Our worldview plays a central, defining role in how we build our lives and treat other people. What part of the house do we build first… cabinets and closets or foundation and framework? Bona fide Christian tenets and practices depend on how correctly we identify and interpret the big picture.

Harmony…

A sanctified worldview will determine how we live out our small part in the big picture. It will enable us to live in harmony with God himself. It will help us to be in sync with his purposes on earth, including the peculiarities of our unique time and place.

Being in harmony with God will of necessity bring us into harmony with humanity. God is the sole author and sustainer of the cosmos. God the Son is the sole crucified and resurrected Redeemer. By him the love of God was lifted up for the whole cosmos to see. It preempted and canceled any perceived division of the human race into subsets. All who receive him are granted entrance into his kingdom.

“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,” (John 1:12, ESV)

Deferred satisfaction…

This worldview—warmly embraced—will enable a life of deferred fulfillment. We can accept a lot of trade-offs, setbacks, and deprivations because of the living hope within us. We can drop the worry over what we think we’re missing by limiting ourselves to a life of submission to God. We know the life to come will be worth the wait.

It is our response to how we identify the first cause. Somehow, a something-from-nothing moment had to have occured. Given the size and magnificence of the effect, a supernatural being—GOD—seems to us the only feasible explanation for a first cause.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17, ESV)

The first cause for creation is also the first cause in what the Apostle Paul calls the “new creation.” When we become Christ followers, we are made spiritually alive. Given the depth and magnificence of our personal transformation, God must be the first cause here, too.

We now live to serve the overriding, ultimate cause—the first cause—the God of the cosmos. We gladly relinquish control over our lives and pledge allegiance to the only cause worthy of our life… and our death.

I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same. —C.S. Lewis

Released…

In Spanish, when we ask, “How’s it going?” a frequent response is, “Me defiendo.” Literally, “I defend myself.” Usually it says, I’m making it, I get by, I manage. But what often creeps to the fore is a defensive posture, “Anybody threatens me or gets in my way is going to have a problem.” It degenerates quickly into self-interest, pettiness, and a me-first kind of assertiveness. It’s a default setting that points to narrowness, shallowness, tribalism, gangs, ad nauseam…

“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:36, ESV)

A sanctified worldview releases us. Christ’s love for the cosmos compels us to appreciate our own smallness… including our shriveled, self-absorbed hearts. It releases us from the consequences of our own sin while opening our eyes to the suffering and weakness caused by sin in everyone around us. It leads us to empathy, forbearance and a forgiving spirit. But I think it takes us much further…

We blossom—like a bud unfolding into a beautiful flower—into a celebration of life. We can’t think of any person alive today who is not a miracle of God’s handiwork. There is no one we would refuse to sit down with for a meaningful conversation. Anyone is an opportunity to demonstrate God’s love for everyone… and to share how what Jesus has done could fill and bless all of our lives.

I would call it a Spirit-transformed celebration of being.

Virtuous…

Jonathan Edwards, in his treatise on “Virtue,” makes a distinction between what he calls particular benevolence and general benevolence.

But my meaning is, that no affections towards particular persons or beings are of the nature of true virtue, but such as arise from a generally benevolent temper, or from that habit or frame of mind, wherein consists a disposition to love being in general. The Works of Jonathan Edwards

General benevolence is a fruit of esteeming the cosmos as God Himself does. It is the outworking of his affinity for humanity as a whole. It produces in us a ready disposition to value the individuality and distinctiveness in each person… to defer to others. It will diminish our fears and our need to assert ourselves at the expense of others. We move from being served to serving.

“…and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:44-45, ESV)

Harmony with God, contentment in deferred satisfaction, release from our petty former selves, becoming truly virtuous… the quest to refine a truly healthy worldview reaps huge dividends… for us and for all who God wishes to bless through us.

Share