I love these words from the Apostle Paul. They have been a source of conviction for me lately. God has been working with me on some personal prejudices for which I am ashamed to say still reside within me. But it is part of my quest to be "the image" of God in Christ and through the transforming power of Christ.
I have been reading some mentally challenging work as of late and I would like to offer some nuggets of truth to help with a world that seems to be colliding internally. In my world I have to deal with a secular community that is anti-God, pro-whatever-sexuality-you-want, homeless squatters who look as healthy as a good horse but love living off my hard work and tax dollars, etc... I would love to show them what the Bible says about such things but...alas...they don't believe what I believe about the Bible and don't much care what it says. Hence, the collision that is inevitably coming.
I quote from Lesslie Newbigin and The Gospel in a Pluralist
"In contrast to the long period in which the plausibility structure [in other words, the way a community determines if something can be true] of European society was shaped by biblical tradition, and in which one could be a Christian without conscious decision because the existence of God was among the self-evident truths, we are now in a situation where we have to take personal responsibility for our beliefs. When we do so we are immediately faced with the charge of subjectivity. In a consumer society where the freedom of every citizen to express his or her personal preference is taken as fundamental to human happiness -- whether this personal preference is in respect of washing powder [soap] or sexual behavior -- it will be natural to conclude that adherence to the Christian tradition is also simply an expression of personal preference. The implication will be that claims to universal truth are abandoned and that we are back again in a relativistic twilight. The only firmly established truth is the truth of the reigning plausibility structure, which is bound to deny the Christian's claim that God has acted in historic events to reveal and effect his purpose for all humankind.
How then do we deal with the threat of this relativism of consumer-oriented society? It is that one learns to live so fully within both traditions that the debate between them is internalized. As a Christian so to live within the biblical tradition, using its language as my language, its models as the models through which I make sense of experience, its story as the clue to my story, that I help to strengthen and carry forward this tradition of rationality. But as a member of contemporary society I am all the time living in, or at least sharing my life with, those who live in the other tradition. What they call self-evident truths are not self-evident to me, and vice versa. When they speak of reason they mean plausibility, but know what it feels like to live in it. Within my own mind there is a continuing dialogue between the two. Insofar as my own participation in the Christian tradition is healthy and vigorous, both in thought and in practice, I shall be equipped for the external dialogue with the other tradition. There is no external criterion above us both to which I and my opposite number can appeal for a decision. The immediate outcome is a matter of the comparative vigor and integrity of the two traditions; the ultimate outcome is at the end when the One who alone is judge sums up and give the verdict."
To summarize: What to do when world values and beliefs collide? Seek to understand and live out your Christian faith strongly so that through validated experience you can pass on your tradition of faith. Realize that other people do not share your reality. They don't see God in their lives. They have never knowingly experienced Him the way that we have. Their eyes are "blinded" so that they can only see the reality of this world and not God's. Seek to understand it so that you can live in the two. You cannot appeal to the Bible just as they cannot appeal to...whatever truth base they have. In the end God will be the judge of the true reality. Hope this helps.
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