Wordview of Christ
5 min read
11 “Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?”
John 3:11-12
When a person is “born from above” (that is, “born again”), how is the Holy Spirit really experienced and manifested in a person’s life?
We don’t know what we don’t know. The worldview that drives the thoughts, emotions, and actions of every person is based upon only those things that they have experienced—not on those things that they have not experienced.
And so, there is that saying (really, just a phrase that packs a lot of meaning): “unless you’ve walked a mile in another man’s shoes …” That saying is thoroughly Christ-like because it restrains our pride and the judging of others and advocates, instead, for empathy and love.
But if we examine our hearts, we realize that often (if not most of the time), we prefer to insist that our own worldview is the basis of what is right and that the worldview of the other falls short or is misguided or just plain wrong. Who can judge in these matters?
The saying “unless you’ve gone a mile in another man’s shoes” is also thoroughly Christ-like because, if we cannot truly know the perspective of another person, how much less can we truly understand the perspective of Christ?
When Jesus says, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31), we find that incomprehensible. We don’t know how to process that teaching except to tuck it away into the category of “rhetoric.” Oh, Jesus couldn’t mean that literally and completely. He must mean that I have to be nicer to my circle of friends and especially my family.
And we find it incomprehensible when Jesus says,
43 “Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Mark 10:43-45
Oh, Jesus doesn’t mean that literally. He just wants me to serve in a ministry, but I’ll do it based on my terms, because this church needs me.
Truth be told, most of the sayings of Jesus are incomprehensible to us because our worldviews have not fully aligned with His “worldview” yet. Of course, Jesus’s worldview is Truth and Eternity. Jesus’s worldview is eternal life.
Our theme this year is “Live Out the Word.” We need to feel how incredibly counterintuitive and even incomprehensible that theme is to us based on our own worldviews. We need to surrender our worldviews to the worldview of Christ. I need to trust in Christ, the Living Word, and not in the word and world according to Sang.
Father, Forgive me for my pride and for trusting in myself more than trusting in Your word. Open my eyes and ears to comprehend Your “worldview,” so that my life may bear witness more clearly to the reality of You in me. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
