CHRISTIANITY AND TRADITION (CULTURE) I Cor. 9:19-22

INTRODUCTION:

The relations between Christianity and culture have varied according to circumstances and particular perceptions of culture. The conflict between Christianity & culture has been a problem for a long time and needs an urgent attention. Christianity is a way of life centered on the worship of one God shown to the world through Jesus Christ. Jesus lived as a human being for almost 30 years in Palestine and was crucified by the Romans at Jerusalem.

We are living in an environment that challenges us to continually evaluate what it means to live the Christian life. So how do we respond? The answer begins with the Bible. Our view of culture must include biblical insights.
Culture is the arts, custom, etc of a nation or group, also the arts and intellectual achievements as a whole. It is better understood as the total pattern of a people's behavior. Culture includes all behavior that is learned and transmitted by the symbols (rites, language, etc.) of a particular group and that focuses on certain ideas or assumptions that we call a world view.

THE BIBLE AND THE CULTURE
In Bible times, "You're a Corinthian!" To call someone a Corinthian was insulting. Even non- Christians recognized that Corinth was one of the most immoral cities in the known world.
The believers in Corinth were faced with a culture which resembled ours in several ways. It was diverse ethnically, religiously, and philosophically. It was a center of wealth, literature, and the arts. And it was recognized for its blatant sexual immorality. How would Paul advise believers to respond to life in such a city?
One of the Asia countries who never see a lamb before used a pig while translating the Bible. That is contextualization. It is essential that we have appropriate strategies to preach the Gospel, and to understand the interests, needs and worldview of those we are trying to communicate with. This is increasingly important in our post-Christian world.

CONFLICTING AREAS BETWEEN CHRISTIANITY AND CULTURE
@ Choosing whom to marry
@ Denying wife her inheritance after husband’s death
@ Divorce and remarry for lack of child bearing
@ Shaving of hair as a result of a beloved’s death
@ Taking an oath to prove innocence
@ Female circumcision
@ Masquerade/age grade
@ Festivals that requires sacrifice
@ Sewing of Youth fellowship uniform
@ General dressing of our youths today
@ Patronizing native doctors
@ Impregnating a girl before marriage
@ Music
@ Language (abusive, provoking, rude, insulting words)

CONLUSION
In the first place, a man can believe only what he holds to be true (world view). We are Christians because we hold Christianity to be true. But other men hold Christianity to be false. Who is right? Jesus is never against culture, because he came to the world through the culture of the Jews. Rather he transforms the Culture.

We have seen that Scripture is not silent regarding culture. It contains much by way of example and precept.
First, in some measure God "is responsible for the presence of culture, for he created human beings in such a way that they are culture-producing beings."(21)

Second, God holds us responsible for cultural stewardship.

Third, we should not fear the surrounding culture; instead, we should strive to contribute to it through God- given creativity, and transform it through dialogue and proclamation.

Fourth, we should practice discernment while living within culture.

Fifth, the products of culture should be judged on the basis of intent, not form. Or, to simply further:
We advance the theory that God's basic attitude toward culture is that which the apostle Paul articulates in I Corinthians 9:19-22. That is, he views human culture primarily as a vehicle to be used by him and his people for Christian purposes, rather than as an enemy to be combated or shunned.

LESSON ON BIBLE INTERPRETATION

1. Different Bible Versions
Do you ever wonder why we have different versions of the same Bible? Here are some explanations:

A. Primary Source
More technical differences between versions are caused by the translators using different groups of Greek manuscripts as their primary source. For instance, differences can be seen in comparisons with the New International Version (NIV) and the King James Version (KJV) of the passage 1 John 5:7-8 and their treatment of the ending of the Gospel of Mark. Variation can be anywhere from extra words in a verse, to the actual meaning of the verse being changed. The more the division, the more the confusion.

B. Language
Language is another factor. Here the scholar translates from Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic to English. Naturally, if you have 10 persons who would translate the Bible from English to Igbo today, none of the 10 translations would be the same word for word.

C. Methodology
Two major methods are formal and dynamic equivalence.
Formal translation is also called literal or word-for-word translation. As the name suggests, it tries to keep the same words and word order used by the original manuscripts.
Dynamic equivalence translation is also called functional or thought for thought translation. This method is more concerned with expressing the meaning of the original text to the modern reader rather than the exact word that was used in the original.
Example: Genesis 31:35aNASB (formal translation); And she said to her father, "Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the manner of women is upon me."
NIV (dynamic equivalence); Rachel said to her father, "Don’t be angry, my lord, that I cannot stand up in your presence; I’m having my period."
Notice how the NIV changed the wording from the original but tried to show what it should mean to us today.

2. Which Version is best for me?
First, let me clear the air by saying that no particular version that we use today can claim more inspiration than the other versions. Which version is best to use depends on how you are going to use it: For memorization, public reading, devotional reading or in-depth studying.
For memorization, it would depend on your personal taste. Many Christians favor the King James Version (KJV), but other would prefer another version that uses modern expression. It all depends on you; the important thing is that it helps you to memorize the verse.
For public reading, you should use a version that is easily understood for those who are not familiar with the Bible. I would suggest The English Standard Version (ESV) or NIV.
Devotional reading would depend on what you want to accomplish. Is it a short reading of a passage or something more of a Bible study? For everyday readings, I would suggest the New International Version (NIV) or New Living Translation (NLT) as a Bible that you could carry around.

For in depth Bible study, it would be helpful to have more than one Bible so that you can have different theories of translations. A combination such as NIV and KJV would be a good example.


3. Objection to learning proper Bible Interpretation:
Some Christians don't believe that there are certain rules that they need to apply in Bible interpretation other than just reading and praying for guidance. They feel that such rules will take their right to be able to understand the Bible on their own, and that they will have to depend on scholars or experts to explain the Bible for them. First, proper interpretation only requires more time studying and a little common sense. An average Christian who can read and follow simple instructions can understand and apply the principles and guidelines of proper interpretation.

Second, these guidelines and principles will give everybody the right to question and make an educated criticism on different interpretations of the Bible today, even those made by Bible experts. You will no longer be forced to follow a doctrine or a teaching that you feel is not an accurate interpretation of the Word of God, just because it is being taught by a "teacher" or an "expert". Without standard guidelines of proper interpretation, a person in authority and those with higher education can claim that their interpretation is always better or more accurate than those that have less authority or education.

"All we need is the Holy Spirit who will guide us and will reveal to us the real meaning of the passage in the Bible". This statement sounds so spiritual that many would not dare to disagree. This attitude can also claim to have some biblical backing: 1 Corinthians 2:11-14 (NIV). This was taken to mean that Christian with the Holy Spirit can understand the Word of God, and the unbelievers that doesn't have the Spirit cannot understand the Bible.

In Corinthians, What is Paul really saying? Is he suggesting that all Christians with the Holy Spirit should not have a problem understanding the Bible and those unbelievers without the Holy Spirit will not be able to understand the Bible at all? I don't think so. Exodus 20:15-Thou shall not steal. (NIV) is such a simple verse that we know both unbelievers without the Holy Spirit and Christians with the Holy Spirit can understand. While the book of Revelation is so difficult to understand for many Christians that are filled with the Holy Spirit, and those that claimed to understand have different interpretations of what it really means. Also, if two persons filled with the Spirit had a differing interpretation of a certain passage in the Bible, how can we tell who is right or wrong? Can we measure who has more of the Holy Spirit than the other? Therefore, rules and guidelines of proper interpretation is necessary so we can have a standard to distinguish from the right, possible, and erroneous interpretation.

4. The Nature of the Bible
The Bible is both natural and supernatural, temporal and eternal, human and divine. The Bible is divine because it is the Word of God. It is God's message for all human beings for all times. Through the Bible, God speaks to all people of all ages in all cultures. The message of the Bible is eternal.

It is temporal because some of its elements such as the original language used in its original writing is not being used today. So God's eternal Word and message is conditioned and contained in a specific time in history with its own culture and language, and is recorded by means of 'human style' of literature. It is these two natures of God's Word that requires us to apply basic principles of interpretation to understand God's message for us today.
The Holy Spirit will convict us of the truthfulness and significance of His Word in our lives. Our claim of the Holy Spirit's guidance shouldn't be an excuse for laziness in studying.

5. Understand the Context
A word on its own doesn't really mean anything. A word can only have a sensible meaning in a sentence. Further, the sentences before and after will clear up the meaning of a particular sentence. This is the reason we are encouraged to study a passage (several verses) not a single verse if we intend to get the real message the original author intended.
Generally speaking, when the author wrote the book he had a particular theme or message in mind. As the reader, it is important to follow the author’s flow of thought. You first must see the main theme of the book, then the theme found within each chapters. Lastly, you must interpret the theme of each passage. The smaller section's theme must compliment the bigger section's theme. To understand the context you must first read the whole book that you are studying and find the units of thought that make up the book. This is not really hard to do since most of the Bible has titles for each passage and an outline at the beginning of the book. But it is a good habit to make a simple outline of your own after you have read the book.

Example: The Book of Hebrews was written to a group of people that were being pressured to either keep going with their Christianity or to go back to Judaism. In order to address the issue, the author started by establishing the completeness of Jesus Christ and His ministry and how he is much better than the angels, Moses and Aaron the high priest. You can also trace warnings about falling away. As you can see, if you began to gain this kind of information after reading the book of Hebrews, it would be so much easier to get in the author's flow of thought as you focus in on studying the book in smaller sections.

6. The Historical Background
Another way of reading in context is to understand the historical background of the passage or the book that you are studying. Knowing the background of the book should be done before you start reading. You should try to acquire reliable information about the author and the original recipient of the book, the date and the reason why it was written, and the cultural or life setting when it was written. With this information the modern reader will have an easier task to hear the same message that was originally heard by the recipient.

Not knowing the Historical background will cause us to read things in the passage according to our modern cultural background or custom. This, of course, is totally different from the author's own cultural background and thus causes many erroneous interpretations and applications.
If you have a Study Bible, reading the introduction page of every book that you study is a good start to find historical background. Bible tools such as a Bible Handbook or a good commentary is where you would find a lot of information in this matter.

7. Word Meaning
Some words have more than one meaning, while some we don't know the meaning at all. Understanding the true meaning of the words used in a passage is very important in proper interpretation. The first thing we do to know what a word means is to read in its context. This, however, is sometimes not enough, for a context can sometimes take on different meanings for a particular word. Remember, the real meaning of a word is the one intended by the author.
A better way of understanding a word's meaning is to understand what it means at the time it was written. Words change meaning as time goes by, and we cannot always put the same meaning we have today on a same word that was used centuries ago. Some word we just don't have definitions because we don't use them such as the words shekels, ephahs, talents, etc. Finding word meaning using an outside tool is often necessary.

8. Special Problems in Interpreting the Bible:
Scripture, like any other book, used figures of speech and different types of literature that can be difficult to understand. These call for special rules for the Bible interpreter.

1. Hyperbole - A hyperbole is an exaggeration used for effect - an overstatement. "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse" obviously is not literally true. It is an exaggeration used to convey the idea of extreme hunger. For example, the apostle John made a statement something like this in his gospel: If everything Jesus ever did were written down, the world could not hold all the books (John 21:25). Surely John expected us to see that he was overstating his point.

2. Metaphor - A simile makes a comparison by using a word such as "like": "Life is like a circus". A metaphor is a similar comparison, except that it omits the word "like": "The world is a stage". Metaphors such as "I am the door" (John 10:9) are easily recognized. But what about Jesus' words at the Last Supper: "This is My body" (Luke 22:19)? Jesus probably intended this statement to be understood metaphorically rather than literally or physically.

3. Anthropomorphism - Do rivers have hands to clap (Psa. 98:8)? Does GOD have eyes (Psa. 33:18), although He is spirit (John 4:24)? Anthropomorphisms in the Bible describe non-human objects as though they have human characteristics.

4. Parable - "Once upon a time in a far-away land there lived a fairy princess". We do not understand this sentence in a scientific or literal sense. We recognize that it comes from a certain type of literature, and thus we do not interpret it historically. Different types of literature fall into different categories, each of which has its own rules of interpretation.
Parables are one type of literature in the Bible. We interpret them properly by picturing the story in our minds as if we lived in Jesus' day, finding the main point, and not giving meaning to all the details. The difference between allegory and parable is important to understand. An allegory is a totally made-up story. Even the details of an allegory may be significant. But a parable is a story taken from everyday life. In a parable the speaker may not treat the details as important. They may be given to help the reader picture the situation more clearly.

5. Prophecy - There are two points to remember when interpreting prophecy. The first is that what the prophet foresaw as one event may actually be two or more. The Old Testament thought of the "Day of the LORD (Is. 2:12) as one event. But the last days actually began at Pentecost (Acts 2:20) and will conclude at Christ's return (2 Thes. 2:2).
The second point to remember is that although much Old Testament prophecy is fulfilled in the New Testament, much was fulfilled in the Old Testament and then again in the New. Isaiah's prophecy in 7:14 was fulfilled in Isaiah's day, and again by Jesus' birth (Matt. 1:23).

6. Apocalyptic - This type of literature in the Bible is the most misunderstood by interpreters today because it is no longer used. It has specific rules of interpretation. Its most noticeable characteristic is its use of strange, symbolic figures, such as those in the Book of Revelation.
The key to interpreting these figures lies in the Book of Revelation itself. In 1:20 the seven stars are interpreted as representing the seven angels, and the seven lampstands stand for the seven churches.

In 17:9-10 the seven-headed beast stands for the seven hills, and in 17:18 the woman is identified as the city which rules the earth. Therefore, to understand Apocalyptic Literature and Revelation in particular, we must interpret the imagery as very figurative. The images are describing things and spiritual realities in figurative language.

Some might object that this is not understanding the Bible literally. But since the Book of Revelation interprets its own images in figurative terms, the images must serve as figurative descriptions of real things. Therefore, to understand the book literally, we must understand it figuratively.

In interpreting the Bible, we must remember from Whom it comes. We are handling the LORD's message. This demands an attitude of respect and our willingness to subject ourselves to its authority.

Change

What comes to your mind when you hear of Change? In American historical election, during the campaign of Barack Obama, everyone talks “change.” Whether or not the common person really knows what change means, is another matter. Merely rearranging the main concern is not change. Going the same way from a different angle is not change.

Change means to become different, undergo transformation, to be peculiar, etc.
Rom. 12:1-15:13 explains the attitude and behavior expected of Christians at Rome.
Clearly Paul had been well informed of the needs of believers at Rome. Christian living is simply being a Christian and acting as a Christian should, in every part of life. No canal Christian.

Vs.1-2 - The language here is from the OT, and reminds us that Jewish believers presented sacrifices to the Lord. But Christian believers, instead of giving something outside themselves, are to offer their own bodies to God as living, holy, and acceptable sacrifices. Our bodies include the Will, Emotion & Intellect. This type of sacrifice is a spiritual service involving all of their rational powers.

There are two parts of change we will look into: Negative & Positive change.

1) THE NEGATIVE CHANGE VS. 2A
Conforming to the world means to agree with the world in one's mind and character, do the acceptable things of the world, obey their rules, and play their games.
Eph 2:2- Do not conform either to the lusts of the flesh or the lusts of the eye.


2) THE POSITIVE CHANGE VS. 2B
Transformation means to change into another form, to be converted, renovated and makeover. On the mount of transfiguration Christ appearance was changed and was glorious with divine brightness, even after His resurrection. When transformation takes place, doing the Will of God follows.

For a positive change, there must be: vs. 2b
1. A renewal of mind (The mind, comprising alike the faculties of understanding and those of feeling, judging, determining). Conversion and sanctification are the renewing of the mind, a change not of the body, but of the qualities of the soul.
2. A prove of what is good.
3. A prove of what is acceptable both by God and humanity.
4. A prove of what is perfect.


Application:
Change only takes place when you do 3 things:-
A. Decide to change. It begins with a decision, Jesus calls to us, and we respond. '"Follow me and be my disciple," Jesus said to him so Matthew got up and followed him' (Matthew 9:9).

B. Change the way you think. 'Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think' (Romans 12:2 NLT). Change starts in your mind. The way you think determines the way you feel, and the way you feel influences the way you act. So wash your mind, feed your mind, and program your mind with God's Word.

C. Take a small step every day. Most of us want overnight change. Change comes slowly. To be successful we must start with small things and do them every day.
St. Francis de Sales said, 'Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections…..' You may say, 'But I fall '. We all do. Don't be discouraged. The Will of God will never take you to where the Grace of God will not protect you.


CONCLUSION:

Conforming to this world is the great enemy to this renewing of mind, which we must avoid every day if we need a change. God is ready to help us be transformed when we stop gossip, tribalism, hatred and cheating. These are not Christian attitude or character. This transformation is here as a duty; not that we can work such a change ourselves: it is God's work. Thus to be changed or transformed, we need to surrender ourselves to God.