A biblical worldview begins with knowing God, and God is love. Our highest purpose as human beings is to love God above all else, which is the easiest thing for us to do because we were made for this. Since God is love, we cannot see Him or learn anything about Him without loving Him more. This must be our chief pursuit and the most basic paradigm through which we see the world. It is also the path to the most wonderful, fulfilling life possible.

         Next we are called to love one another. That is a greater challenge. Even though we were made in the image of God, the Fall has marred that image. We are no longer as loving, or as lovable. In God there is “no shadow of turning,” or change. Therefore, His love for us has never wavered, even after the Fall as He demonstrated by sending His Son for our salvation. However, our ability to love was crippled by the Fall and the ensuing selfishness it caused. This must be reversed, which is only done through the working out of our salvation.

         In Philippians 2:12 we are told to “work out your salvation….” What does this mean since we know that the price for our redemption was fully paid by Jesus on the cross? Our redemption has been fully paid. There is nothing we can add to or take away from it. However, the applying of redemption to our lives is a process that includes the renewing of our minds, so that we think, act, and perceive from the perspective of the “new creation,” not the old, fallen creation.

         To begin seeing, thinking, and acting as the new creation we are in Christ, there must be a reversal from the consequences of the Fall. The first consequence of the Fall was that man started looking at himself and saw his own nakedness. To be delivered from the consequences of the Fall, we must stop looking at our own condition and start looking again to God, being changed back into His image by beholding His glory.

         This does not mean we overlook sin or our fallen nature, but we acknowledge it, bury it, and begin to have our lives in Christ, being conformed to His nature. Our “old man” has been crucified with Christ. When we embrace the redemption provided for our sin, we are born again to a new nature. We are born again just like we were physically born—immature and hardly looking like what we will become, but the process has started. Now we must grow up in all things into Christ to become the mature “new creation” we are called to be.

         What does this have to do with our theme, The Great Commission? The Great Commission is to make disciples, not merely converts. A disciple is more than a student. A disciple lives to learn of their master and become like their master. Being born again is not the end of the journey; it is just the first step. We must go on to maturity, and our converts must go on to maturity, if we are going to fulfill the Great Commission.