[Part 3]
Worldview is the window you’re looking through not just the world you’re looking at. A Biblical worldview looks at the world through the window of Jesus. In other words, to have a Biblical worldview is to see things as Jesus saw them.
The worldview of Jesus was embedded in anything He did, and the worldview of the people He interacted with came out in what they did. Once we realize this, we not only learn from his words, we start seeing life through his eyes.
This opens up new insights into how we view his interaction with people. One of my favorite stories is the brief encounter that Jesus had with a Jewish mother. I’m from St. Louis, and we have an Italian section that is call the Hill. On the Hill, there are Italian restaurants with garlic you can smell from the street. Catholic churches with lavish statues of immigrants overseen by the Virgin Mary, and pleasingly plump Italian mothers in every store. If she is the mother of a priest, let me tell you that she doesn’t wait in line at the meat market. The butcher sets aside special cuts of meat for her.
This Jewish mother I referred to reminds me of an Italian mother on the Hill. Jesus was teaching, and this Jewish mother was so overwhelmed that she blurted out, “Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which nursed You!” (Luke 11:27). Like an Italian mother proud of her priest son, this Jewish mother can’t keep it to herself. She can’t imagine anything higher than being the mother of a rabbi as great as Jesus.
Now, you would think that Jesus might have responded to her praise by saying, “Thank you so much. I’ll tell my mother you said so.” Instead Jesus replied, “On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and do it” (Luke 11:28 NASB).
Those first three words—on the contrary—must have startled her. She wasn’t trying to make a theological point with the Son of God. She was just being a mother. In her worldview, motherhood was the highest call for a woman and being his mother would have been the ultimate.
Nevertheless, Jesus had a higher value, and said, “On the contrary.” Those three words introduced the contrary worldview of Jesus. He saw hearing and doing the word of God as the highest calling in life.
When we see life the way Jesus saw it, we have a Biblical worldview. His worldview will not only rearrange our priorities, it will also filter out the corruptions of the world. Then we don’t have to isolate ourselves, but we can be in the world but not of it.
It was in the wilderness of temptation where we begin to see the three dimensional worldview of Jesus. And like a vena cava filter that keeps clots from the heart, the worldview of Jesus will protect our hearts from the temptations of the world.
Next, we’ll look at the three dimensional worldview of Jesus in a two dimensional world … [to be continued.]
Michael Peters
www.TheCellChurch.com
Dr. Michael Peters is the lead pastor of Christ the King: TheCellChurch.com. He is married to Linda, and they have two children and seven grandchildren. Dr. Peters graduated from Covenant Seminary with an MA and obtained a PhD in historical theology from Saint Louis University. He has written several books. His most recent is titled Cell Vision. It’s about organic discipleship and how to develop supporters into disciple makers. He taught critical thinking and Biblical worldview at Missouri Baptist University. His favorite course textbook was Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom. His favorite philosopher is Nietzsche because postmodern people are just catching up with premodern Nietzsche. And his favorite Christian writer is G.K. Chesterton because he understood the difference between a poet and theologian. “The poet,” he wrote, “only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the theologian who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits.”