Kingdom Culture: Creating Genuine New Creations in Christ
Culture in the Physical
A lot of Christians still operate in their worldly culture. They are yet too controlled by the influences and propensities triggered by their race, nationality, nationalism or "love" for country, and in the Philippines, their regionalism. Because they are Ilocano, Tagalog, Ilonggo, Bocolano, or Visayan, they claim they have such and such tendencies dictated by their regional culture and which they claim runs in their blood. That's all a lie. Anyone in Christ is a new creation; the old is past! Among the aims of salvation is to create the new man. That new man has nothing in him but the Jesus DNA--his life, character, power, and ministry. The Jesus culture.
We are not anymore of this world--or of our culture, nationality, region, or even family blood. Lots of Christians still proudly claim their family blood [or family culture] is what controls their personality and propensity, and even merit their accomplishments and skills to it. "I'm good at this and that because it runs in the family!" Or, "I passed the board exams because my family is good at passing them!" Some even think their bad attitudes are okay because they are family derived. In the Philippines, some folks think it's okay to be easily angered by minor things because they come from a family prone to "high blood pressure."
No doubt God puts genes in the family blood to create identical capacities and qualities. But we are not to ascribe success to them or make them as excuses for bad character; successes should all be ascribed to God [and bad character to the devil]--because through Christ in us we are able to tap on God's qualities and capacities. We have God's spiritual genes or DNA because we are his offspring. Our Kingdom culture should radically transform us into God's own children, his real sons and daughters.
I love my dad and mom and greatly thank God for them. Among my siblings, it was I who personally took care of them, became close to them, and they literally asked for me in their times of pains during old age. They felt very comfortable with me and opened up their hearts to me. It was I God used to share the Gospel with them and bring them to a knowledge of God and his salvation. They both received Christ as personal Savior because God used me.
But I had realized the truth earlier on that God merely used them to take care of me for a while. They were my dedicated and faithful custodians until the set time had come for me to know personally my true Parent, God. God is my real Father. He's my true dad, my own Father, and thus I call him today. I am what he is, and what I am is all because of who he is. He is God and I am God's son through Christ in me. My Jesus calls me "god" because the bible says they are called "gods" through whom the Word of God came--and, Jesus added, Scriptures cannot be broken about this. Scriptures cannot be wrong on this.
Hence, I have a unique culture in me that makes me a stranger and alien in this world. The world sees me as something alien, out of this world, and the feeling is mutual. I live and think differently. You cannot identify a single worldly trait in me and my ways. I am no longer affected by my former identity through my race, nationality, region, history, tribe, clan, or family. Christ is all and all is Christ. This is not an exaggeration; this is Kingdom truth. Anyone in Christ is a new creation.
I no longer see Filipinos, Americans, Chinese, Japanese, browns, whites, blacks, Tagalogs, Ilocanos, Visayans, etc. And I no longer identify or label myself in the same manner. I am Christ's and He is mine. Period. I no longer see believers in Christ as Methodists, Baptists, Nazarenes, Pentecostals, or what-have-you. I see them as one man in the one Body of Christ.
However, lots of Christians still see as the world sees because they have not yet seen the King and His Kingdom, and thus they have zero Kingdom culture. They still see Americans, Filipinos, and Koreans [in fact Filipino believers are still dying to live in the US because it's heaven to them], and they still see Nazarenes, Baptists, Methodists, and Pentecostals [and despise and separate themselves from each other]. They are still slaves of the culture of the world--and friendliness with the world is enmity with God.
Worse, a lot of Christians in church who are citizens of a first world country still dominate and subjugate their brothers who are citizens of a third world country. They assume the imperialistic nature of their religious predecessors who used religion and God to subjugate weaker nations and oppressed them, stealing their wealth and resources in the name of mission work, just to enrich their denominations. They're still of the world and no nothing about Kingdom culture.
If you are a genuine new creation in Christ, you should have the Jesus culture powerfully in you. It should define who you are in the world and in the Kingdom.
Comments