World View Matters

What’s wrong with our culture? Why are people behaving like they have no moorings? There was a time when our nation had a conscience. Consider the following excerpt from Angelina Grimke’s pamphlet to the Christian Women of the South. “And as a moral being, I feel that I owe it to the suffering slave, and to the deluded master, to my country and the world, to do all that I can to overturn a system of complicated crime, built up upon the broken hearts and prostrate bodies of my countrymen in chains, and cemented by the blood and sweat and tears of my sisters in bonds.” Angelina represents a nation that was birthing a conscience. The abolition of slavery was a movement of conviction.

Today, we face another kind of slavery. It is a slavery of immorality. If I began to disdain pornography, smoking, drinking alcohol, lying, etc., everyone would agree these are amoral behaviors. However, when I say the real problem is your world view, most would be ignorant of what that meant. Francis Schaeffer explains, “Christians have failed to see that all of this has come about due to a shift in world view; that is, through a fundamental change in the over-all way people think and view the world and life as a whole.”

Since we know our world view has shifted in this country, how do we restore the conscience of a nation? We do it by first restoring our own consciences. Paul gives us three ways to restore a nation’s conscience:

Acts 23:1: “And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.”

1) Live within the knowledge you have. Many people are guilty of wanting more knowledge when they haven’t used the knowledge they already have. Paul simply said I lived what I knew to this point in my life.

Acts 24:16: “And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.”

2) Treat your fellow man the same way you would treat the Lord. You have heard the slogan, “What would Jesus do?” I want to start another slogan, “Would you do that to Jesus?” This I call, “the rule of conscience.”

Rom. 9:1: “I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,”

3) Listen to the voice of the Holy Ghost. He will teach you how to behave yourself in a circumspective manner.

Word for Today

Circumspectly ‑ Heedful of circumstances and potential consequences; prudent.

Quote for Today

“An animal that cannot reason is better than a man with who has no conscience.”

r.a.j.