Just as racial diversity was ordained by God, so also is human oneness. Paul reminds the Athenians (Acts 17:26) that God made the nations from one man, and also assured their diversity by determining their native lands. He even divided their languages (Genesis 11).
His purpose all along, though, was “so they would seek Him,” that is, find and obey Him (v. 27). The intended result was that they all would be worshiping the same God in different cultures at the same time.
So God is neither surprised nor concerned over the cultural differences in our worship. Under the Old Covenant, all were to come to the Tabernacle or Temple, and the worship is prescribed to the letter. Remember the Ethiopian eunuch returning from Jerusalem in Acts 8?
Today we have great freedom in worship, and rather than trying to flatten this curve by homogenizing our worship, we should acknowledge that freedom and even celebrate it. These differences can create some tensions (if we allow them to) when we seek to worship in the same place and time.
This is a temporary situation, for John’s vision of heavenly worship in Revelation 5 includes the redeemed from every tribe and language and people and nation, as represented by the 24 elders.
Jesus put it this way (John 10:16), “I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen (i.e., non-Jews). I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.”
The way this happens is by His giving His life for the sheep in these various “pens,” proving that each tribe and people is just as lost as the other, and that all are redeemed in precisely the same way, in Christ.
So, cultural differences notwithstanding, we are essentially far more alike than different. Our ethnic diversity only serves to display God’s grace in a more resplendent light. From one He creates us, as one we fell, and through One, He redeems us. There is no racial superiority. Period. Humanity, once divided by sin, is united in the Savior.
“Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow-citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household. . .” Ephesians 2:19