Somewhere in the dim recesses of my mind, I remember that less than 10% of communication is conveyed in the words we use. The rest is emphasis, gestures and the like. So when we read the Bible, over 90% of the meaning is silent, and of course, we interpret it the only way we know how - we assume meaning according to our culture - as indeed would those who interpreted the Bible into English.

Now given the differences between our culture and those of the New Testament writers, there is obviously a large gap between our understanding and theirs. That could account for why I've heard experienced speakers say things that made sense in our culture, but I couldn't help wondering if that was really what the Holy Spirit was saying.

Of course in New Zealand, we have two main cultures - British (although more often than not today we are exposed to American and millennial cultures) and Maori (and extending that further, Pacific). The two are quite different, and even today in our "enlightened" world, Western thinking dominates, which means it is assumed in legislation and virtually every area of life. Many issues faced by Maori are seen as lacking relevance, backward, and even tending to criminal in many cases. That's not to say there aren't real crimes involved at times - but since our system is based around Western values, I wonder at how much that is at least part of the cause of problems. Anyway, I think there are more similarities between Maori culture and that of the New Testament than our Western culture.

Now to be clear, I'm not saying we should all rush out and join the nearest commune or kibbutz. We have been set free from the law, and I don't support anyone trying to impose what God may have told them on others. We're all different and God has different paths for each of us. But I'd encourage each of us when reading the Bible to try and approach it with cultural sensitivity. It wasn't written by Westerners - in fact, Constantine and those after him had to work hard (and not nicely) to get rid of our Jewish heritage and replace it with Western thinking.