AS REGARDS NURTURE , not nature, our existential experiences form the shape of our constructs of thought, beginning with our very first conscious life-lessons. They also, through sequential pain and pleasure results, set the course for our pursuit of outcomes, which, by maturity, establish our habits. It is a fair statement that our worldview is constructed by the world around us, and that our world is constructed by our worldview. This is not conundrum, but mere fact. Paul says, “Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires.” (Rom. 8:5a) Habit becomes the lens by which we interpret and engage with the world of our circumstances. Unless something changes the way we think, we will continue to act in our familiar patterns.
Habits are hard to alter; ask anyone who has tried to change a bad one, one that consistently produces far more pain than pleasure. “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.” (Prov. 14:12) Typically, a bad habit needs bad news to initiate change; the smoker receives a diagnosis of lung cancer, the obese person one of diabetes, or the philanderer a divorce summons. The pain now heavily outweighs the pleasure, and a remedy is desperately needed.
In modern psychiatry and psychology, such changes are encouraged through the mediums of medications and talk therapy, and usually involve the idea of replacing a bad habit with a good one. Stop smoking, and wear a patch and take walks instead. Monitor your blood sugar, and change your food intake to a diet that balances glucose. Realize the loss and damage to the family and the marriage relationship, and learn and practice mutual forgiveness and open and real communication. There is a popular conception that it only takes twenty-one consecutive days to break a bad habit and establish a new one. Just do that, and all will be well again. The results are uneven, but predictable. Says the Bible, “The faithless will be fully repaid for their ways, and the good rewarded for theirs.” (Prov. 14:14)
As regards nature, not nurture, there are other and very deep forces that shape a worldview that produces pain. We cannot disregard or ignore a legacy of DNA that tragically darkens a person’s life—spina bifada myelomeningocele, or cerebral palsy, or perhaps schizophrenia. But consider the DNA legacy of sin, shared by all members of humanity since Adam and Eve, which bequeaths an inheritance of pain. “I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me.” (Deut. 5:9) This inherent nature of mankind is anathema to God, yet not without remedy. While “The one who sins is the one who will die” (Ezek. 18:20), those who take to heart the call of God to change, to come to him, have always had the promise of God’s nature and character before them. For he shows “love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.” (Deut. 5:10)
Paul says that “Those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.” (Rom. 8:5b) Paul tells us the way that this occurs: “All of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead we too may live a new life.” (Rom. 6:3-4) Our basic nature has been changed; no longer are we fleshly, but spiritual. This is an internal, not an external force of change. It is not medication or talk therapy. It is God’s remedy for a sin-sick soul. This addresses a change in the human heart and beliefs that underlies the externalities of worldview. With it, we no longer conform “to the pattern of this world, but are transformed by the renewing of our mind.” (Rom. 12:2)
This resolves not just the issues of nature and nurture, but also the issue of having two natures. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you.” (Rom. 8:7, 9) Paul assures us of the completeness of this relationship: “But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.” (Rom. 8:10) In being one with Jesus in Spirit, we are alike in thought about how we process the world around us, for “we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Cor. 2:16)
Q. Am I looking at the world through bifocals, or a single vision lens?
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