Lenses – by Jonathan Hobdell
What is YOUR worldview? Yes, YOU! The one reading this post. Maybe you’ve thought about it before, maybe you haven’t, but if there’s one thing the Old Testament teaches us, it’s that hearing things again is never dangerous, especially compared to leaving the gap in between too long!
But seriously: what is your worldview? How do you view the world? Or, given what I’m going to write a little further on, maybe I should just say, “What’s your view?”
You see, I really think this is massively important. For me, at least, through no conscious choice I’m aware of, I seem to operate on a kind of “I believe this, therefore that” basis. For example, “I believe I’m going to wake up and have to go to work tomorrow, therefore I’m going to go to bed before it’s too late to get a good night’s sleep”.
Most of us share the background of this “western” culture. Whatever it meant when I was growing up (never mind longer ago), it’s now a kind of post-theistic, post-rationalistic, materialistic, hedonistic chaos, don’t you think?
And one way or another, it has a massive impact on our outlook. Plenty of people still call for restraint and modesty, but most seem to go with the idea of “do what feels good in the moment”; plenty of people look to buy the right things, but most are just interested in buying more stuff, or the latest thing; plenty of people know how important it is to reason about the right way to live, but most are too busy living in the moment; plenty of people still call themselves Christians, but most are not interested even in the question of whether He exists or not if that will intrude on them living in their own private universe as best they can.
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:2 (ESV)
Now here’s the rub: what is going to be the lens through which you view the world? Is it sense experience and the pursuit of pleasure? Is it peace and the avoidance of stress? Is it adrenaline and the quest for adventure? I could go on.
My point is that it is all too easy to be a sponge in this culture, and thereby become a zombie, or a carbon copy. Even a carbon copy Christian. I haven’t noticed it here on the Isle of Man, but there is a kind of breed of influencer-pastor appearing on YouTube in the USA. I’m not judging them. They may be just doing the best they can to reach as many as they can, I don’t know. What troubles me is that their YouTube channel seems geared towards attracting followers for them (just like all the other YouTube influencers), rather than for God.
Even the most eminent pastor would be a flawed lens for us. We aren’t called to imitate others; we are called to imitate Christ.
OK, maybe it’s a bad example. Again, I’m not trying to badmouth any pastor / minister / worship leader or team in particular; my issue is with carbon copy Christians, and the question of what they are carbon copies of, and therefore what they’re influencing others to imitate.
Now believe it or not, all that above is just context. My single underlying point is actually very simple, and here it is:
We must never allow our culture to be the lens through which we evaluate God and His Word. NO! God and His Word must always be the lens through which we evaluate our culture.
“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” 1 John 2:15-17 (ESV)
You may call me a fundamentalist, but if we truly believe that the Bible is the Word of God (“living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword” – Hebrews 4:12), of which Jesus is the living embodiment, then do we really have any business disagreeing with it?
Note that I said disagreeing, not doubting. I have no problem with doubt; and I have no problem with thinking or saying, “I don’t understand; I need to seek wisdom on this”. And although I have an appalling track record in this area, I am now pushing myself to hold fast to God’s Word as my only anchor, adrift in a cultural sea of chaos.