Christian by Culture

I was thinking about the earliest followers of Christ this morning. What would it have been like to dismiss all that you knew to follow some new teaching about a man-God named Jesus? Basically, if someone approached me today with some untested belief system, would I follow it?

We were born in a world where Christianity has been around for 2000 years. Christianity isn't necessarily novel in our eyes because many people prior to us have shown Christianity to be sound and reasonable. Moreover, becoming a follower of Christ hasn't been a finger in the eye of our culture. Christianity is the most proclaimed religion in America! This being said, if we were 1st century slaves who only knew of Roman divinities, would we take the risk to follow a Jewish Messiah? Could we overcome our Roman/Greek backgrounds and paradigms?

But then I thought about 2 Timothy 2:10. Paul writes, "For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they also may obtain salvation which is in Christ Jesus..." It seems that Paul shared his faith with expectation. That is, he preached Christ expecting God to open the eyes of some of his hearers. This fascinates me because it seems that despite our backgrounds or beliefs God will open the eyes of some of those who hear the gospel.

In sum, Christ trumps culture.