[WP-Coder id="1"]
To be like Jesus, we must think like Jesus
Worldview. That’s a word unfamiliar to many. It’s the way individuals look at their world and how they fit into it. It’s the lens through which we interpret life. Not only is worldview unfamiliar, it can ruffle feathers when it hits too close to home. Most have a well–developed worldview, even if we haven’t thought about it much.
Patrick Morley, in The Man in the Mirror, identified two prominent worldviews, or “life views,” today.
They are the secular life view and the Christian life view. He adds that Christians also divide into two camps: biblical Christians and secular Christians.
There’s little difference between people who are just secular and those who are secular Christians. They think the same way, and their lives look almost identical.
George Barna has done more research about Christian faith in America than anyone I know of. He has discovered that in many so–called ‘social’ issues, there’s little difference between people who call themselves Christians and the overall society.
What worldview do people hold?
What ideas shape our decisions, like living together or not before marriage, whether to cheat our employer, to divorce or even how we respond to drivers who cut us off in traffic? When the heat is on, how will people decide what to think, say and do?
In his book, Think Like Jesus, Barna contends that some Christians don’t have a biblical worldview shaped by what the Bible teaches. His own life was “a haphazard series of disjointed choices only marginally and inconsistently influenced by faith” (p. 5).
That’s a pretty good description of my own pattern through the years. The Christian side at war with the secular side, the secular Alexander fighting to get his own way, the Christian Alexander feeling uncomfortable about that.
“A biblical worldview is thinking like Jesus. It is a way of making our faith practical to situations we face every day. A biblical worldview is a way of dealing with the world such that we ACT like Jesus [24/7] because we THINK like Jesus.” (emphasis added)
George Barna, Think Like Jesus
We can make the right decisions all the time, not just whether to scream at other drivers or cheat on our income taxes. When the future is on the line, if we know how Jesus thought, then we think the same way.
Jesus–thoughts become Jesus–words and Jesus–actions in us.
We can be transformed into people who think, speak and act biblically.
This transformation is exactly what Christ wants to do for us. As someone has said, “God loves you just the way you are. But He loves you too much to leave you just the way you are.”
Romans 12:2 provides what we need, to think like Jesus:
- Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but . . .
- let God transform you into a new person by . . .
- changing the way you think. Then . . .
- you will know what God wants you to do, and you’ll know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.
Next time: Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world; let God transform you!
[thrive_leads id=’733′]