Haase_UZ_x007E_DTh (2).pdf - South African Theological Seminary

through the Bible will be diminished. To be
aware of this danger is a necessary step in
avoiding it. Contextualization cannot take
place unless Scripture is read and obeyed by
believers. This means that believers will
study the Scriptures carefully and respond to
their cultural concerns in light of what is in
the biblical text. Culture is subject to the God
of culture. Culture is important to God and
for all its god and bad factors, culture is that
framework within which God works out
God’s purposes. Some indications of the
gospel’s presence in the soil may be evident,
but Scripture is something that is outside and
must be brought into the cultural setting to
more fully understand what God is doing in
culture, and to find parallels between the
culture and the Bible (Gilliland, in Moreau,
2000:227).
Consider also this oft-misused passage from 1 Corinthians, where the Apostle Paul
speaks about our freedoms in Christ, along with our witness to others:
For though I am free from all men, I have
made myself a servant to all, that I might win
the more; and to the Jews I became as a Jew,
that I might win Jews; to those who are under
the law, as under the law, that I might win
those who are under the law; to those who are
without law, as without law (not being without
law toward God, but under law toward Christ),
that I might win those who are without law; to
the weak I became as weak, that I might win
the weak. I have become all things to all men,
that I might by all means save some. Now this
I do for the gospel’s sake, that I may be
partaker of it with you (1Co. 9:19-23).
This passage is not license for Christians to live corruptly as the world does. Nor is it
permission to do anything in our human power to bring others into the Christian fold --
the ends justifying the means. When the Apostle says he becomes like one without Law,
he is not saying that he lives the base life of so many godless heathens, so as to ‘fit in.’
For the Apostle Paul to be without the Law, means he did not let Jewish religious
customs become a barrier between him and the gentiles. He instead, contextualized his
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University of Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa