As I was thinking about last week’s post, I came to the realization that a lot of times "walking the talk" is the result of how we view the world. Is our world view one that is biblically based, founded in Christ and all that it means to be a follower of Him; or is it rooted in the narcissistic sinful logic of the world? And when you boil it all down, what does the Bible say about all of this? What can we glean from scripture about a worldview that is God honoring?

Although there are many places in scripture that we can find the answers to these questions, this week I found some answers by spending a little time in the great little book of Jude. Jude is the second to last book of the Bible and is only one chapter long. It isn’t the shortest book in the Bible, but it is very close, and I would encourage you to stop reading right now and read through it a couple of times before going any further. It should only take you a couple of minutes, and if you can, read it at least once in the Message translation.

Jude doesn’t mince words. He gets straight to the point and lets his readers know that although he intended to write to them about their shared faith and salvation, he instead needed to address the ungodly people who had crept into their fellowship (verse 3). His words are as applicable today as they were when they were penned. What he is trying to tell them is that they are losing their influence and are beginning to adopt a more “secular worldview” because of those who have crept in unnoticed (verse 4). They needed to be more alert to the piety that has crept into the church and more aware of those who had ‘infected’, so to speak, the rest of the body.

What Jude isn’t doing is telling the people to be paranoid about the people in their congregations. He isn’t telling them to close ranks and keep “all the bad people” out. Instead he acknowledges that there will be sinners in their midst and that they need to be prepared to accept sinners with open arms, while at the same time not being soft on the sin itself. As a follower of Christ, we have a hope that will never fade but with that hope comes the responsibility to live in a manner worthy of the gospel. We cannot allow sin to become something that is acceptable, or even righteous, in our attempts at being open and loving to those who are lost.

This translates into our own lives and is extremely relevant for us today. If we have a worldview that is shaped by the culture we are living in, the truth is, that we are going to have a mindset that is more open to sin and one that is accepting of sinful behavior. We wind up being a people whose view of God is one of love and acceptance only, and sin becomes something that is ‘normal’. The problem is that by staying on this road long enough, we become the people Jude is specifically warning believers about. Not having a Christian worldview will mean that we have already or will become, as the Message Bible references, “the shameless scoundrels beneath pious skin.” We end up being the ones who have crept into the church.

Our walk with God has to be one that has its foundation in Christ. It has to be grounded in such as way that we see the world through the eyes of, and with a heart and mindset of Christ.

Take another minute to read through Jude again. Notice that the bulk of the text is describing who and what these “scoundrels” are. This is not a description that I would like to have given of me when I others talk about me and I am sure that it is the same for you. Jude likens these people to some of the more rebellious people in scripture, who mind you were people who were a part of God’s chosen people, Israel.

To wrap this up I want to encourage you not to start pointing fingers or talking about the people that YOU think fit the bill in your church. I want you to stop for a moment and examine in your own life the ways that you have allowed yourself to become one of these shameless scoundrels in pious skin. Because when we are honest with ourselves each of us on some level have bought into the culture and the world’s way of thinking. But remind yourself this week that we have been called to a higher standard and that we are to so much more than people who put on a good show of religiosity.

We are called by Christ to go and tell, (Matthew 28:19) and that means that we are to live and walk in the truth (John 14:6), which is Christ so that others may come to know him.