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In light of all the different worldviews previously discussed, how do we evaluate our own worldview? How do we know what is true? And how do we connect these truths with the way we live day to day?
Let’s start with a Biblical understanding of “knowledge”. According to Biblical language, if you didn’t live something out (beliefs, principles, morals, etc.) then you didn’t know it. The truths of your life were proven by the life you lived.
A classic example of this is the word “virtue”. Virtue implies a consistency6 between what you know, say and do. Because our culture has struggled with maintaining a sense of virtue over the years, we found the need to establish more rules to govern our lives in order to restrain behaviors.
If we’re bad people and we want to become better people, we need more rules. These rules will act like fences and protect us from bad people and bad behaviors.
The problem is that more rules do not necessarily make you a better person. In fact, often times, the only thing new rules do is make you better at working around the rules.
The antithesis of this is the belief of getting rid of all rules in the name of “freedom”. Unfortunately, the word “freedom” has been redefined as doing whatever you want whenever you want and wherever you want however you want as if there were no consequences to your actions. This definition assumes that there is no design to the world.
An analogy of “freedom” conflicting with design is if I wanted to be “free” and drive a 747 airplane through city streets and up a mountain road. The 747 would get stuck and this “vehicle of my freedom” would actually end up locking me in. If I really want to see these same mountains in my 747, I should fly in it. Because a 747 was designed to fly not drive (and, it goes without saying that a car is designed to drive not fly).
You see, if you are designed for something, you are most free when you live out that design, not live in a way contrary to that design.
Another strategy we often use is motivation. This can be spurred on in a plethora of different methods, but while motivation may get you going in the right direction, it doesn’t keep you going or sustain you. Motivation is only temporary.
Contrarily, virtue is sometimes doing what you don’t want to do, simply because it is the right thing to do.
The question is: How do we become the kind of person who does the right thing even when we are not motivated or don’t feel like it?
Incentives (aka bribery) is another motivational technique we often turn to. However, over the long term, if someone only does the right thing because there is a reward in it for them, they are not virtuous, they are a junkie.
A third solution to replace virtue is education. How do you fix the world? Give them an education. Why is there crime? Poverty? Not enough education.
The problem is that, while education indeed has its merits, if it’s not used in the right way, it can actually encourage us to do the wrong or less virtuous thing in the name of doing it more efficiently or more effectively.
A fourth cultural response to replace virtue is self-actualization.
“If you simply look inside yourself, you will find the solution to your problems. The answer lies within.”
The problem with this idea is that it is too subjective and egocentric. It’s like sending someone alone into the middle of a forest armed with only a compass that only points to themselves.
The way a compass should work is to point to a fixed direction (north) based on an unmovable reference point. From there, we can orient ourselves and everything around us.
Likewise, to encourage people to “find themselves” without a clear understanding of God or morality – a fixed reference point that never moves – we end up sending them out in all different sorts of directions.
Without a grasp of God and His design for us, it’s impossible to do the right thing all the time and bring virtue back into our culture.