Is living or working or worshipping in a multicultural setting hard?
Yes, it is.
Expectations of “how things are done” are different. Accents make it harder to understand each other, as do customs, relational boundaries, even the foods eaten in the break room smell different.
Does God intend for us to live in a diverse, multicultural world?
Again, the answer is “Yes, he does.” Why do I say that?
Well, let’s look at the evidence. First, creation.
There are over 8,500 verified types of ocean sponges, with the actual number possibly twice that.
Number of recorded species of trees: 73,300.
Angiosperms, or the flowering plants, are without doubt the most diverse group of modern plants. There may be over 290,000 species of angiosperms alive today, with some putting the number as high as 400,000.
The true figure of living species of insects can only be estimated from present and past studies. Most authorities agree that there are more insect species that have not been described (named by science) than there are insect species that have been previously named. Conservative estimates suggest that this figure is 2 million, but estimates extend to 30 million.
I could go on, but you get the picture.
God is prolific in his creation. Over and over in Genesis 1, it records that God created living creatures according to their kinds, plural (v. 21, 24, (twice each verse), v. 25 (three times)). He was not just creative in the generative sense, but in the artistic sense. Who could look at an orchid, or a dragonfly, or a hummingbird or some strange sea creature and not wonder at the prolific imagination of God?! Whether you are a believer in 6-day creation or theistic evolution, it is clear that God delighted in diversity.
But what about when he got to creating humans? God said in Genesis 1:26, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness” and “male and female he made them” (Genesis 1:27, reiterated by Jesus in Mark 10:6: “at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female’”). This takes us into deep waters, referencing both the Trinity and the designed diversity of human gender.
The reason for having two sexes is located in the plurality of God himself! The Trinity, from all eternity, has been an unfathomable diversity of beings within a singular deity — well above any attempt of mine to explain how that works. When he created the multiplicity of non-human life — plants and animals — the capstone of creation was always meant to be a richness and multiplicity of human beings in his own image.
My point? If you don’t learn to love people across the barriers of ethnicity, language, and culture, and if you don’t recognize the image of God in those he has recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life, heaven might be an uncomfortable place for you.
If you don’t learn to love people across the barriers of ethnicity, language, and culture, and if you don’t recognize the image of God in those he has recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life, heaven might be an uncomfortable place for you.
Having considered the diversity of creation, let’s think about God’s intentional diversity in redemption. Despite what the Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day thought, it was never God’s intention to only bless a small colony of Israelites. He blessed them, so that they could become a blessing to the nations, a missionary calling that was never fulfilled.
When Jesus is cleansing the Temple, as recorded in Mark 11:17, he quotes Isaiah 56:7, “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations” and goes on to condemn them for turning the Gentile worship space into a commercial area. [] [1] Read all of Isaiah 56:1-8 for a fuller understanding of God’s plan to bring others besides Jews into his kingdom.
You can trace the working out of this goal from Genesis, with the calling of Abram to become “a blessing [ … to] all peoples on earth” in Genesis 12:2-3, and through the revelation to Daniel in chapter 7:13-14: “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” [] [2] In Malachi, Habbakuk, Hosea, even in the Psalms, the command to tell other nations and peoples about the true God is mentioned or alluded to.
Paul ends his letter to the Romans by writing: “Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ [ … ] by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him — to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen” (Roman 16:25-26).
Matthew ends his gospel with what is known as the Great Commission: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20).
The answer was a resounding (and repeated) yes, when the Ethiopian eunuch was converted. It was a yes when the Roman centurion Cornelius and his household were converted and received the Holy Spirit just as the original disciples had. It was a yes also when Paul was tasked with going to preach to the Gentiles in Asia, Spain, Italy, Crete, Malta and other locations, writing to the Ephesians “that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body” (Ephesians 3:6).
When the day of Pentecost comes, after Jesus is resurrected and ascended, the Holy Spirit comes to Jesus’ followers so that they can fulfill his command to “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). They are able to declare the wonders of God to Jews from all nations, as well as Cretans, and Arabs. Further into Acts, the Holy Spirit likewise falls on Gentiles, provoking the first crisis in the young church: Did God really mean to include non-Jewish people in his kingdom?
In the famous (and famously misused) verse in Galatians 3:28-29, Paul declares that as far as who is welcome into God’s kingdom, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
And in Revelation 5:9c, it says: “for you [Jesus] were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.”
In John’s vision, he sees fulfilled God’s intention from before all creation — a diversity of people who he knows and loves: “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb” (Revelation 7:9).
So it looks like heaven is going to be full of every kind of person, from every nation and culture, speaking every language, forming a glorious mosaic of the saved who worship Jesus. Perhaps we might get a little practice in now at forming that mosaic?
So it looks like heaven is going to be full of every kind of person, from every nation and culture, speaking every language, forming a glorious mosaic of the saved who worship Jesus.
Going one step further, if this is how we are to think of brothers and sisters in the faith who believe as we do, but who are different from us in language, skin color, politics, national origin or in any other way, how are we to treat unbelievers? Those who do not share our faith, or anything else with us? Is there a lower standard? Can we avoid rubbing shoulders with those people?
Let me reproduce part of a transcript from a talk Tim gave to The Gospel Coalition. He began talking about Jonah, and his completely understandable (though disobedient) reluctance to preach to the Ninevites, who were a particularly vicious and cruel culture, and part of the Assyrian Empire. They were a threat to the nation of Israel, and Jonah would have liked nothing better than to see them wiped out by God. But he knew God’s character, and suspected he might be merciful … what then (Jonah 4:1-2)? Tim contrasted Jonah with the Good Samaritan, who finds himself in a similar situation and reacts completely differently.
From What a Minor Prophet Teaches Us, a talk given to The Gospel Coalition on April 3, 2019 by Tim Keller.
Some people have said that Jonah is the anti-Good Samaritan.
If you put this Good Samaritan parable of the New Testament together with the Book of Jonah and the Old Testament, what do you get? Now, let me remind you what the Good Samaritan is about. The Good Samaritan is a man who’s coming along and he’s in a very dangerous place on a road, the road to Jericho, infested with highwaymen, and he comes upon a Jew.
As you know, the Jews and the Samaritans hated each other; they were two different races who despised each other. And he comes upon a Jew, his sworn enemy, but he sees the man had been beaten up by robbers. He was perhaps going to die. He desperately needed medical help. But for the Samaritan, to even stop on the Jericho Road was taking his own life in his hands. […]
When Jesus says, “You have to love your neighbor as yourself,” and Jesus is asked, “what does that mean? What does it mean to love my neighbor? Who is my neighbor?” Jesus told this story of the Good Samaritan.
And what is that story? A man who gives practical financial and medical help to a person of a different race and of a different religion. So when you ask Jesus, “What does it mean to love,” he gives you an example. It doesn’t mean that’s the only way to love anybody, but he gives the example of someone who gives a sacrificial, life-risking, practical help to a person of a different race and religion.
Jesus says, “There’s my example of what it means to love your neighbor.” Which is exactly the opposite of what Jonah does. Jonah does not want to risk his life. In fact, he imperils the life of the people that he despises.
So if you take the anti-Good Samaritan — Jonah — and you put him together with the Good Samaritan, let’s answer these questions from the Bible: “Who is my neighbor?” The answer is anyone of any race or any religion that is in need is your neighbor. “And what does it mean to love my neighbor?” It means not just to say, “Go, be warm and filled.” It doesn’t just mean to have feelings of warmth to them. In fact, there’s no indication that the Good Samaritan looked at the Jew and just had this great warmth in his heart for the Jew in the road. It’s to give practical help. If it’s economic, it’s economic. If it’s physical, it’s physical. If it’s spiritual, it’s spiritual.
Of course, the most important thing you could possibly do, the greatest thing you could ever do for anybody is to help them find faith and have their soul saved for eternity through faith in Jesus Christ. That’s obviously the best way to love anybody. But it’s not the only way to love anybody, and Jesus makes sure you see that. It means we’re supposed to be meeting the most basic needs.
And then, thirdly, “How should I regard my neighbor?” Jesus does not put a Jew on the horse going along and finding a Samaritan in the road, instead he puts a Samaritan on the horse and puts a Jew in the road. Why? He was trying to say, “You know these Samaritans? They don’t believe in God. They’re heretics, they’re racially different, they’re religiously different, but they obviously are capable of great good, of great wisdom.” In the Good Samaritan parable, in some ways, Jesus is giving us a doctrine of common grace. The meaning of common grace is you do not have to be a believer in the living God in order to be a good person.
You know why? Because God loves to make all kinds of people wise and good. He makes the world far better than it would’ve been if the only good people here were people who believed.
And therefore, “How should I regard my neighbor?” How should Jonah have regarded his pagan neighbors? They were actually, in many ways, more admirable than he was. So you see all those questions lead us to this: Racism is a sin, because it’s a violation of the second of the two greatest commandments. And the second commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” is based on the doctrine of the image of God.
Every single person who’s created is in the image of God and, is therefore, of equal dignity and worth.
John Calvin, of all people, has a passage in his Institutes, that is absolutely astonishing, in which he works out the social-justice implications of the doctrine of the image of God.
Listen to what he says. Calvin says that he’s heard many Christians tell him, “There is a foreigner in my neighborhood or there are some immoral people in my neighborhood and they do not deserve my help. So don’t tell me that I have to give practical aid and help to people who don’t deserve my help.” Calvin turns around and says, “Even if they are immoral, even if they are of a different race or of a different religion, they’re in the image of God.”
Calvin goes on in his third volume of the Institutes: “You may say about the stranger before you that you owe nothing for any service of his, but God, as it were, has put him in his own place in order that you may recognize toward him the many and great benefits by which God has bound you to himself.”
Let me translate that. “You say, ‘This stranger deserves nothing from me,’ but God has put him in his own place.” Why? Because he’s got the image of God in him. Listen to this: “You will say, ‘He has deserved something far different from me,’ but what has the Lord deserved?”
Look at your neighbor. Yes, your immoral neighbor. Yes, the neighbor of another race. Yes, a neighborhood that you may feel doesn’t deserve your help.
Look at that person and say not what he deserves but what does God deserve because the image of God is on him. And then Calvin goes on and says, “Do not consider men’s evil intention but look upon the image of God in them, which cancels and effaces their transgressions, and with its beauty and dignity allures us to love and embrace them.”
Calvin is supposedly a narrow and very conservative reformed theologian. But listen, he says, “When you see someone who seems to not deserve your help,” he says, “remember not to consider men’s evil intentions; don’t look at their hearts, don’t look at their character, but look upon the image of God in them which cancels and effaces their transgressions.”
Listen to that again: “Cancels and effaces their transgressions and, with its beauty and dignity, allures us to love and embrace them.” And then, he goes on to say this, “Each Christian will so consider with himself a debtor to his neighbor that he ought, in exercising kindness toward them, set no other limit than the end of his resources.”
[…]
So John Calvin says if you […] understand the call to love your neighbor, you understand what Jesus Christ has said about that, you understand that they have the image of God on them, that you shall set no limit on your willingness to help them but “the end of your resources.” No matter what their race, no matter what their religion.
Now what does that mean? The number one thing you do to help somebody, the best thing you can ever do is help to save their soul through faith in Jesus Christ. And therefore, building up the church is the single most important thing in lifting up the gospel, the single-most important way to love the human race. Okay?
Nevertheless, the doctrine of the image of God shows this is not an optional activity […]. Is doing justice, as it were, is loving your neighbor, is eliminating racism, is helping the people in need, is it as important as sharing the gospel? No, but it is absolutely necessary.
It’s not an option. It never can be an option because here we are in the same world. And what that means is that then we have to do what Jonah did not do. The commentators point out that when Jonah was in that boat with all the pagan sailors, they came down and they said, “Why aren’t you praying to your God? We’re praying to our God. Why aren’t you helping us with the storm?” You know what they’re saying?
“We’re all in the same boat. Why aren’t you caring about us? We care about you, why don’t you care about us?” Christians have to care about the common good. Christians have to look at their city, they have to look at their community. And the only way to love your neighbor is to make sure they have the things that they need.
And let me give you a little list. Everybody in your community ought to have a safe environment rather than a community that’s plagued by crime or health hazards. Everybody in your community ought to have humane workplaces, a place where there are jobs that are available. Every community needs a state of peace rather than one marked by violence between individual races, groups, or nations.
Everyone in your community, your city, needs a just social order rather than one marked by corruption and by a justice system weighted against the weak or the poor. They need publicly-available resources like good educational institutions. You know, what are we talking about here? We’re talking about loving your neighbor.
You say, “Oh, that’s all that social political stuff.” Yeah, it is. But I don’t know how you love your neighbor without doing stuff like that. And this is the most important thing that Christians can do now. I think the church’s job, as the church, is to lift up the gospel. I think the Christians’ job is to both share their faith and also love their neighbor. No, it’s not an option. And to work against racism is at the very heart of what it means to honor the image of God and love your neighbor as yourself.
If it looks like God intends to populate heaven with a diverse multiplicity of people — all who have been saved by Jesus, but who may have nothing else in common — then perhaps we ought to begin practicing appreciating what God appreciates in our differences now, while we have the time.
We always say the gospel changes everything — well Christians are the gospel-bearers. So everyone who claims to love Christ and follow him has the ability to bring the gospel-change the world needs and that Christ calls us to. Live out the gospel like the Good Samaritan, and share the gospel like Paul, and your own community will take on a new and dynamic life that points to the ultimate community of believers we see in heaven.
