There are numerous ways one can look at the process of decision making. You can look at it based on style, you can focus on the process, or even on the information needed to make a good decision. None of these approaches are innately good or bad. But there are other factors which can cause a decision to be good or bad. Let’s look at an example of how this might play out.
There is a fast food company that advertises its food in a way that is sexually provocative. As a Christian business person, would you do your advertising that way? There is certainly nothing wrong with the product, so advertising the food itself should be fine. And there is nothing wrong with using beautiful people to show off their products. But their approach to expressing the message has these beautiful people eating and playing with the food in ways which are designed to stimulate gratuitous sexual thoughts. This approach to expressing their message is not based on a Christian worldview. It treats the actors as sex objects and invites the viewers to do the same – a mindset that is more compatible with a naturalistic worldview than a Christian one.
Obviously, someone in the corporate office made the decision to go with the naturalistic worldview thinking as a means of promoting their product. This is not a way Christians ought to be moving. So, what can we do to make sure we don’t go down that road?
Feelings, Knowledge and Values
As we explore the topic of decision making based on a Christian worldview, I want us to look at three foundational platforms for making decisions – feelings, knowledge and values. Every approach to decision making will interact with all three in some way. As such, it is not the mere use of these three which is at issue. Rather, it is the way they are dealt with in order to express them in the culture.
Many people make decisions based strictly on how they feel about something. The only problem with that is it removes the human element from the process. Non-human animals make their decisions that way. Since they are not self-conscious creatures, like human beings, they don’t have the ability to consider the possibilities and consequences of their actions. They operate strictly off of instinct and are only concerned with how they feel. When human beings base their decision making purely on feelings, they operate only at the non-thinking, animal level.
As human beings, we have an ability that other animal creatures don’t have. We are able to self-consciously consider the possibilities surrounding a situation and make considered decisions. That is a uniquely human quality. And we are most human when we live by decisions rather than by mere feelings.
But even living by intentional decisions is not the highest possibility. We are not only human animals with the special ability to make self-conscious, free-will decisions, we are also persons who have been created in the image of God. As such, we are not left with only our feelings and our personal intellectual prowess, we also have the ability to decide based on a set of values. When we do that, we act as persons, and not mere human animals.
Not every set of values is good, however. God created us to live in relationship with him, and it is living by his values that allows for that to happen. We are our highest person when our decisions are based on God’s ways. It is using our abilities in this manner that reflects decision making which has a biblical worldview as its basis.
All of this has very practical applications as we live life out in the world. Not only does it affect the process of decision making itself, but it affects the way the decisions actually play out in life. The worldview foundation of our decisions will determine what happens.
Decisions Made Purely Based on Feelings
Certainly there is nothing innately wrong with considering our feelings as we make decisions. After all, God made us with physical bodies and the feelings we feel are an inseparable part of our personhood. But as human beings, we are more than mere animals. As such, more than feelings must factor into our decisions. When our decisions are based purely on feelings, important information is left out of the process which can cause us to go down the wrong road. When all we consider is feelings, it becomes very easy to make ourselves feel good about doing things that are contrary to God’s will. It also becomes possible to make ourselves feel bad about doing things that are consistent with his will.
Decisions Made Purely Based on Intellect
When our decisions are purely based on intellect, we can be proud that we rose above mere feelings, but we must also be careful that the knowledge we are basing our decisions upon corresponds with the truth. There is a way reality is organized and it is not organized any other way. When we allow our decision making to be based on untruth, serious problems inevitably emerge. And people do that all the time – even as it relates to major decisions. People rationalize sexual immorality, greed, lying, gluttony, divorce, and even killing, based on incomplete knowledge from non-Christian sources. The act of intellectually thinking through decisions is truly important, but that should never be the last word for a Christian.
Decisions Made Based on God’s Revelation
For believers in Christ, the foundation for every decision should be God’s revelation. There is a way that is right, and that should always be the starting point.
As we consider making decisions based on a Christian worldview, there are a couple of things that are important to keep in mind. First, there will be times when making the right decision does not “feel good.” A biblical worldview does not begin with how we feel. Additionally, there will be times when we might put ourselves at a certain disadvantage when we make the right decision. A biblical worldview also does not begin with an intellectual supposition.
Decisions based on a Christian worldview begin with the will of God. In the ultimate sense, the feelings and intellect must flow out of that. When our decisions are based squarely on what God has revealed to us, we put ourselves in a position to receive three things. First, it becomes possible to receive intimate fellowship with him. The second thing is spiritual maturity. Finally, making decisions based on God’s revelation gives us the ability to enjoy the greatest fulfillment in this life. When we make our decisions based on a biblical worldview, good feelings and intellectual satisfaction naturally follow. It cannot be any other way.
© 2015 Freddy Davis