in this passage. What changes is himself: food, habits, subjects, the angle of approach — to whatever kind of person, he became that kind of person. What does not change is the gospel: "Now I do this for the sake of the Good News." The craft of speaking the gospel into someone else's situation is what the church calls contextualization, and its steering wheel is right there in that sentence: put yourself out, never the gospel.
The demonstration at Athens
Paul did not open in Athens with "you have all been worshiping the wrong thing." He first "passed along and observed" — he did his homework. Then he began from something they already had: that altar to an unknown god. He even went on to quote their own poets (Acts 17:28). He started in their world and built the bridge all the way over to Christ, and at the end he still preached repentance and resurrection, with nothing cut. Respect is not flattery: the starting point is put where they are, and the destination never moves.
Crossing cultures at your own table
You cross cultures every day without leaving the country. With an older relative, you need not begin from the guilt of the word "sin"; you can start with where blessing comes from, or whether a lifetime of offerings has left the heart at rest. With young people, burnout, the search for meaning and the longing to be seen are the words they live in, and the gospel has something to say about every one of them. With someone from a folk-religion background, first separate fearing spirits from knowing the Creator — they are two different things. With an atheist friend, talking about the limits of science or where conscience comes from will often open a door that reciting doctrine will not. One key does not open every lock. Look first at the lock in front of you.
Two red lines
Contextualizing is not diluting: the packaging can change, and the cross, the resurrection and repentance cannot be dropped. Paul said that even if an angel out of heaven preached a different gospel, "let him be cursed" (Gal 1:8) — and he said it twice. Following local custom is not joining in idol worship: you can stay at the table; you cannot offer the incense (for the discernment, see the gray areas in Lesson 71 and the measures in Lesson 75). You may become any kind of person at all. You may not become the kind who preaches another gospel.
Deeper
What changes and what does not (1 Cor 9:22-23)
what changes is yourself; what does not is the gospel: put yourself out, never the gospel.
Contextualization
speaking the gospel into the other person's situation: the starting point is where they are; the destination, Christ, never moves.
The Athens pattern (Acts 17:22-28)
observe first, then borrow: use their altar and their poets to build the bridge, and still preach repentance and resurrection at the end.
Two red lines
contextualizing is not diluting (Gal 1:8); following local custom is not worshiping idols. The packaging can change; the gospel cannot.
Story
In 1917, a twenty-one-year-old Cameron Townsend was selling Spanish Bibles in the highlands of Guatemala. He soon discovered that the Cakchiquel people in those hills did not speak Spanish at all. One day a local man asked him, "If your God is so great, why doesn't he speak my language?"
The question nailed him to the spot. He put down the salesman's itinerary and moved into the tribe, and stayed more than ten years: learning a language that had never been written, designing a script for it, translating a verse at a time. In 1929 the Cakchiquel New Testament was finished. Later he founded Wycliffe Bible Translators, with the aim that every people should be able to read God's word in its mother tongue. Today all or part of the Bible has been translated into more than three thousand languages — and behind each one stands somebody who learned the other person's language first.
(Historical; see James and Marti Hefley, Uncle Cam, 1974. Details condensed.)
Respond
Reflect — alone, or talk it through together
1Acts 17:22-23: what did Paul do before he opened his mouth to preach? What does that order tell you?
2Think of one person you badly want to talk about faith with: what might his altar to an unknown god be — the longing or the confusion he already carries?
3"Put yourself out, never the gospel" — in your situation, which of the two is more easily sacrificed?
Saved on this device only — visible to no one but you.
Pray together
God who was called the unknown god on an altar in Athens and who now lets me know you: thank you that you spoke our language first — your Son became flesh, spoke with a Galilean accent, walked dusty roads. Forgive me for either locking the gospel inside jargon or shaving it thin to please people. Give me both of Paul's dispositions: the softness to be everyone's servant, and the firmness that will not yield an inch. Let me understand people first, and then speak of you. Amen.
Walk
This week's actionabout 15 min
Pick a faith word you use often (grace, justified, redemption) and rewrite it, for one specific person — an older relative, a colleague, a young person — into two or three sentences they would understand. Write it down, and try it out on whoever is walking through this book with you.
Mark it when it happens — this week, at your pace.
Spiritual practice
Practice "observing first" in your conversations this week: ask where the other person is from and what matters to them, and listen for a full three minutes before you talk about yourself.
Memory verse · 1 Corinthians 9:22
Ihavebecomeallthingstoallmen,thatImaybyallmeanssavesome.
Walk further
A devotional on "what you worship in ignorance," Townsend who stayed because of one question, Lesson 33 on making the gospel a conversation, the most translated book in the world, and the profile of Paul.