Culture Wars
John 4:7-10 A Samaritan woman came to the well to get some water, and Jesus said to her, “Please give me a drink.” … The woman answered, “I am surprised that you ask me for a drink! You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman!” (Jews have nothing to do with Samaritans.) Jesus answered, “You don’t know what God can give you. And you don’t know who I am, the one who asked you for a drink. If you knew, you would have asked me, and I would have given you living water.”
The thing I find most frightening about 21st Century Christianity, is the degree to which we’ve become tribalistic, more intent on engaging in culture wars than on ministering love of God in Jesus Christ.
Be it political ideologies, gender politics, free speech, whatever, we Christians seem to have found ways to defend our beliefs, to tell others how wrong they are … with unprecedented ferocity. And not just at a corporate level – “the church” – but at an individual level, that’d be thee and me, right?
Now sure, these issues should be debated in the public square, but whilst we’re busying ourselves fighting culture wars, how ready are we to reach across the divide with the love of Jesus Christ for each person on this planet, hmm?
Jews and Samaritans hated each other with a passion. They worshipped the same God, but in different places and different ways. You couldn’t find two groups more deeply divided, not to mention the cultural implications of a man talking alone with a woman back there in the 1st century, and yet …
John 4:7-10 A Samaritan woman came to the well to get some water, and Jesus said to her, “Please give me a drink.” … The woman answered, “I am surprised that you ask me for a drink! You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman!” (Jews have nothing to do with Samaritans.) Jesus answered, “You don’t know what God can give you. And you don’t know who I am, the one who asked you for a drink. If you knew, you would have asked me, and I would have given you living water.”
Hmm. If it’s good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for thee and me.
#NoteToSelf: cut the culture wars and reach out across the divide with God’s love.
That’s His Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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