Biblical Worldview: The Need for Truth

“What is truth?” Pontius Pilate retorted in response to Jesus’s explanation of His purpose on earth. “…in fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” Pilate did not recognize truth when it was literally looking him in the eye. Sadly, this is the reality for many of us-moving through life in a vehicle with strategically placed blind spots. The case for truth is a messy one in today’s society of confusion and manipulation. The environment in which we grow up forms our trusted understanding of life. As children, information taken in by taste, touch, smell, sight, and hearing give us clues as how to make sense of the world. But what if our homes were filled with anger, violence, and abuse? What if we grew up relying on the media to show us how we are supposed to look? There are popular songs on the radio that tell us what love is, but they have nothing to do with God. And what if significant authority figures in our lives that are meant to represent God’s character, were instead neglectful or harsh? What conclusions, then, are we left to draw about God, ourselves, and other people? Perhaps we would form beliefs that God doesn’t exist, because if He did nothing bad would happen. We might think that we are worthless and deserve to be treated poorly if that’s how it’s always been. It could be that we don’t believe that we meet an unrealistic measure of perfection, and therefore would be unwanted by a holy God. And if people have only ever caused us pain, why should we trust anyone at all? Beliefs formed as a result of negative experiences often lead to misconceptions about God; determining how we act, speak, think, and live.

Genesis reveals that we are created in the image of God, meaning that we are meant to reflect His righteous character in all that we do. But when we sin or others sin against us, we fail to represent Him accurately, we fail to be who we were created to be and instead create distortion and confusion for ourselves and others. This causes an incorrect perspective of God.What is the harm in this? Well for example, if you’ve had bad experiences with harsh authority figures, you might be led to assume that God will treat you the same. This belief directly affects your relationship with the Lord in the way that it would hinder you from drawing near to Him. What if you commit sin, but are too afraid to ask God for forgiveness because you think He will release anger upon you? The motivation of fear might keep you trapped in sin and shame, when the reality is that God wants nothing more than to forgive and walk in right relationship with you. Beliefs like this one can affect your relationship with people. Think about the way that you’d view other authority figures: spiritual leaders are meant to guide and disciple us, but our shame and fear might lead us to preconceived notions about how they will react, and will keep us from approaching them.

“Your beliefs don’t only have implications for you but also your relationship with God and other people. What you believe affects your everyday walk of life.”

So what is the truth? Psalm 145:8 says, “The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 explains that love is “patient, kind, is not easily angered”…We know that God is these things, because He “is love” (1 John 4:8). Does that sound like the harsh, punishing Being that the examples above believe Him to be? Having a Biblical worldview is important for Christians because it is the perspective of truth. If we are not viewing the world through the lens of truth, we do not have God’s perspective. Our view of the world can become tainted through bad experiences and cruel words, situations that point to a fallen world and away from God’s original design. But in the truth of His Word we find great hope, comfort, and peace.

As you open yourself up to receive truth, you will begin to see the light of who the Father really is. The significance of knowing truth is that it releases us to walk in freedom. As it says in John 8:32 “And you will know truth, and the truth will set you free.” When we walk in freedom, we’re able to live out our full identity as sons and daughters of the King. His plan and purpose for our lives can be carried out as we keep our focus on Him, and walk in the security and freedom of knowing who our Father is.