Editor’s Note: This article has been adapted from a presentation at ETS 2019 by D. J. Lim, International Students, Inc., “An Honored Obligation: How the Gospel is Good News in Confucian Societies.”
Pretend for a moment that in the mythical nation of Farlandia, there is a law that stipulates that drinking coffee before noon is an offense punishable by death. But why should I care about the law in another country? I can sit here and sip my cup of joe in the morning sunshine because that rule doesn’t apply to me.
To an extent, many from East Asia who hail from Confucian-based cultures might ask a similar question when Christians attempt to tell them about sin — of how we have broken God’s law, rebelled against Him, and rendered ourselves worthy of eternal damnation. This Western Guilt-Innocence, forensic view of the Gospel is particularly perplexing since within the Confucian mindset, law and truth are simply tools for the advancement and maintenance of relational harmony within the family, community, and society.
Law is seen, not as a set of rules possessing inherent virtue, value, and authority, but simply as a tool used by those in power to foster societal harmony. By a similar token, lying or careful curation of information is not a bad thing, but a valuable tool which can be skillfully used to maintain communal harmony and for the honorable pursuit of social advancement.
So why should they care whether they have broken the law of a God they do not know?
As is evident, Confucian cultures operate on a different set of foundational values than those we are accustomed to in the West. The Confucian cultural lens is formed by a subset of Confucian philosophical principles, which in turn informs the practical and ethical concerns of day to day life. These include:
- The primacy of family — family is duty; family is life
- The maintenance of community harmony — peace (or at least the appearance thereof) at all cost
- The exercise of reciprocity — owe neither debt nor obligation to anyone, repay finance or favors fast and in full, with one exception (below)
- The practice of filial piety — the one exception, because you cannot repay the gift of life
- The fulfillment of relational obligations — according to the Five Relational Bonds:
- Ruler to ruled
- Parent to child
- Elder to younger
- Husband to wife
- Friend to friend
In light of this cultural context, how then can the Church minister effectively? How do we navigate a specifically Confucian Honor-Shame landscape to present the Gospel in a way that is comprehensible and impactful? If truth and law are simply tools for fulfilling relational obligations, what does it matter that we have bent or broken them? So for this culture, what matters is not our legal and forensic standing before God, but how our relationship with Him is impacted.
The good news is that God, in His infinite wisdom, addresses the Confucian mindset in His Word. We don’t even need to dig much. The story of redemption is replete with terms and concepts that make perfect sense to a Confucian culture. We just need to know what we are looking for. For example:
- God is Father, to whom we owe our first and greatest filial piety.
- God is head of a supremely honored family, manifest in the Church.
- He made all things to be in Shalom — a harmonious state where there is a place for everything and everything is in its place.
- God blesses and bestows honor, expecting that there would be reciprocity in worship given to Him.
- He instructs His honored image bearers to fulfill their relational obligations, to Him, to each other, and to all creation.
The Gospel is, at its heart, a call to return to family, to come home to our Father, and to become relationally right with our Maker. In the Church, we form a new community and society where the harmony of Shalom dwells, in part now and in full when our Elder Brother returns. Perhaps highlighting these truths would be more understandable to those from Confucian societies. This is not contextualization per se but pointing out aspects of the Gospel that are already present in the Scriptures and showing how they address issues that are of concern in Confucian cultures.
There are numerous potential areas of ministry where understanding and leveraging the Confucian mindset in the presentation of Scriptural truth could be of benefit. These include but are not limited to:
- Evangelism: Present the Gospel as an invitation to honor God as king and father, and Christ as husband, elder brother, and friend. In addition, show sin as the ongoing estrangement caused by the breaking of relational obligations and the shameful disregard of filial piety towards God. Coupling the two could prove to be impactful as these Biblical themes speak to a Confucian mindset.
- Church Planting: Western Church Planting models tend to follow an Evangelism to Discipleship to Community progression. Given the primacy of family and the emphasis on community harmony in Confucian societies, an approach that views Discipleship as Evangelism in the context of Community might be more acceptable and effective.
- Forging Congregational Unity: Help members of the kingdom community comprehend their new and true identity in Christ by emphasizing the Church as the Family of God, reminding believers that they are children of the most highly honored Father, and clearly teaching the honored obligation of upholding the Family name and reputation of God our Father-King. This would forge Christians together as a community unit that is united towards the common goal of being God’s ambassadorial representatives in the world.
- Community Development: Ensure the congregation has a solid understanding of the honor accorded by God to mankind in the sending of Christ as one of us, the reciprocal relationship between God as life-giving patron and Father, and the truth that the believer is a loved, accepted, forgiven and adopted royal child. This gives incredible dignity to those who face the shame of being materially poor and in need. The call to family and siblinghood also restores the outcasts to holy community, thus
placing upon them the honored obligation of representing the King in the world. - Biblical Counseling: Rather than a formal counselor-client model, which singles out counselees as shamefully needy and unable to uphold their part of the community reputation, a more informal approach that equips larger portions of the Kingdom community to be better and more effective friends through the development of Biblical counseling competency can be implemented. Believers would be more ready to offer wise counsel in informal, day-to-day settings, thereby strengthening the community as a whole and promoting harmony.
- Missional Engagement: Participation in the global mission of God for the reconciliation of the world is not a result of the Gospel, but an integral and mandatory part of it. We have been adopted as His children and given the honor of ambassadorship of the Kingdom of God. We represent the Family of God to the world. We promote the honor and fame of our Father by being a community of witnesses and living out the honored status accorded to us as children of the King through radical love and humble service. This is not optional. This the glorious duty of our station. This is the family way, the family heritage, the family privilege. This is our honored obligation.