I am of the mindset that we need to constantly be on the lookout for ways that our culture has influenced our faith. If we aren't watchful, we may discover that our culture has colored how we apply our faith, when our faith is supposed to be changing our culture.
This is rather difficult to do, because our culture seems normal to us since we have been raised this way to value certain things and act certain ways.
One thing that is fairly prevalent in Christian circles is the mindset that we can, and in fact should, specialize in areas of Christianity.
Our culture focuses on our strengths, our talents, and our preferences, so we end up with the mindset in the Church that we should apply this to our faith as well.
That's fine and dandy, except this is not what the Bible teaches.
We aren't commanded to choose one thing that God cares about & just care or focus on that thing.
As followers of God and imitators of Christ, we should be studying Scripture to figure out what God has shown us that He cares about and then we should work on caring about those things as well. Then we need to do something about it, because if we just care about something emotionally or intellectually, but don't do anything to improve or protect it, well the Bible questions if we really care all that much after all.
Now I know these are a lot of claims that I have made, but this post is the culmination of reading through the New Testament in a small group & making several connections about what the Bible says about our gifts/talents and our actions.
Truth 1: God gives different gifts to different people.
See Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4, and 1 Peter 4.
Truth 2: All Christians are still called to live out specific actions, even if it's not my "strength".
A lot of times, we see in Scripture, general commands to believers such as "teach & admonish one another" or "encourage one another" or "offer hospitality without grumbling". These are commands to all believers, because they don't have qualifiers like "if this is your gift". There is a clear expectation that we are supposed to work on all of these "one another" instructions in addition to other clear commands in the Bible.
See the "one another" instructions in these passages: Romans 12-16, 2 Corinthians 13, Galatians 5, Ephesians 4-5, Philippians 2, Colossians 3, 1 Thessalonians 4-5, Hebrews 3, Hebrews 10, Hebrews 13, James 4-5, 1 Peter 1, 1 Peter 3-5, and all of 1/2/3 John.
Truth 3: The Bible clearly & repeatedly calls for Christians to do all good works to reach all people, not just the things I'm good at for the people like me.
See what the Bible has to say about "good work" in these passages: 2 Corinthians 9, Ephesians 2, Colossians 1, and 2 Timothy 2-3. Do you note the "all" or "every" or "any" in these passages?
See Matthew 28, Mark 16, Romans 10, 1 Corinthians 9, 1 Corinthians 5, 2 Timothy, and 1 Peter 3 for passages on spreading the Gospel.
At the heart of all of these conflicting messages from our faith and our culture comes one core question: Am I allowing myself to be shaped in Christ's image? Okay two questions: Am I learning to act like Him, even if it means that I have to practice traits I'm not as good at?
So instead of asking "Am I good at this virtue?", we need to ask ourselves "Did Christ model or command this virtue of us?"
There is one quote from our culture that we can learn from. We often hear the first half, but rarely hear the full quote: “A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one." It is better for me to continually work on and practice hospitality, patience, encouragement, serving those on the margins of society, & generosity, than just focus on one or two strengths or spiritual gifts. I won't fully look like Christ as long as I continue to specialize in some virtues, while laughingly dismissing other virtues as "not my gifting".
To imitate Christ, I can't just focus on my strengths & practice those virtues. It's certainly a good place to start, but it's not where we should stay long-term. I need to practice especially those traits & disciplines that I struggle with, that I find myself lacking. It is only by working on my weaknesses in addition to my strengths that I can get closer to displaying His likeness each day.
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