Curious Christian

The story of Israel in exile is one of resilience—of a people clinging to their God in a foreign land, resisting assimilation by doubling down on their covenant with YHWH. Faced with the loss of land, temple, and autonomy, they found strength in rejecting the gods of their captors and affirming their distinct identity through exclusive loyalty to the one true God. From a historical and biblical perspective, this was a powerful act of spiritual resistance and identity preservation.

Yet, viewed through a modern lens, and especially through the trajectory of the New Testament, this response is not without tension. What once was a necessary strategy for survival can, in a different context, become a means of exclusion. When the early church transitioned from a marginalized community to powerful institution, the old posture of opposing foreign gods morphed into campaigns of conquest, colonialism, and religious domination. Demonizing the “other” ceased to be a cry of the oppressed and became a weapon of the powerful. This shift demands honest reflection and repentance.

The New Testament reimagines faithfulness not as cultural isolation but as cross-cultural inclusion. Jesus honored the Jewish tradition yet subverted its boundaries by engaging with Samaritans, Romans, Greeks, and others outside the covenant. His message was not one of syncretism, but of deeper faith—faith expressed through love, not fear; truth embodied in humility, not superiority. Paul would later extend this vision, proclaiming that the God of Israel had opened the doors of covenant to all nations, not through coercion but through the crucified Christ.

So what does a faithful Christian posture toward “foreign gods” look like today?

It means returning to the heart of the gospel: to love God fully, and to love our neighbors, even those with different beliefs, with the same grace we’ve received. It means holding to the uniqueness of Jesus without seeking to dominate others. It means seeing people not as ideological threats to be conquered, but as fellow image-bearers of God, seeking meaning, connection, and transcendence, just as we are.

We must learn to refrain from idolatry without rejecting people. We can bear witness to Jesus without belittling others. We can be deeply committed without being combative.

In a world of pluralism and polarization, the way forward is not retreat into tribalism or surrender to relativism. It’s the narrow way of Christ: humble, courageous, just, and merciful.

In exile, Israel found identity in rejection. In Christ, we are invited to find identity through redemptive embrace. An embrace that challenges, transforms, and welcomes all.