Scripture Reading: Col. 1:27-28; 2:2-4, 6, 8-9, 16-19; 3:3-4, 9-11
It is difficult to speak concerning Christ versus culture, for there is the danger of understanding such a word according to the natural concept. In saying that Christ is versus culture, we are not saying that we should drop our culture and then live without any culture whatever. If we try to drop our culture in this way, we shall simply develop another form of culture, a culture of dropping our culture. Without culture, people would become beasts. Those who do not have Christ certainly need to live according to culture.
Concerning this matter of the all-inclusive Christ versus culture, we need to see that according to the full revelation in the Bible God’s intention is to work Himself into His chosen people. This intention is the focal point of the divine revelation in the Scriptures. In order for God to work Himself into us, He must be triune. It is a wonderful and marvelous fact that God is triune — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The Father as the source is embodied in the Son, who is the very expression of the Father. When the Son comes, He always comes with the Father. This indicates that the Father cannot be separated from the Son, nor the Son from the Father. The Son is the embodiment, reality, and expression of the Father. Through the process of death and resurrection, the Son became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), the Holy Spirit who gives life. Hence, the Spirit is the realization of the Son, even as the Son is the embodiment of the Father.
The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are not three Gods, but one God in His tri-unity. Because God is triune, He can dispense Himself into us. God came to us in the Son through Christ’s incarnation. Christ died on the cross to redeem us and to terminate the old creation. Then in resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit. On the one hand, Christ is sitting on the throne in the heavens as the Head and Lord of all. On the other hand, as the Spirit He dwells within us to be our life. As the life-giving Spirit, Christ is our life supply, and He is to us the reality of every positive thing.
As the all-inclusive Spirit, the Triune God is working Himself into our being. The deepest part of our being is the spirit, which is surrounded by the soul and the body. Man’s physical body contains the soul, and the soul contains the spirit, which is a vessel to receive God and contain Him. Christ as the processed, all-inclusive life-giving Spirit is in our spirit, seeking to spread Himself into all the parts of our soul and eventually to saturate our bodies to make us absolutely the same as He is. When this takes place, our whole being will be permeated with Himself. This is God’s salvation according to His economy.
Many things hinder the accomplishment of God’s full salvation. Two of the more obvious hindrances are sin and worldliness. The most subtle hindrance, however, is culture. Culture frustrates God’s chosen people from experiencing Christ and enjoying Him. The all-inclusive Christ is versus culture. However, we are not saying that we should drop our culture and act like barbarians. We are by no means encouraging anyone to act as if we are free of culture. Those who do not have Christ certainly need culture. As children are growing up, they need not only culture, but also the law. But after we have received Christ, we should not allow our culture to limit Christ or to frustrate us from experiencing Him. Prior to receiving Christ, all people need culture. But after receiving Christ, we should live according to Christ, not according to culture. Do not think that culture is unnecessary. Culture preserves, regulates, and improves people. But after Christ has come into us, in our experience we should begin to live by Christ. The problem is that Christ is limited by our culture.
We have seen that God’s intention is to work Christ into His chosen people. God uses culture to preserve people until they receive Christ. Before children receive Christ, they must be trained according to culture and under the law. Never tell little children that they have no need for culture. On the contrary, teach them to honor their parents, to love others, and to share their possessions with others. Eventually, when they attain to a certain maturity, they will decide to receive Christ into them. Then we need to help them grow into Christ and with Christ. Gradually we can help them turn from culture to Christ. Eventually, instead of living according to culture, they will live according to Christ. Young people, do not proclaim that you have dropped your culture. Instead, testify to others that you have received Christ and that now you are living Christ, growing Christ, and producing Christ.
In his subtlety Satan will use good things, even things given by God, to keep us from experiencing Christ. Even the Bible has been used by Satan to frustrate people from the enjoyment of Christ. However, nothing keeps people from Christ more than culture. Culture is a frustration especially to those Christians who truly love the Lord. In fact, the more we love Him, the more culture will hinder us from experiencing Him.
Let us consider as an illustration the case of Peter. Although Peter was a fisherman, he was familiar with Jewish theology. One day, Peter received the inspiration to say that the Lord Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God. The Lord replied that Peter received this revelation from the Father in heaven. Then He went on to speak about the building up of the church and about the cross (Matt. 16:18, 24). In the book of Acts we see that Peter was used by the Lord to establish the first local church, the church in Jerusalem. Although Peter was used by the Lord in this way, he was still limited by his Jewish culture. This is proved by Peter’s experience in Acts 10. As Peter was praying, his experience of the Spirit was limited by his cultural concepts concerning Gentiles. Peter thought that the enjoyment of Christ was limited to Jews. As a typical Jew, he thought of the Gentiles, the heathen, as swine. His attitude toward them was a product of Jewish culture. Although Peter was one with the Lord, his experience of Christ was confined by culture. Then in Acts 10 Peter saw a vision of a great sheet “wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air” (v. 12). When a voice said to him, “Rise, Peter; kill, and eat,” Peter answered, “Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean” (vv. 13-14). This vision came to Peter three times. As Peter was considering what this vision might mean, some Gentiles arrived at the place where he was staying and asked about him. God’s intention was to expand the enjoyment of Christ to include the Gentiles. For this enlargement of the experience of Christ, there was the need for Peter to lay aside his cultural background.
However, we should not endeavor to drop our culture without such a vision of Christ. But as soon as the vision comes, we must set aside our cultural background and not allow it to replace Christ or to restrict Him. When Christ comes in, our culture must go. But we should not try to drop culture without Christ. Actually our concern is not with culture — it is for the experience of Christ. The point we are making is that since we have received Christ, we should not allow culture to become a substitute for Him. In Christ we have the liberty to set aside our culture in order to enlarge our capacity to enjoy the Lord. All the room within us must be given over to Christ. If our entire inward capacity is made available to Him, spontaneously the culture within us will be replaced by Christ. However, it is terrible to drop culture apart from Christ. But when Christ comes, we should tell the Lord that we want Him to possess and occupy all the ground within us.
Culture is a great frustration to the experience of Christ. In His recovery the Lord surely has come to visit us. What keeps us from enjoying Him is not mainly sin or worldliness; it is culture. Unconsciously and subconsciously, we are frustrated by culture from the experience of Christ. Many saints have been desiring for years to experience more of Christ. However, their experience of Him has not expanded. The factor that limits the expansion of the enjoyment of Christ is culture. Spontaneously the culture within us keeps us from the real experience of Christ. In the meetings we may declare that Christ is our life and that the church life is glorious. But when we return home after the meetings, we automatically live according to our culture, not according to Christ. The governing principle of our life at home is not Christ; it is our culture. In the meetings all of us may be the same as we share in the same praises and aspirations, but outside the meetings we are different in our cultural concepts and behavior. We may do certain things or refrain from doing those things according to the influence of culture. Hence, our living is regulated and governed not by Christ, but by culture. Those with a Chinese background live according to Chinese culture, and the Americans live according to American culture.
Suppose a certain brother is having problems with his wife. In desperation he prays to the Lord and asks Him how he can become the kind of husband described in Ephesians 5. Another brother may try to encourage him to take Christ as his life and person. However, the first brother may have to admit that even though he has heard a number of messages on living by Christ, he simply does not know how to take Christ as his life and as his person. This indicates that for years this brother has been putting Christ aside and has been living according to his culture. In times of trouble he is forced to the Lord. But a short while later, he spontaneously reverts to his culture.
The principle is the same with all of us. We have heard messages on Christ as our life and our person. Nevertheless, in our daily life we live according to our culture. As we sing and praise the Lord in the church meetings, we may conform to the atmosphere of the meetings. But at home we live according to our culture. For this reason, we are heavily burdened by the Lord that all the saints in the Lord’s recovery may learn in a practical way how to take Christ as their life and person to replace their culture. Once again I say that the point is not that we drop our culture. It is that we take Christ as our life and as our person to replace our culture day by day, hour by hour, and even moment by moment. If we do this, we shall truly live by Christ, not by our culture.
Perhaps you are wondering what the difference is between living according to culture and living according to Christ. In the church we have those from different cultural backgrounds. According to their culture, some saints are open, frank, and quick. It is very difficult for them to keep anything secret. However, they are lacking in patience. Other saints, with a different background, are reserved and hidden. It is very difficult for anyone to tell what is taking place within them or how they feel about things. Others, with still a different cultural background, may be virtually expressionless. You cannot tell whether such a person is happy with you or displeased with you. Even after those from these different cultures are saved and have begun to seek the Lord, they retain their cultural characteristics and even bring them into the church life. The problem is that in the church they all live much more according to their culture than according to Christ. They love the Lord Jesus, but they still live by their culture. No matter what their cultural background may be, they do not give Christ very much ground within them. Therefore, the daily church life is occupied by culture instead of by Christ. We are heavily burdened about this. We need to ask where Christ is in our practical, daily church life.
At Colosse the problem was not sin, as in Corinth, or the law and Judaism, as in Galatia. The problem in Colosse was culture. Certain aspects of culture, including philosophy, tradition, and the elementary principles of the world, had been wrought into the saints and were replacing Christ in their daily living. In Colosse culture had become a substitute for Christ. Christ did not have adequate ground in the daily living of the believers. Therefore, Paul wrote the Epistle to the Colossians to deal with this problem.
I believe that the time is right for messages on Christ versus culture to be released. It is vital for us all to see a vision concerning the all-inclusiveness of Christ. Christ must become everything to us in our daily living. The Christ who is the expression of God and the mystery of God’s economy now lives in us. The Christ who indwells us is not a small, limited Christ. He is the One who is the image of the invisible God, the embodiment of the fullness of God, and the focal point of God’s economy. Such a Christ now dwells in us and is waiting for the opportunity to spread Himself throughout our being. We need to live by Him moment by moment. We should not give any ground in our living to culture. Instead, all the room within us should be given over to the all-inclusive Christ who dwells in us to be our hope of glory. If we see such a vision of the indwelling, all-inclusive Christ, we shall spontaneously drop our culture. Formerly, Christ was replaced by culture. But once we see this vision, the culture within us will be replaced by Christ.
The Christ who is the image of God is the mystery of God’s economy and the mystery of God Himself. As the embodiment of God, He is the reality of every positive thing in the universe. These wonderful words, however, are like a foreign language to most of today’s Christians.
We should not be deluded by persuasive speech or carried off by man’s philosophy, tradition, or culture. We should care only for Christ. Christ should occupy us, possess us, and take us over. In our inner being there should be no room for philosophy or for the rudimentary principles of the world. Every part of our inward being should be occupied by Christ and with Christ. To us Christ is the real God, the real food, the real drink, the real clothing, and the real Sabbath. He is the reality of every positive thing. Therefore, we would not give ground in our being to anything other than Christ.
In 2:18 Paul warns us to let no one purposely defraud us of our prize. Our prize is the full enjoyment of Christ. Even those of us who have been in the Lord’s recovery for many years do not have the full enjoyment of Christ. We have been defrauded of this. Through seeing the vision of the all-inclusive Christ, we are being brought back to our prize. If we see this vision, no one will be able to defraud us of the full enjoyment of Christ. When we have this enjoyment, we realize that Christ is our reality. A stanza from a hymn on the experience of Christ as reality expresses it this way:
Christ is our real God, our real Lord,Christ is our real life, our real light;Christ is our real food, our real drink,Our real clothing, and our real might. Hymns, #496
Since Christ is such a reality to us, we should live by Him, not by culture.
In 3:3 and 4 we see that the Christ who is the focal point of God’s economy and the reality of all the positive things is our life. Our life is hidden with Christ in God. This means that we today are living in God. As our life, Christ is the constituent of the new man. Because Christ is the unique constituent of the new man, in the new man there is no room for Greeks and Jews, Americans and Chinese, circumcision and uncircumcision, slaves and free men. In the new man the Christ who is our life is all and in all. This is the all-inclusive Christ who is versus culture.
I hope that seeing this vision will stir a deep aspiration within us. We need to pray, “Lord Jesus, I want to be taken over, occupied, and possessed by You. I want to give You my full capacity and all the room in my being. Lord, I don’t want to be limited or frustrated in my experience of You. I want to enjoy You without limitation, restriction, or confinement. Lord, I want to have only You, not culture. I want to live by You, not by any kind of culture.”
There is no need for us to make up our minds to live a certain kind of Christian life. Christ today is the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit within us. This Spirit is the processed Triune God who indwells us. We should not try to be loving, kind, or gentle. To do this is not to live Christ. Instead of making up our minds to do certain things, we should simply live by the Christ who is now the life-giving Spirit in our spirit. We should tell Him, “Lord, I don’t know what it is to be loving, humble, or kind. Lord, I only care to live You.” When a brother is tempted to argue with his wife, he should say, “Lord, do You intend to argue with my wife? If You are doing this, then I shall be one with You in it.” In the same principle, when you are about to speak to your children, you need to tell the Lord that in this particular matter you want to live by Him and that you want to be one with Him as He takes the lead to talk to the children. This is living Christ. Making up our mind to act in a certain way is of no avail. It simply does not work. What we need to do is just live Christ.
In 4:2 Paul tells us to persevere in prayer. It is not Paul’s intention that we forget all the practical necessities of daily life and simply give ourselves to prayer. He means that we should pray in order to live Christ in all that we do day by day. As we have said, we should pray as we are about to talk with our husband or wife or with our children. In such prayer we may say, “Lord, I am one with You, and You are one with me. Lord, I am about to speak to my children. Lord, will You take the lead in this matter?” This is to persevere in prayer, to pray unceasingly.
Actually, living Christ is a matter of praying. If we would live by Christ, we need to pray. If you intend to go shopping, ask the Lord if He is pleased to go with you. As you are about to purchase a certain item, ask the Lord if He is happy about buying that item. Even in the smallest details we need to inquire of the Lord. To do this is to persevere in prayer and thereby to live Christ. The way to live Christ is by praying to Him all day long.
If we live Christ in this way, Christ will have a great deal of ground in the church life. Then we shall have a church life apart from culture. No matter what our cultural background may be, we shall live according to Christ, not according to culture. Believers from many different backgrounds will be the same, not in culture, but in the living of Christ. This is the proper church life, the Body life in which Christ is expressed. In such a genuine church life, we all are filled, permeated, and saturated with Christ. There is no sin, worldliness, self, flesh, or culture. There is nothing but Christ, the all-inclusive Christ who is versus culture.
