Tricky situations in the culture!

1 Corinthians 11

Every culture has its challenges. Did you know the pilgrims did not celebrate birthdays or Christmas thinking it was a violation of scripture. In the Ukraine if a man wears a tie it is heretical. If you applaud in a Russian Pentecostal church it is offensive. If you chew gum in a Kyrgyz Pentecostal church it is considered a sin. Dancing in a church in Myanmar is almost a sin while not dancing in a Sudanese church is almost a sin. Drinking wine in communion in a Catholic or Reformed Presbyterian church is commonplace but in a Baptist or Pentecostal church is unacceptable, grape juice is the standard for communion. Every culture has its challenges but many of them have nothing to do with the essentials of our faith.

In the Corinthian church, like much of the Middle East today, head coverings were an essential part of the modesty associated with proper society. The idea came from creation with God being the covering for Adam and Adam being the covering for Eve. While men and women are created interdependent, human nature needs order and structure as the men is created to function in a decision-making, protective leadership role. The covering here should be looked at more symbolically as it was meant to be even then but was displayed physically. For a women not have a spiritual covering is to make her vulnerable to all kinds of things and for a man to have something between he and God is to make him vulnerable as well. For a woman to have her head shaved or uncovered was a show of arrogance and a lack of respect for everyone and everything in the culture. Likewise for a man to focus on his hair as an adornment (a big plus for those of us that are folicly challenged) is vanity and battles against a true humility toward God. As Paul said, “we have no such custom, nor do the churches of God” However, there are often things that set us apart that show our humility toward God; the way we talk both our choice of words cursing and criticism, our attitudes toward people, and our sense of love, joy, and hope, are all somewhat of a “glory” that we can show the world.

The Lord does not want class distinction in a culture either. Not that we don’t recognize that different people do have different levels in a culture but when it comes to Christ all are equal. When the Azusa street revival happened, it was a poor, partially blind African America preacher that God used to bring the revival and draw black, white, rich, poor, high class and low class together. In Corinth, the rich were taking advantage of the poor regarding the eating of the “Lord’s Supper” Paul took the time to remind them that if we have sectarian ism in our midst we are eating the Lord’s Supper in violation of God’s heart. We are one body, with one Lord who died for all of us equally.

Our service to the Lord should always be about love, joy, peace and unity (not uniformity) with our brothers and sisters in Christ. It also should be about walking in humility serving God, one another and the world so that our Father is glorified in all that we do!