Biblical Oneness: A Five-Day Devotional on RaceSample

Understand How Culture Goes Both Ways

In this passage, Jesus not only critiqued the Samaritan culture by the truth of God’s Word, but He critiqued His own culture by that same standard. When His disciples complained that He was talking with a Samaritan woman, He rejected their prejudice by telling them that it was more important for Him to do the will of God than to succumb to their biases.

The disciples, in the meantime, were growing more frustrated with Jesus as they learned that they had just walked nearly all day only to bring food to Him that He refused. “Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work. Do you not say, “There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest”? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest’” (John 4:34–35). Jesus is saying that if you will simply lift up your eyes, you will see the harvest. Stop giving excuses for delaying the harvest when the fields are already ripe. If you will look up, you will see that the opportunity to crossover is right in front of you. The time has come to be rid of our excuses and to start doing kingdom work right here and now.

Racial harmony and reconciliation do not necessitate that all churches be integrated at all times into one non cultural, robotic format. Don’t misunderstand my point. Jesus didn’t dispose of His Jewish passport, trim His beard, and adopt Samaritan slang. But He did give us a model of the intentional nature as well as the depth of engagement that we are to follow in cross-cultural relationships. Jesus showed value and esteem to an entire group of people through an authentic respect and intentionality to relate. God is not asking African Americans to disregard our rich spiritual and cultural heritage and become white in our approach to theology and the full expression of life under the umbrella of a biblical worldview. Nor is God asking white people to adopt other cultural styles of worship and become black in their approach to theology. But He is insisting that, within our differences, we discover a common ground of mutual benefit as we all reflect His truth as revealed in Scripture. When culture does not infringe upon the Word of God, we are free to be what God has created us to be, with all the uniqueness that accompanies our cultural heritage.

However, the objective truth from Scripture places limits on our cultural experiences. As African Americans continue to seek cultural freedom, we must examine every strategy offered to promote social justice and policy under the magnifying glass of Scripture. Every bit of advice given by our leaders and all definitions proposing to tell us what it means to be black must be commensurate with divine revelation. If what we are given as cultural is not biblically acceptable, it cannot be accepted as authoritative or legitimate. Whites, too, must submit their cultural traditions and privileges to the authority of God’s Word if they are going to play their part in dismantling the racial mythology that is a dominant theme in their worldview. Because of this limited and distorted worldview, whites are often unable to see beyond skin to discover the qualitative benefits that would come their way through using and learning from the skills, intellect, and creativity of their African American brothers and sisters.

Just as it was in Samaria, oneness across racial lines is the greatest evangelistic teaser to the presentation of the gospel that we could ever broadcast, both locally and abroad.