Articles
The Biblical Lens
The eyeglass industry is a booming business. Many people need glasses because without corrective lenses, their vision is blurred and distorted. While not everyone needseyeglasses, there is a lens every person on earth needs to see clearly. It is the Biblical lens. When we look through the lens of God’s Word, all things become clear. When the world looks distorted and twisted, the Biblical lens lets us see it in a new light, from a different angle, and from a deeper perspective. In many ways, the Bible functions as an x-ray lens, allowing us to penetrate the superficial nature of this physical world and expose life for what it really is. Truly, God’s Word is the lamp to our feet and the light to our path (Psalm 119:105). C.S. Lewis once said, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”
The apostle Paul saw life through the Biblical lens. He looked at everything the way God would look at it. Consider the book of Philippians. To the Christians at Philippi, the situation was discouraging. Paul was imprisoned in Rome awaiting a possible death sentence and the messenger they sent to him became sick almost to the point of death. Not only that, but they were suffering persecution as well. Paul’s response? Seeing the world through the lens of the gospel, he says, “my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel...most of the brethren, because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear” (1:12-14). As to their sick messenger, Paul says, “hold men like him in high regard, because he came close to death for the work of Christ” (2:29-30). As to their suffering? “For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake” (1:29). As to his own death sentence? “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (1:21).
We all undergo trials in this life. We might suffer financially, lose loved ones, be forced to move, have intense physical pain, be lonely, be social outcasts for our faith, have multiple series’ of unfortunate events, experience a break up, and the list could go on. The question is, what lens will we choose to look at those events through? Will it be our own physical lens, that twists, distorts, and has the tendency to blow things way out of proportion? The truth is, our physical life lenses often leave us dizzy, nauseous, and confused. The Biblical lens, however, pulls back the curtain so we can see things God’s way. It displays a clearer, more focused, high definition picture of what’s really going on, giving us great comfort and hope. “Those who love Your law have great peace, and nothing causes them to stumble” (Psalm 119:165).
