A Religious Worldview – The Worldview of God’s Law: First Things (6)

A Religious Worldview

The Worldview of God’s Law: First Things (6)

The Biblical worldview—like all worldviews—is religious at its core.

“And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD….” Deuteronomy 10:12, 13

We have seen that the Biblical worldview which the Law of God presents is not confined to some narrowly “religious” aspect of human experience. It speaks to all of life, including how we worship and relate to God.

But the Biblical worldview—like all worldviews—is religious in its essential character. What do we mean by this?

The worldview of God’s Law is religious in that it intends to teach us how to enjoy the fullest benefits of a relationship with the living God. “Religion” means “that which binds us back” to whatever we regard as the greatest or highest good we might know. The worldview of God’s Law is anchored in a spiritual vision of Good—God Who is good and the good life for which He has redeemed us. The Law of God is not, in the first instance, about how to be free or moral or secure or prosperous. It is about knowing and loving God and enjoying a right relationship with Him Whom we know to be supremely good. The blessings of obedience to God’s Law are first, foremost, and above all realized not in temporal circumstances or material things—which, like the branches of a bush, can entangle and ensnare us—but by entering the fiery glory of God and dwelling there in His presence, within His favor.

Second, the Law of God explains the disciplines of life which are essential if that glory-filled relationship is to be sustained and improved. Every worldview prescribes a code of ethics and practices which adherents pursue in hopes of realizing whatever may be the vision of good they seek. We may not approach God in just any old way. There is a way first to enter the presence of God—through the blood of the Sacrificial Lamb, His Son—and a way to maintain and enlarge that experience, by faith and obedience to His Law.

Finally, the Law of God is religious in that, like all religions, it manifests in outward appearances of an inward vision and discipline. The Biblical worldview of God’s Law comes to light in justice, which is expressed in love for God and for neighbors. The vision to which we long to be bound, closer and closer, becomes a lived reality in our everyday lives as we pursue, through daily discipline, knowledge of and obedience to Him Who has called us out of the darkness of sin into the fiery light of His Word and presence.

As believers we do not apologize for the religious character of our worldview. Every worldview is religious in nature; the Biblical worldview of the Law of God, however, has the distinct advantage of being pure and undefiled religion, as all who know who have entered and begun to follow it.

The goal of the Biblical worldview is love for God, first of all, as T. M. explains in his article, “Loving the Unseen.” Check it out at http://www.ailbe.org/columns/crosfigell/item/1816-loving-the-unseen.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.