Everyone approaches the world with a set of beliefs and values. Those beliefs and values will affect your decisions in every area: parenting, relationships, politics, work, education.
Reality Matters
If a person's worldview is disconnected from the way things actually work, he/she will experience a lot of frustration. Therefore, it is extremely important that our worldview is based on the way God designed the physical, spiritual and emotional world in which we live. Obviously, if you are approaching the world with assumptions that are not true, you are setting yourself up for disappointment and heartache. If you have ever been driving at night on a road that was not well lit and did not have clear lines, you know how easy it is to make decisions based on false information. Two lights on a nearby barn can appear to be an oncoming car. If you line up your car to pass those two lights on the right, you will soon find yourself in a corn field. The same is true when it comes to your worldview. If you are not correctly seeing and interpreting the world that God created, you could be plunging ahead making errant decisions at the speed of life.
True Solutions To The World's Problems
If we aren't correctly seeing the road ahead, we can't make the right adjustments. This is one of the greatest problems with worldviews that do match with the reality that God has created. Most non-biblical worldviews entirely miss three important facts:
We were created by God and designed for His purposes. A worldview that does not begin here will take the wrong view of the purpose of man, the purpose of the earth and its resources, the reasons for marriage, God's design in gender, the goal of work, and many other areas.
We are fallen and, apart from God working in our lives, we cannot trust our sinful hearts. It is becoming more and more obvious that our culture does not understand this concept. We hear many people justifying things that God tells us are wrong by saying, "I was made with these desires." David clarifies our true state at birth in Psalm 51:5 (NIV): "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me." Jeremiah (17:9 NIV) tells us how much we can trust our hearts and desires if we have not been transformed by Christ and are not actively walking with Him: "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" The Bible clearly teaches that because humans are fallen, we are born with a sin nature that is in control unless Jesus has moved in and taken over. Therefore, we cannot just trust our natural desires. This may seem like a hazy line to draw to determine if I can trust my desires or not trust my desires. Am I really surrendered to Jesus in this moment or not? Am I convincing myself that I am, when I really am not? Wouldn't my deceitful heart tell me that I'm walking with Jesus, even though I'm not? It is not as hazy as it looks. We have the Bible to compare our desires to and we have other members of the body of Christ to hold us accountable to a faithful interpretation of the Bible. If your heart desires something that God's Word says is wrong, your heart is the problem.
Jesus is the solution to our brokenness. He is lovingly offering transformation not affirmation of our sin. Our culture has decided that acceptance of every whim and desire that a person can have is the path to being whole. Many have attempted to reinterpret the Gospels to make Jesus "tolerant" of all behaviors. But Jesus is not attempting to make people whole by affirming their sin because He loves them. Rather, because Jesus loves them, He is attempting to make them whole by saving them from their sin. Our culture has fallen down this rabbit hole where anyone who dares say that something is not right is branded as a hater, which is causing culture to affirm desires and behavior that are destructive to the individual wrapped up in them. It's as if they believe if they can force the whole world to accept the behavior, they will finally be able to be at peace. They fail to understand that the reason they struggle to have peace is because of their consciences. These are basic statements of reality. This is God's world. We can try to operate as if what He says is irrelevant, but it will only be to our own detriment, and we will never find real solutions to our brokenness.
Ineffectiveness in reaching the world
The logical conclusion of the first two points is that if Christians do not hold true to a Biblical worldview, we will have nothing to offer the world. Our role in the world is to be counter cultural. The world is naturally headed toward sin and degradation. Evil will always spread. Power, money and lust will always prevail as the main motivators, unless people meet Jesus. No amount of laws will change human behavior. Humans have limitless creativity in finding ways to still do what they want even if it's declared illegal. We offer a different approach than anything anyone else is offering that actually works. We offer the life-transforming power of Jesus Christ. However, part of the Gospel message is that we are sinners. If believers are willing to affirm any wrong desire and lust that people have, we are basically saying, "You don't need Jesus. He came to save people from sin so they can have a relationship with the Father, but you don't have any sin."
At one point Jesus was eating with unbelievers and the Pharisees complained about it. In Mark 2:17 (NIV), Jesus answers them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” This passage says so much. First of all, some would look at the passage and say that Jesus hung out with these people because He "affirmed" who they were and what they were doing. Yet He calls them "sick." Did this get back to them? Who knows? Even if it did, Jesus probably would not have minded. He had already shown them that He loved them. He was offering them eternal life. He was literally willing to sacrifice His life for them to have it. But they would have to admit that they needed to be saved. They would have to admit they were "sick" before they could be helped. Keep in mind the Pharisees were also sinners that needed a doctor. But here's the key - they couldn't admit it. The people who had the best shot at being changed by the love of Jesus in this account were the people who could admit they were sick. So we are not doing anyone any favors by trying to change Scripture to wipe away all sin. People who don't know they are sick can't be healed.
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