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So why go to church? Why worship with a group? Because, in some way we may not fully understand, the Spirit indwells the group in a way the Spirit does not indwell the individual. We are all built together to become one, whole building: a single dwelling for his Spirit. Like it or not, we need each other. As Rodney Reeves noted, “I cannot worship God by myself.”[14]
Why people go to church.
American literature offers a sterling example of the Western assumption that internal guilt will convict a wrongdoer of his crime.
If a person from a shame culture commits a “sin,” he will not likely feel guilty about it if no one else knows, for it is the community (not the individual) that determines whether one has lost face.
The risk of shaming can likewise affect the way that entire governments act.
To summarize, in an innocence/guilt culture (which includes most Western societies), the laws of society, the rules of the church, local mores and the code of the home are all internalized in the person. The goal is that when a person breaks one of these, her or his conscience will be pricked. In fact, it is hoped that the conscience will discourage the person from breaking the rule in the first place. The battle is fought on the inside.
In an honor/shame society, such as that of the Bible and much of the non-Western world today, the driving force is to not bring shame upon yourself, your family, your church, your village, your tribe or even your faith. The determining force is the expectations of your significant others (primarily your family). Their expectations don’t override morals or right/wrong; they actually are the ethical standards. In these cultures, you are shamed when you disappoint those whose expectations matter. “You did wrong”—not by breaking a law and having inner guilt but by failing to meet the expectations
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Everyone, including David, knows now that Uriah is not letting David off the hook.
But the thing David had done displeased the Lord”
David’s words of repentance: For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth. (Ps 51:3-5)
Public questions were never for information. If one wanted information, you asked privately, as we often see Jesus’ disciples do (Mt 24:3; Mk 9:28).
As we mentioned above, this is why the Jewish officials killed Jesus. They had been challenging Jesus publicly (Mt 12:1-7, for example), and every time they “lost,” they lost honor.
“No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions” (Mt 22:46).
Jesus won. The leaders then decide to kill Jesus. Honor is at stake here.
Israelites were not being their brother’s keeper; they were no longer considering each other to be family (vv. 15, 22). They were not looking out for each other.
If they won’t stand together and defend each other, they will end up as chopped apart as that poor woman.
We deceive ourselves when we think sin is individual and independent of a community’s honor. Our individualism feeds the false sense that sin is merely an inner wrong—the private business between me and God, to be worked out on judgment day.
Paul thought otherwise. He considered sin yeast that influenced the whole batch of dough
He was not meting out early individual punishment for a few. Sin is corporate; it permeates the whole body.
The quality of the event is the primary issue, not the quantity of minutes or hours.”[1] Relationships trump schedules, so things begin when everyone who needs to be there has arrived.
Western stories have a beginning, a middle and an end.
In the non-Western world, stories often circulate around the event until it coalesces; therefore, orderliness (but not the chronological sequence) is important.
Matthew has every major event in the life of Jesus occur on a mountain.
Much of the Bible’s wisdom literature is concerned with kairos. It is not enough to know a wise saying. Wisdom is knowing when to use it. One is wise when she knows when to answer a fool and when not to
chronos? What if he is describing kairos?
The goal is to avoid both ditches, which means that the difference between good instruction and bad instruction depends upon which ditch you have drifted toward.
In the West, rules must apply to everyone, and they must apply all the time. In the ancient world, rules did not seem to require such universal compliance.
The Indonesian—and arguably the biblical—view of law always left room for exceptions.
Natural indicates “things we understand.” Supernatural things are things we don’t (yet) understand.
Once we understand a bit about how something works, we shove the divine out of it.
Once we understand a rule of the universe, we cut God out of any relationship to it.
Naturalism tells us that once we understand the rules that govern the world, we have no need for a relationship with its Creator. And naturalism, for most Westerners, goes without being said.
“The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.”
As it is described in Scripture, developing virtue is a process that begins with our thoughts and results in our deeds.
Self-sufficiency has the ring of wisdom. But the Bible doesn’t support it.
James reminds us that putting too much faith in our own plans dishonors God. Rather “You ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that’”
“Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the...
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Military force is an effective way to bring peace. The United States is famed worldwide for Pax Americana, for bringing peace the same way the Romans did.
The parable of the rich fool is difficult for Westerners, because in it Jesus comes uncomfortably close to undermining this important virtue. That’s because what Westerners call a virtue—savings—many others in the Christian tradition, including Jesus himself, may consider a vice—greed. In the parable, a wealthy man yielded an abundant harvest. That’s good news. The bad news was he didn’t have room to store the extra grain. So he commanded his servants to tear down his barns and build him newer, bigger barns. They did, and the rich man was pretty pleased with himself. “You have plenty of grain
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The problem—the man’s vice—was that he didn’t want to part with any of his possessions, even after his barns were full: “I will just build bigger barns.”
“Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!”
it happens to you that in burying your money you bury also your heart. “For where your treasure is,” it is said, “there will your heart be also”
The servant who was ready when his master showed up was blessed: makarios
“So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him”
Jesus “will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” Yet we never seem to weary of guessing.
the kind of reader who is increasingly aware of his or her cultural assumptions.
Whether we like it or not, we learn more when we get something wrong the first time than we do when we are right from the beginning.
