One of the graces of Vatican II was the clear and firm understanding that the gift of the Gospel was for all nations. Hence all nations would receive that gift according to the many previous gifts that God had bestowed on them, namely the many gifts inherent in their culture and civilization. Thus the Gospel would give new grace, new life, new vitality, new meaning, to all the predefining gifts that God had given to these cultures and civilizations. The Gospel would be a transforming grace not a destructive imposition. Though this doctrine came to the fore with Vatican II, the problem of inculturation has been there since the day Jesus left home in Nazareth to proclaim the Gospel.

Paul appeals to the enlightened humanism of his cultural background and that of his readers and lists the virtues that they would have recognized and appreciated, loved and praised namely truth, nobility, goodness, purity. He thus engages in pre-evangelization as a step towards inculturation, for he suggests that these virtues from their Greek cultural background would enable them to receive "the God of peace", the God of Christianity.