There’s a temptation to think that as Christians (especially evangelical and conservative ones) we have to fix the cultural mess we’re in. “Our civilization is crumbling! … America as we know it is ending! … Our Christian heritage is being trampled to death!” All that may be true, but it doesn’t follow that we must be the ones to fix it—or even that we can fix it. More than anything else, we need to think like Christians. If we get that right, we’ll be far more likely to act like Christians in response to the problems of our day.
Christians understand that they have a special relationship with truth. Our Savior described Himself as “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6) and declared that faithfulness to Him leads to soul-freeing truth (John 8:31-32). Both Old and New Testaments exalt insight into truth, as “wisdom” (e.g., Prov. 4:5-7, Matt. 10:16) and “discernment” (Phil. 1:9, Heb. 5:14). We worship the “God of truth” (Deut. 32:4, Psa. 31:5, Isa. 65:16), and are called to be lights of truth in the world (Phil. 2:15).
But we’re only human.
Though truth is central to our identity as Christians, we easily fail to see the practical implications of that. We forget who we are. We get confused. We get lazy. Soon, we’re tripping over the same obstacles unbelievers do and clinging to many of the same attractive lies.
In recent years, we face some special challenges.
The rise of “infotainment” means that, more than ever, our culture overvalues drama, emotion and visual dazzle over facts and reason. The most popular sources of information have a built in bias toward stimulating emotions and senses rather than provoking thought and sound judgment.
Identity politics, all across the spectrum from left to right (yes, also the right), means that our culture overvalues fighting for the claims and language of our group and undervalues listening, seeking points of agreement, and accurate disagreement.
As a society, we’re dominated by the attitudes of war. So far (thankfully!) it’s ideological war, but it’s war, nonetheless. So, we quickly triage every question and issue to align it with “our side” or “their side” and commence fighting.
Truth and reason are the first casualties.
What should Christians do?
There’s a temptation to think that as Christians (especially evangelical and conservative ones) we have to fix the cultural mess we’re in. “Our civilization is crumbling! … America as we know it is ending! … Our Christian heritage is being trampled to death!” All that may be true, but it doesn’t follow that we must be the ones to fix it—or even that we can fix it.
More than anything else, we need to think like Christians. If we get that right, we’ll be far more likely to act like Christians in response to the problems of our day.
Several terms could stand in for “thinking like a Christian,” but “discernment” is a word especially well-suited for our times. According to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, “discern” comes “from Latin discernere, from dis- ‘apart’ + cernere ‘to separate’” (Catherine Soans and Angus Stevenson, 2004).
The word assumes we’ve been presented with options—conflicting ideas, conflicting claims—and must separate apart the true from the false, the good from the bad, the most important from the less important.
As people who meet with a cacophony of clashing claims every single day, thinking like a Christian means discerning—separating the bogus from the merely unlikely, and separating both from “fact.”
It starts with the “heart.”
It’s easy to assume discernment is mostly a matter of using our brains well. I thought so, when I started studying the topic a year ago. The study showed me I was wrong.
Consider these biblical principles.
- Our desires make us want to believe lies (Jer. 17:9, Gen. 3:1-7, Prov. 14:12).
- Our desires make us refuse to believe obvious truths (Matt. 12:38-39, 13:14-15, Rom. 1:21, Eph. 4:17-18).
- Our desires lead us to make idols to support them (Rev. 9:20-21).
