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The Cultured and the Ignorant

I have a duty to both the Greek and the Barbarian, to both the cultured and the ignorant. And so, for my part, I am ready to tell the Good News to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the Good News; it is the power of God which brings Salvation to everyone who believes in Christ, to the Jew first, but also to the Greek. For in it there is a revelation of the Divine Righteousness resulting from faith and leading on to faith; as Scripture says—“Through faith the righteous man shall find Life.” (Romans 1:14-17 20th Century NT)

We may not think in terms of Greeks and Barbarians, but you can think in terms of the cultured and the ignorant, the wise and the foolish. Although our six mission stations are in university towns where the culture is relatively high, our emphasis is to both the cultured and the ignorant. Our stores are places of love and understanding. As such, they draw people who need to be loved. This includes people who are slow in learning, people who can’t read or don’t read, and people who are very well read.

It may surprise you that many university students do not read. They have had (all of their lives) televisions, stereo systems, and computers. Recently I was talking with a married woman with grown children. She, herself, is a first-year law student with a very high grade point average. She had never heard of Pilgrim’s Progress or of its author, John Bunyan. I gave her a copy.

We need to love people, all kinds, and teach them to read, motivate them to read, read to them, and provide books for them to read.


(An excerpt from On Being a Christian, p.84, 85)

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