I stopped listening to the news on June 15, 2020. I had to. The negativity and biased rhetoric wore me down. It permeated my life and threatened my ability to function.
Though I didn’t like being out of touch, when I stopped listening to the news a weight lifted off me right away. I became happier and less agitated. It was a smart move on my part and overdue.
But after a two-and-a-half-year break, I started listening to the news again. It comes in the form of a podcast each weekday morning: “The World and Everything in It.”
It’s from WORLD News Group, which “produces sound journalism, grounded in facts and biblical truth.” This is exactly the news source I need.
It’s so counter to other news sources, that it took me a couple weeks to get used to it and embrace it, but I now so look forward to it every day.
If you want to hear news that won’t confront your faith and challenge your beliefs, check out wng.org. It’s a news source you can trust.
My friend, Thomas Umstattd, recommended it to me. Now I’m recommending it to you. Please check it out.
Then you can recommend it to your friends.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.” Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.
We Distort Scripture If We Try to Adapt It to Fit Society’s Views
I write about the need to be careful when reading Scripture to not interpret it through the lens of our experiences, perspectives, and practices. When we do so it clouds our understanding. We must likewise be careful not to read the Bible through the lens of the world we live in.
The world’s perspective is not a biblical one. Society is anti-God and anti-faith in most every way.
We’re bombarded with their messages all day long through music, movies, and television. We’re assaulted by advertisements and social media. It comes to us at work and sometimes even at church.
If we don’t guard our thoughts and our attitudes against these negative influences, we run the risk of buying into their warped perspective that runs counter to what the Bible teaches.
And as we slide into accepting their distorted mindset, it affects the way we understand God’s word.
We begin to interpret passages differently. We begin to put a slant on God’s truth to better align with society’s misguided perspectives. And we begin to ignore passages that don’t align with their secular views.
Yet this is what happens when we try to read the Bible through the lens of the world.
We must stop.
God doesn’t change and neither does the truth he proclaims (Numbers 23:19 and Psalm 55:19). When it comes to his word—which we read in Scripture—it’s the same today as it was a generation ago, as it was a millennia ago, as it was when it was first written.
The Lens of the World Says to Accept Everyone
Scripture doesn’t talk about accepting everyone, regardless of their lifestyle.
Instead, it teaches that we are to love everyone. Jesus tells us to love one another (John 13:34-35). Another time he says we are to love our neighbors—that means everyone who is in need—as much as we love ourselves (Mark 12:28-33).
One way we love them is to tell them the truth—even if they’re not ready to hear it.
The Lens of the World Says Each Person Decides What’s Right and Wrong
The world maintains there is no such thing as absolute truth, that everything is relative. They insist that each person should decide for themselves what is right and what is wrong. But it’s not good when everyone does as they see fit.
It’s happened before and God intervened (Genesis 6:13). Then it happened again (Judges 17:6 and Judges 21:25) and repeatedly throughout the Old Testament.
The Lens of the World Says to Not Talk about Sin
The Bible teaches us what to do and what not to do. When we fall short of God’s expectation, it’s sin. We all sin and miss the mark (Romans 3:23).
But the world doesn’t want us to point this out. Talking about sin makes them uncomfortable. Yet they wouldn’t be uncomfortable if deep down in their hearts they didn’t know that what we say is true.
There is right and there is wrong, but they don’t want to hear it. They want to do what they want to do with no one telling them to stop.
We Need a Biblical Standard
Yet we dare not leave it to each person to decide what is right on their own. This is because one person’s right and wrong will inevitably conflict with another person’s right and wrong. Without a consensus on what is right or wrong, conflict ensues.
Without a moral ethic to guide us, society runs amok. People act with selfish intent. In the process they end up hurting one another.
Instead, we need a standard of what is right and what is wrong. God gives us this. It’s in the Bible. We’ve had it from the beginning.
All we need to do is believe what he teaches us and not attempt to filter it through the lens of the world, less we distort what Scripture says.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.” Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.
As followers of Jesus, we must take care to not let the influences of our world negate our understanding of our Savior and what he stands for. This must be an ongoing effort, because worldly ideas bombard us all day long and not God-honoring principles. And this directly opposes biblical truth.
If we’re not careful, these negative ideas will push biblical truth out and replace it with secular notions. I fear that many in Jesus’s church have unwillingly succumbed to making this error.
Here are four ideals we should pursue:
1. Do Not Be Politically Correct
Afraid they’ll offend others, these people have become politically correct, while pushing aside the idea of being biblically correct. Yet to be true to Jesus and his calling on our lives, we must adhere to biblical truth.
May biblical correctness be more important to us than political correctness. The Bible is the foundation of our faith. If we lose our foundation, we lose everything. And we’ll stand for nothing because we’ll cease to stand at all.
2. Do Not Conform to the World
Paul writes that we are to not conform to the world’s ways. Instead, we are to transform our mind by renewing it (Romans 12:2).
We best renew our mind when we seek God in the spiritual realm and immerse ourselves in biblical truth in the physical realm. The prescription to prevent conforming to the world starts with studying the Bible and progresses by listening to the Holy Spirit.
3. Do Not Love the World
John writes that we are to not love the world nor the things in the world (1 John 2:15). Yet it is easy to get sucked into this.
We live in a materialistic society that conditions us to crave more, to never be satisfied with what we have. This is the point of advertising: to make us want what we don’t have.
Instead, we should crave spiritual things to mature in our salvation, just as a baby craves milk so it can grow (1 Peter 2:2). May we excel in our faith and not worldly pursuits.
We must focus on what is of God and not what is of this world (Colossians 3:2).
4. Do Not Worry About Being Hated
Jesus says that the only way for the world to love us is if we belong to it. But we don’t belong to it. He has chosen us out of the world. When we follow Jesus, the world will hate us (John 15:18-19).
If the world hates us—criticizes, attacks, and diminishes us—it proves we’re rightly following Jesus. The counterpoint is that if the world doesn’t treat us this way, our faith and our witness for Jesus means nothing.
Though we all want to be loved, we should expect that when we truly follow Jesus, not everyone will love us. Some will oppose us.
John writes that we shouldn’t be surprised when the world hates us (1 John 3:13). Furthermore, the apostle instructs us to not love the world or anything in it. If we do, it shows that we don’t love Father God (1 John 2:15).
Conclusion: Do Not Be in the World
Though we are in the world, we are not of the world. If we lose sight of this distinction, our faith fails to hold meaning and our influence on the world diminishes.
In doing so, we’ll lose any positive impact we may have on the world; we’ll fail to point others to Jesus and advance his kingdom.
To not be in the world requires an ongoing, daily effort. We must guard what comes into our mind from the anti-God influences of society, lest it push out his truth.
Instead, we should think about whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy (Philippians 4:8). And we find these ideals in Scripture. This biblical truth provides the unshakeable foundation for our faith.
To do so we must be careful about the shows and movies we watch, the songs we listen to, and the books we read. We must select our news sources with care, less they, too, lead us astray.
In similar fashion, we must choose our closest friends with care, in case they, too, pull us away from Jesus and biblical truth.
This doesn’t mean we should avoid contact with non-believers—that would be an overreach—but we must make sure that we influence them and not the other way around.
Jesus says we are a light unto the world (Matthew 5:14). When we fix our gaze on him—and not what the world offers—we can do just that.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.” Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.
