Formulate Your Own Set of Christian Values

The values that I seek to foster on a daily basis reflect my understanding of God’s redemptive purposes on earth. I believe that as a “follower of Jesus,” I should seek to “partner with God” toward the realization of these purposes, which, in a manner that I cannot begin to comprehend, will be “fully realized” sometime in the future. In the meantime, I am called to daily actions that present intimations of that future complete accomplishment (as taught by Jesus in the Parable of the Mustard Seed, as recorded in Matthew 13: 31-32).

I was raised in a pietistic Lutheran tradition that essentially embraced only one Christian value; that human beings enter into a “positive personal relationship with God” by means of some type of “conversion” experience. It was not until I was in my late 30s that I questioned the adequacy of this narrow view of God’s redemptive purposes.

During a sabbatical leave in the spring of 1992 while teaching mathematics at The King’s College in Briarcliff Manor, New York, I read  my Bible, every word, from cover to cover, searching for biblical teachings as to God’s redemptive purposes on earth. As a result of this study, I came to embrace a much broader view of God’s redemptive purposes than the narrow view that prevailed in my home church during my teen-age years.

I have been refining my broad view ever since. I now embrace the following set of Christian values that reflect my understanding of God’s broad redemptive purposes on earth, which will not necessarily align well with the political agendas of either the Republican or Democratic parties.

• Positive relationships of human beings with God
• Truth about all aspects of our world
• Loving relationships among all humans
• Justice for all humans, especially for the poor and marginalized
• Physical and emotional well-being for all humans
• Peace among humans experiencing conflict
• Harmony among humans and other living beings
• Flourishing of the natural environment
• Flourishing of all expressions of beauty in human creations

I am open to the possibility that there are inadequacies in the set of Christian values that I enumerate above, Therefore, I encourage each reader who aspires to be a “follower of Jesus” to read the Bible yourself, from cover to cover, to arrive at your own understanding of a set Christian values to live by.

Given the large number of Christian values I have suggested, neither you nor I can possibly “do it all.” How, then do I choose a focus or two for daily living? And, for any chosen focus, another challenging unanswered question is “how” do I go about fostering my chosen focus? For those readers interested in an in-depth response to these questions, look for my next Musing, titled “Recommendations for College Students Who Aspire to Follow Jesus.”