Beware of Cultural Theology
Matthew 15:1-9 (ESV) 1 Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, 2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” 3 He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God commanded, Honor your father and your mother,’ and, Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 5 But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” 6 he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. 7 You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: 8 “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 9 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”
At some point Israel’s Rabis wrote commentary on the law in which they explained the biblical text while working through what I’d call exceptions to clarify what they wanted to make clear for daily practice. These writings are called “midrash”. Along the way these writings began to be practiced as much, if not more, than the actual text of what God said and had written down.
This is, perhaps, a poor equivalent, but think about commentaries, books on and about theology, pastor’s topical sermons, and study Bible notes being read and studied more than the actual Bible. None of that is ideal. We need more Bible consumption than other people’s thoughts about their own Bible study.
Over time, other people’s assimilation of the biblical text became the practice and not the law Moses recorded.
Thus, Jesus makes application of Isaiah’s inspired words to his generation.
Ouch.
You could call what happened “cultural theology”. Well, cultural theology has not gone away. Cultural theology finds its place among just about every generation. Anything that speaks to ultimate reality is a theology. Everyone is a theologian. The question is whether what we say is true and whether we are good or sloppy theologians.
Here’s one we’ve all probably heard:
God helps those who help themselves. That’s a big one. It’s a lie.
The idea is that if you work as hard as you can and do your best, God will step in and help you succeed. This piece of cultural theology can be traced to Benjamin Franklin and not anything associated with orthodox Christian theology. Too many followers of Jesus hold this ideology, if not overtly, they practice it covertly.
The truth is John 15:5 and Psalm 121:2: Apart from Jesus we can do nothing, and all our help comes from the LORD.
God helps those who depend completely on him and wait on him and lives in the rhythm of Sabbath where we cease striving and know he is God (Psalm 46:10).
Many folks have developed a theology from words and phrases made up of vague biblical ideas and misapplication of biblical ideas spoken as biblical quotations or true statements, and they have codified that “thing” by word of mouth and repetition. So much of this has been done without ever reading the Bible cover to cover even one time and wrestling with its difficult sections or even fairly representing what the Bible teaches about who God is, who we are, and what God demands.
This is not Christianity. It is some other religious system wearing a Christian t-shirt.
Here are a few more examples.
God won’t give you more than you can handle. This lie makes more of human sufficiency than it should, and it a mash up of biblical texts that is just wrong.
This cultural theology assumes that God will never allow you to face trials beyond your ability to endure.
This untruth misquotes 1 Corinthians 10:13, which refers to temptation, not suffering.
The Bible repeatedly shows God allowing people to face more than they can handle so they will rely on Him.
Paul was overwhelmed: “We were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.” (2 Corinthians 1:8-9).
Gideon and Moses were given tasks too big for them so that God’s power would be evident.
God will give you more than you can handle so that you’ll depend on Him (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).
We are all God’s children. This lie takes our created nature as image-bearers and loved by God and extrapolates it to universal salvation. Being loved by God does not mean he will overlook the rebellion of sin unless his conditions are met. This cultural theology teaches that everyone, no matter what they believe or place their faith in, is a child of God.
The Bible teaches that only those who believe in Jesus become God’s “adopted” children by faith in Jesus. All people are created by God (Genesis 1:27), but only believers are adopted into His family (Romans 8:14-17).
John 1:12 – “To all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.”
Galatians 3:26 – “For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.”
Without the transformation brought about by the gospel through faith in Jesus, people are spiritually dead and separated from God (Ephesians 2:1-3).
Here’s a doozy:
Christianity is a relationship not a religion. This lie makes a false dichotomy. This cultural theology says that Jesus didn’t come to start a religion. Rather, Jesus just wants a personal relationship with folks. This sounds good, and I admit this one might make some folks angry or uncomfortable, but hang on.
While faith in Jesus does establish a relationship with God, the Bible is also super clear about organized faith, corporate worship, and doctrinal distinctives which is, by definition, religion.
Religion is not a bad word. People may assign an emotive response to the word due to some poor experience with people of a faith system, but the word and its meaning is not innately bad. People who recoil at the word “religion” need to ask themselves why. They may have very legitimate reasons to recoil at systems who have done poorly, but that does not nullify the word or it’s appropriate application to a faith system.
James 1:27 says, “Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows…”
God applies religion to what he demands of his people.
Jesus established the Church (Matthew 16:18), set up leadership among its members by gifting the whole organization (Ephesians 4:11-12), and gave instructions for worship (Acts 2:42).
The gospel is powerful and establishes a relationship God and restored sinners, but the gospel also births people into the local church which includes worship, doctrine, obedience, and fellowship with fellow members, or community (Hebrews 10:25).
Rejecting “religion” in favor of “relationship” often leads to individuals isolated from the church rather than biblical discipleship through the local church.
So, take these thoughts and examples and use them to test your thoughts and see if you can strain out some cultural theology that might be deadly to your soul.
I am constantly finding myself with thoughts that are contrary to the knowledge of God, and so my warfare needs to be divine and full of God’s power to destroy those strongholds of unbelief and cultural theology.
2 Corinthians 10:3-6 (ESV) 3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, 6 being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.