Tim Maas Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army

In my opinion, having a Christ-centered view of the world would affect several aspects of a Christian's life.

First and foremost, it should cause us to view fellow human beings as people whom Christ died and rose again in order to redeem, and to make a maximum effort to reach as many people as possible with that message -- if not through specific personal evangelizing, then through the daily witness of our own conduct and demeanor; by always being ready at any time (as Peter said in 1 Peter 3:15) to give an answer to anyone who asks us the reason for the hope that we have; and by supporting similar outreach efforts on the part of others.

Being Christ-centered should also give us a perspective of this life and world not being the ultimate reality, but should make us mindful of eternity and how it will be spent. This will affect nearly all our activities and priorities, particularly in not valuing many of the same things that others pursue, such as wealth, status, or power for their own sake, but as means that God has provided for carrying out His will.

Being Christ-centered also means remembering that, as much as the world tries to convince people that being "good" is good enough, all humans (even Christians) still have a nature that has been corrupted by sin. This will allow us to avoid disappointment and disllusionment when other people let us down (as they inevitably will from time to time). It also will help us to avoid philosophies or teachings that are based on the principle that people are fundamentally good, and can achieve moral perfection on their own if they just try hard enough.

Finally, being Christ-centered means making Jesus' life and teachings the model for how we live our own lives, and making our first thought in any situation, "What would Jesus do?"

March 10 2016 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Gary Wofford

To have a Christ centered view of the world means to see things as He does. To love the things He loves and hate the things He hates. To make His priorities our own. 

Practical example. Most people have a world view that is centered on personal finances or politics. I had a pastor once that was discussing world view and he stated that his world view was that we should do whatever possible to bring as many to Christ as possible. So he gave examples where his world view runs head long into the world's view of things. He mentioned that since his priority is to see as many saved as possible, that we can judge the things of this world in that light. He mentioned that most people are strongly against Pres. Bush's actions in Afghanistan and Iraq. But, from his priorities, he looked at the fact that before we invaded those countries, there were virtually or literally no Christians in those countries. Since our invasion, the playing field has been leveled to some extent and now many, many missionaries from all faiths are focusing much of their work in that region. Since the invasion, Christianity has become the fastest growing religion in both countries. 

There are hundreds of thousands of Christians there now that were not there before the wars. While no one likes the idea of war, if we view those wars in light of the fact that it opened up a huge mission field of 100% Muslims and now there are many, many Christian converts there, the wars were the best thing that ever happened to those countries. While this is certainly not a popular view, it does help us to see how to judge things in this world from God's point of view. We know his priority is to see as many saved as possible. So it should be our priority, as well. 

Things that happen in the world can be evaluated by the question, "How did that effect evangelism in that part of the world or society?" If it brought many deaths and no new Christians, it could be viewed as a failure. If many converts were the results of this action, then it is a very good thing as it helps to achieve God's goals and what should be our goals.

August 31 2019 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report