Spiritual Growth #2B– Judge Sin, not Culture

So. of Lanai looking towards Maui (courtesy Smith, 2013)

In Part or Full?

Our judgment must be right judgment based on Spirit and truth (John 14:17; 16:13; 1 Cor. 2:15); and not on favoritism and appearances (John 7:24; Rom. 2:1; 14:10-13; James 2:1-4 NIV).

For instance, we’re told not to judge a brother/sister concerning meat and drink (Rom. 14:2, 3, 17). Since God is not an idiot, neither should we be! It’s obvious that we’re not supposed to judge culture—just sin!

“Lucky we live Hawaii”. Growing up in the islands among multi-ethnic societies, we’re bound to experience multi-ethnic cultures—even the westernized one—so what might look “scary” to a westernized Christian at a “come to Jesus meeting” does not look scary to us. Hawaii has Samoan Christian churches, Chinese Christian churches, Hawaiian Christian churches, Jewish Christian temples, Japanese Christian churches, etc. The operative word is “Christian”.

So, while Scriptures teach us that God forbade Israel from making covenants and marriages with foreign nations (Deut.7:1-4), that does not hold true for Christians from different cultures. We are not “foreign nations” because Christ Jesus has made us all one (Gal. 3:28)!

It’s time to wake up from our “in part” understanding of Scripture, and accept all Christians fully, just as Christ accepted YOU (Rom. 15:7 NIV)!

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Scriptures are taken from the Holy Bible, King James Version, Cambridge 1769. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scriptures marked “NIV” are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved