Paul’s Kingdom Culture
When Paul says that he was willing to become all things to all men, he was not being duplicitous, like the professional rhetorician whose skill involved detecting the tastes and preferences of his audience and then catering his message and presentation accordingly.
No, Paul was not a cultural chameleon. He had a cultural identity and he conducted Himself consistent with his true culture: the culture of the Kingdom. His citizenship was in heaven (Phil 3:20) and he lived in subjection to his King regardless of his earthly cultural context. The Kingdom, as all cultures, has its own mores, manners, customs and norms and its citizens evidence those manners whether they are among Jews, Greeks or Christians.
Paul wants us to know that he has not lost his cultural identity: though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ (v21). Paul was not lawless but lawful, and that in two distinctively Christian ways. First, he was not an antinomian who had no regard for “the moral law.”17 Paul advocates what has become known as “the third use” of the Law: the rule of life for the Christian.18
Regardless of whether we are in the East or the West, the citizen of Christ’s Kingdom will not neglect God’s Law that obligates him to love the Lord as his God (Ist) and to uphold His worship (IInd-IVth). He will also endeavor to love his neighbor as himself by complying with God-constituted human authority (Vth); promoting life (VIth); maintaining sexual purity (VIIth); respecting personal property (VIIIth); speaking the truth (IXth); and living contentedly without worry, jealousy or envy (Xth) (cf. Mat 22:35-40; Rom 13:8-10).
Secondly, Paul’s obedience to God’s commandments was of a radically new quality than that which he pursued before his conversion (cf. Phil 3:4-11). As a Jew, Paul sought to relate to God in terms of his obedience to the Law. Now he relates to God in union with Christ on the basis of Christ’s obedience to the Law. Having been justified by faith on the basis of Christ’s obedience, Paul was freed to love God from a heart on which God’s law has been written by the regenerating work of the Spirit (2 Cor 3:3).
Because the life that is generated in us is the life of the Holy Spirit, we, as new born babes (1 Pt 2:2) “naturally” (that is “supernaturally”) gravitate towards a life of obedient love (1 Jn 2:3-6). Thus our union with Christ and our Spirit-regenerated life conditions our relationship to God’s commands so that we obey the law of God under the law of Christ. The law of Christ could refer to the new principle or dynamic of our spiritual life in Christ (cf. Rom 8:2). The phrase, however, most likely echoes Gal 6:2, Bear one another’s burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ, which is an application of Jesus’ words in John 13:34-35,
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.
The law of Christ therefore qualifies the Christian’s obedience to the law of God. The core morality of loving God and loving neighbor is now Christ-conditioned. That morality of love is manifest as the believer learns to live
with the mind of Christ [and] does not merely look out for [his] own personal interest, but also for the interests of others (Phil 2:3ff).
That same morality is housed within a life of self-denying, sacrificial love even as [Christ] has loved [us]. That same morality is manifest in a personality ripe with
the fruit of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law (Gal 5:22-23).
Yes, the Kingdom will be misunderstood and even persecuted. The gospel offends men because it confronts men’s pride and attacks the God of this age, Satan, whose lies and idolatries permeate every earthy culture. But, every culture also has relative measures of common grace.19 Regardless of the culture, we rarely, if ever, find laws against behaviors described by the fruit of the Spirit. The Kingdom citizen is to move graciously through the cultures of this age, fortifying common grace virtues and advancing saving grace victories through the proclamation of the gospel.20
17. For a helpful treatment of the Law see Ernest C. Reisinger, The Law and the Gospel (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Pub., 1997). Reisinger supports the traditional tripartite division of Old Covenant Law into the ‘moral’ (Ten Commandments), the ‘ceremonial,’ and the ‘civil.’ He also helpfully distinguishes between what the Puritans called the three uses of the Law, its first use to define and convict of sin; the second, to lead to Christ; and the third, as the rule of life for the believer who desires to show love for Christ.
18. Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but what matters is the keeping of the commandments of God. (1Cor 7:19). Ceremonial law (epitomized in circumcision) has been fulfilled in the work of Jesus, but the Christian is nevertheless called to keep the commandments of God, that is to obey the morality articulated in the Ten Commandments. Here is the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus (Rev 14:12).
19. Respect what is right in the sight of all men (Rom 12:17b). Cf. D. A. Carson, Christ and Culture Revisited (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2008) who demonstrates that the Christian’s engagement with and response to his culture cannot be monolithic because cultures will vary in their respective states of fallenness as conditioned by varied degrees of common grace often determined by the quality of the church’s light and salt influence.
20. “Paul is flexible, but he is not ‘infinitely elastic’ (citing D.A.Carson “Pauline Inconsistency: Reflections on 1 Corinthians 9.19-23 and Galatians 2.11-14.” Churchman 100:10-11.). He does not think that fundamental and distinctive Christian demands are negotiable, depending on the circumstances. He did not eat idol food in order to become ‘as one without law to those without law.’ He did not tone down his assault on idolatry to avoid offending idolaters or to curry favor with them. His accommodation has nothing to do with watering down the gospel message, soft-peddling its ethical demands, or compromising its absolute monotheism. Paul never modified the message of Christ crucified to make it less of a scandal to Jews or less foolish to Greeks. The preacher of the changeless gospel could adapt himself, however, to changing audiences in seeking their ultimate welfare, their salvation.” Garland, 1 Corinthians, 435.