Seeing the Truth: How Our Perspective Shapes Our Lives
Have you ever stopped to question whether your deeply held beliefs might be wrong? Our perspectives shape how we interpret the world around us, but not all of us ground them in truth. A variety of sources—God, family, society, media, peers, and more—influence our views. Ultimately, our Perspective impacts everything we think, say, and do.
Holding on to Faulty Perspectives
Many of us firmly believe that our personal perspectives on various issues are correct. When someone disagrees, we assume their perspective must be flawed. However, holding on to erroneous perspectives can be a sign of immaturity or a lack of wisdom. More often, though, we cling to these beliefs because no one has seriously challenged or thoroughly examined them. And many of us hold on to faulty perspectives because we deeply embed and repeatedly reinforce them.
For example, consider the issue of racism. People commonly discuss it, but unfortunately, they often misunderstand it. A widespread but faulty perspective is that racism only flows in one direction—from the majority to the minority. While the direction can amplify the problem, it doesn’t define it. Racism occurs when individuals categorize others based on their ethnicity, regardless of which group holds power. This faulty perspective on racism shows how easily people believe something untrue simply because they haven’t properly assessed it.
Properly Assessing Our Perspective
So how can we validate our perspective, particularly on behavioral issues? We must compare it to the ultimate source of truth—God’s Word, the Holy Bible. Relying solely on personal experience, family values, or even what professors and leaders teach us may lead to reinforcing an errant perspective. The risk here is that people can get trapped in a cycle of error. We see this cycle of error everyday. Highly respected people supporting errant behavioral issues because their circle of influence has reinforced their errant perspective.
Returning to the example of racism, the Bible is clear: God created all people equally in His image. We know that God’s love extends to every ethnic group, as demonstrated by Jesus’ sacrifice for humanity. Therefore, if our perspective includes any form of racism, we are clearly in the wrong and disobedient to God.
Rooting Out Wrong Perspectives
We must actively root out any influence—whether from family, society, media, or peers—that contributes to a faulty perspective. We must eradicate racism, in any form, from our lives. As a white Christian, I must continually guard against influences that might lead me to adopt a racist viewpoint. If I were Black, Asian, or Hispanic, I would have the same responsibility. However, this task becomes difficult when news, commentary, and unrecognized political positioning constantly bombard us.
We must constantly assess our perspective against that which God has taught us in the Holy Bible.
Honing Our Perspective
Throughout the New Testament of the Holy Bible, Jesus constantly refined the perspectives of His disciples, the Jewish people, their leaders, and the Gentiles. Jewish leaders, in particular, struggled with correction. They were absolutely convinced that their perspective represented God’s will and that they accurately conveyed it. Yet, as we see in many biblical accounts, they were far off track. Centuries of tradition had reinforced their wrong perspective, making them resistant to change.
What beliefs do we in the 21st century hold today that don’t align with God’s truth? Like the Jewish leaders, we may find that identifying and correcting such errors is incredibly disruptive. Deeply ingrained and long-reinforced perspectives do not dislodge easily, even when we know they’re wrong.
No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” – Albert Einstein
Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.” – Arthur Schopenhauer
A Real-World Example
I leave you with a self-assessment that I have been actively dealing with for many years. And many of us struggle with it (or should). I grew up in a church where we placed the highest importance on many traditions. I embedded and reinforced these traditions in myself for over 20 years. I believed that these traditions were as important as what Jesus did for us through His death and resurrection. My perspective was that my works were a critical element in my path to heaven. It was so deeply ingrained in me that only the will of God could dislodge it. But indeed, God did correct me (for me, the correction primarily came through Romans 7:1-6). Because I deeply embedded my error, it took me a while to grasp the magnitude of the concept of grace.
And to be transparent, I see the error surface from time-to-time as God trims away residual error. Even today I sometimes feel as though I am not doing enough for God. And slowly but surely God shows me that such thinking is residue. It can be SO hard, so painful, so confusing, when God digs out the error. But the track of our lives must always be one where we allow correction as opposed to digging in our heels as the Jewish leaders did.
Conclusion
Our perspectives shape how we interact with the world and hold great power, but not all of them are rooted in truth. By regularly assessing our views against the ultimate source of truth—God’s Word—we can rid ourselves of faulty beliefs. While this process may be difficult, it’s essential to living a life aligned with God’s will.
Related content: The Wonderful Jesus the Christ
AI did not write this article but assisted with proofreading.