LIVING WITH PEOPLE OF OTHER FAITHS

A wide range of religions and cultures has characterised human life since time immemorial. However, the phenomenon of plurality is perhaps most noticeable in South Asia with its rich and confusing mosaic of racial, ethnic, linguistic, religious, cultural and social diversity. All of us who live here have to deal with this plurality as part of our everyday lives. For example, when our neighbours are celebrating a festival associated with their faith and offer us some special food associated with the festival, may we eat it? When the village celebrates a harvest festival, should we join in, or wait until the date of the harvest festival in the official church calendar, which may bear no relation to the harvest date in our region? These examples present us with the simple question: How do we go about living alongside people of other faiths?

Let us start by laying out the fundamental principles. Christians are called to live harmoniously alongside people of other faiths while maintaining a conscious witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ and demonstrating the love of God in practice. We are to be in the world, but not of the world. Our ultimate purpose must be to contribute to the establishment of God’s kingdom by providing an opportunity for all to believe and be saved by God’s grace for eternal life. In this sense, we must be like Paul, who saw his task as “the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit” (Rom 15:16).

In multifaith contexts like South Asia, we will often have to answer questions related to our belief and practice. We must be able to answer such questions humbly but confidently (1 Pet 3:15). For example, when we are asked why we are not performing rituals in order to earn salvation we must humbly explain that salvation is God’s gracious gift. If we are asked questions about our hope of Christ’s return, we should be able to testify to what we believe, and why. If we are asked why we go to church, we must explain that the church is the distinctive global and local community of believers who submit to God and do good to others. As we do this, we must uphold the Bible as the complete code of life, Christ as the cosmic Lord and Saviour, and the finality of his name and the salvation which he brings to all human beings.

It is not always easy to talk about our faith, particularly in situations where Christians face social and religious restrictions. But what we can always do is work to serve our neighbours. Our warrant for doing this goes all the way back to God’s call to Abraham to go and live in a foreign land among people of other faiths and become a blessing to them (Gen 12:1-3). Our Lord too summarised the teaching of the Old and New Testaments as “love your neighbour as yourself” (Luke 10:27).

When Christians live with integrity among others, they win their respect for their work ethic and biblical morality (1 Thess 4:12). Christians’ commitment to showing divine love, care and grace as God’s people constitutes a living testimony to God’s love. It can prompt people to think and draw them to a different morality and spirituality of peace and righteousness. When this happens, Christians are functioning as salt and light in the world, preserving and guiding their communities just as our Lord commanded (Matt 5:13-14).

We should also seek to identify common issues such as poverty, development and the environment on which we can work together with those of other faiths. By working for coexistence, we will also be working towards bringing in the universal peace and goodwill among people of all nations on earth that the angelic hosts sang about at the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ more than two thousand years ago.

However, as we build friendships with those of other faiths, we will increasingly find ourselves facing the challenges outlined in the opening paragraph. Our individual responses to their invitations may vary, and may vary from situation to situation (see Paul’s discussion of eating food offered to idols in 1 Corinthians 8–10 and Romans 14).

As a general rule, we may say that there is no harm in getting involved in cultural practices and customs as long as such involvement does not compromise our faith in Christ. But we may have to pray long and hard for discernment in order to be able t distinguish between what is cultural and what is religious in the areas of tradition, custom and practice.

Pervaiz Sultan