Daily Dose 14: The Must Life

Answering, “Yes,” to “Are you a Christian?,” sets a course that recognizes life values are not only personal choices grounded in whim, fancy, desire, or ambition. Instead, values reflect submission to the Someone who knows better than we the course our lives should travel. Biblical Christians do not choose values as much as discover them, a process that includes embracing and submitting to any particular constraints and/or challenges any given value might impose on the living of life.

Source of Christian Values

Christians also have a specific and precise ground for this value discovery process. The world of literature, the expectations of government, the call of civilized society, the desire of parents and ideas of friends may each contribute to the process, perhaps evenly profoundly, but they do not define it.  Ultimately, each believer’s values grow directly from the Scriptures.

The unique source of Scripture eliminates many false starts.  It calls for pure motives in any pursuit. It sets a challenge of lofty achievement that does not culminate with either self-fulfillment or social good, but with glorifying God. It provides excellent protection from the paralysis of second-guessing decisions.  It reveals for each believer a divinely appointed role set in the scheme of eternity (a very long term goal!), and provides all the help necessary to see that role successfully fulfilled.

Biblical values are so exemplary, in fact, that even secular value discussions often try to present similar sounding inspirational thoughts (I respect all people as unique and valuable beings) as examples of values that will bring personal satisfaction and fulfillment for their clients.

The Surprising Advantage of Being Told What Ought to Be

Such look-alike values reveal one major distinction from genuine biblical values: they can only be suggestions and need to slide gracefully over any hint that a person “ought to” or “must” do certain things for personal fulfillment. Only God through His Scriptures can demand that something must be done. Yet embracing the oughts of life is the very thing that gives clarity when discovering personal values and stewarding time. The cheerful, wholehearted fulfilling of life’s musts provides the very framework from which hang the biblical delights of life. Only the (genuine, biblicist) Christian side of the equation can guarantee that shouldering today’s responsibilities as we steward our earth time is also fulfilling eternity’s purposes. How efficient is that: eternal recurring benefit for temporal investment?