However, we should not endeavor to drop our culture without such a vision of Christ. But as soon as the vision comes, we must set aside our cultural background and not allow it to replace Christ or to restrict Him. When Christ comes in, our culture must go. But we should not try to drop culture without Christ. Actually our concern is not with culture—it is for the experience of Christ. The point we are making is that since we have received Christ, we should not allow culture to become a substitute for Him. In Christ we have the liberty to set aside our culture in order to enlarge our capacity to enjoy the Lord. All the room within us must be given over to Christ. If our entire inward capacity is made available to Him, spontaneously the culture within us will be replaced by Christ. However, it is terrible to drop culture apart from Christ. But when Christ comes, we should tell the Lord that we want Him to possess and occupy all the ground within us.
Culture is a great frustration to the experience of Christ. In His recovery the Lord surely has come to visit us. What keeps us from enjoying Him is not mainly sin or worldliness; it is culture. Unconsciously and subconsciously, we are frustrated by culture from the experience of Christ. Many saints have been desiring for years to experience more of Christ. However, their experience of Him has not expanded. The factor that limits the expansion of the enjoyment of Christ is culture. Spontaneously the culture within us keeps us from the real experience of Christ. In the meetings we may declare that Christ is our life and that the church life is glorious. But when we return home after the meetings, we automatically live according to our culture, not according to Christ. The governing principle of our life at home is not Christ; it is our culture. In the meetings all of us may be the same as we share in the same praises and aspirations, but outside the meetings we are different in our cultural concepts and behavior. We may do certain things or refrain from doing those things according to the influence of culture. Hence, our living is regulated and governed not by Christ, but by culture. Those with a Chinese background live according to Chinese culture, and the Americans live according to American culture.
Suppose a certain brother is having problems with his wife. In desperation he prays to the Lord and asks Him how he can become the kind of husband described in Ephesians 5. Another brother may try to encourage him to take Christ as his life and person. However, the first brother may have to admit that even though he has heard a number of messages on living by Christ, he simply does not know how to take Christ as his life and as his person. This indicates that for years this brother has been putting Christ aside and has been living according to his culture. In times of trouble he is forced to the Lord. But a short while later, he spontaneously reverts to his culture.
The principle is the same with all of us. We have heard messages on Christ as our life and our person. Nevertheless, in our daily life we live according to our culture. As we sing and praise the Lord in the church meetings, we may conform to the atmosphere of the meetings. But at home we live according to our culture. For this reason, we are heavily burdened by the Lord that all the saints in the Lord’s recovery may learn in a practical way how to take Christ as their life and person to replace their culture. Once again I say that the point is not that we drop our culture. It is that we take Christ as our life and as our person to replace our culture day by day, hour by hour, and even moment by moment. If we do this, we shall truly live by Christ, not by our culture.
Perhaps you are wondering what the difference is between living according to culture and living according to Christ. In the church we have those from different cultural backgrounds. According to their culture, some saints are open, frank, and quick. It is very difficult for them to keep anything secret. However, they are lacking in patience. Other saints, with a different background, are reserved and hidden. It is very difficult for anyone to tell what is taking place within them or how they feel about things. Others, with still a different cultural background, may be virtually expressionless. You cannot tell whether such a person is happy with you or displeased with you. Even after those from these different cultures are saved and have begun to seek the Lord, they retain their cultural characteristics and even bring them into the church life. The problem is that in the church they all live much more according to their culture than according to Christ. They love the Lord Jesus, but they still live by their culture. No matter what their cultural background may be, they do not give Christ very much ground within them. Therefore, the daily church life is occupied by culture instead of by Christ. We are heavily burdened about this. We need to ask where Christ is in our practical, daily church life.
At Colosse the problem was not sin, as in Corinth, or the law and Judaism, as in Galatia. The problem in Colosse was culture. Certain aspects of culture, including philosophy, tradition, and the elementary principles of the world, had been wrought into the saints and were replacing Christ in their daily living. In Colosse culture had become a substitute for Christ. Christ did not have adequate ground in the daily living of the believers. Therefore, Paul wrote the Epistle to the Colossians to deal with this problem.