Is a Biblical worldview automatically Christian?
We often hear “Biblical worldview” and “Christian worldview” used interchangeably. However, I recently suggested to my wife that while I may have a Biblical worldview, I may not necessarily have a Christian worldview as well.
A worldview has been described as the lens through which we look at the world. We’re not usually aware of the lens, just the world and how we see it. Having a Biblical worldview suggests I see the world filtered through the lens of Biblical principles that are on my mind and in my heart – things I hold dear, things that help me make sense of reality. But the question remains, “Is having a Biblical worldview and a Christian worldview one and the same?”
I may have Biblical insights, principles and practices that affect my life, behaviour and how I interpret the world. But is that the same as seeing through the eyes of Christ? Is it the same as having a Christ mindset or more aptly, the mind of Christ, not to mention the attitude of Christ? How real is Jesus to me in my day-to-day life? As Dr. Del Tackett asks in The Truth Project, “Do you really believe that what you believe is really real?” And so I have to ask myself, “Do I really believe that Jesus, the living resurrected Christ, dwells in me by His Spirit? Do I really believe that the person Jesus is right here, right now? And if Jesus is right here right now, what difference does that make? ”
This goes far beyond principles to live by. We’re talking about another person living within me, who for all intents and purposes wants to live His life through me. What if Paul the Apostle actually meant it when he said, “those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again”? (2 Corinthians 5:15 NIV) What was Paul saying when he confessed, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me”? (Galatians 2:20 NIV)
I wonder if having a Christian worldview isn’t about me living, but dying and becoming the living sacrifice God calls for in Romans 12:1. Perhaps it’s not so much in me doing, but in allowing Jesus to do through me. A lot of teaching in the church these days focuses on being missional: go and do, be active, share your faith, tell your story. And that’s fine. Yet many Christians have nothing to tell. They may have a story of once upon a time, long, long ago, but is there anything vital to their faith today? Is the presence of the living Jesus still evident, or has their faith become a sterile set of beliefs? Are we living epistles? Should we be asking ourselves Paul’s question to the Galatians, “Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?” (Galatians 3:3 NIV)
Perhaps we need a call to return to our first love, to the source of life, to abide in the vine so that the divine life source Himself might course through us and produce Hisspiritual fruit. Apart from Him we can do nothing. I can do all kinds of seemingly great things for the Lord, but if they are not Spirit led and directed, they are of little value. We stay connected so God can do His work through us.
Major Ian Thomas, founder of Torchbearers and author of The Saving Life of Jesus Christ, published a devotional in 2006 at age 92 entitled The Indwelling Life of Christ: All of Him in All of Me. He describes the life of Christ living in us:
“You give Him your hands for Him to work with, your feet for Him to walk with, your lips for Him to speak with, your eyes for Him to see with, your ears for Him to hear with, your minds for Him to think with, your heart for Him to love with. You tell Him, ‘Thank you for being my Creator within the creature. You are in business!’ Then you begin to live miraculously. You manifest a quality of life that baffles those around you.
“If however, you do not bow to this fact – that you cannot, and only God can, if you do not admit it is true, this does not mean you will not continue trying to live the Christian life. The vast majority of those who are redeemed, whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, and who are on their way to heaven, are not prepared to act on the assumption that they cannot, and only God can. They try to live the Christian life for Him, and they fail miserably.”
Having a Christian worldview means having Christ, the living reality, showing Himself in and through us in our current reality. That means a relationship – a real one, with a real person. It also means consenting to His will. Thomas continues:
“God calls you to a life of righteousness, and by your consent He lives that life of righteousness through you. God calls you to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature, and by your consent He goes through you into all the world and preaches the Gospel to every creature.
“This is what saves us from the futility of self-effort. If you trust Christ for the life He wants to live through you, the next step you take will be taken in the very energy and power of God Himself. You will have begun to live a life which is essentially supernatural, yet still clothed with the common humanity of your physical body.
“You will have become totally dependent upon the life of Christ within you, and never before will you have been so independent, so emancipated from the pressure of your circumstances and released at last from self-dependence.”
Maybe there’s really no difference between a Christian and Biblical worldview. Maybe it’s all semantics. There is however a difference between me being in charge and using Biblical principles to attempt to live my life, and me consenting to the person of Jesus to live His life through me. When I think in these terms, I wonder if evangelicals living with a Biblical worldview but not a Christian one, at least as I have defined them, might not fit God’s warning about a people “having a form of godliness yet denying its power.” (2 Timothy 3:5a NIV)
If a person has a form of godliness yet denies its power, then the rest of the verse, “Have nothing to do with them,” is more disturbing than the first part. It ought to lead to personal examination and repentance. As I commented to my wife, “What does one do, when they are to have nothing to do with themselves?” It’s worth thinking about.
Quotations are taken from Major Ian Thomas, The Indwelling Life of Christ: All of Him in All of Me (Colorado Springs, CO: Multnomah Books, 2006).
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