Our world is centered around something (or someone). In our minds, all of life, all of history, and all of the known universe revolves and centers itself on something. What is it? What is the center? What is the center of life, and around what (or who) does all of this revolve?
These are massive questions, and I want to provide a few answers that we tend to provide.
We Can be Anthropocentric.
an-thro-po-cen-tric (adjective) regarding humankind as the central or most important element of existence, especially as opposed to God or animals.
Humans are undoubtably special in the context of God’s creation. We carry something that no other species carries; the image of God. (Genesis 1:27) As image bearers we have a unique place in creation, as well as a unique responsibility in creation. As God created the world, He spoke all things into existence from nothing. He then stepped back, observed all that He has spoken into being, and simply said, “It is good.” In this creative moment, God then created man. He said, “Let us make man in our own image” and it was done. Again, He then steps back, observes all that He had spoken to be, and says, “it is very good.”
From the very beginning mankind has been given a special place in creation. No other creation bears His image. No other creation bears the responsibility to exercise dominion. And no other creation shares the relationship we have with our God.
However, although humanity has been given a special place in creation, we are not the point. We are not the center. We are not the thing around which all of this orbits. To use the Genesis language, we are not the image… but the truth’s image bearers.
Anthropocentrism is most commonly seen in the way we approach and apply our Bibles. Understand, our Bible is not chiefly about us. It is not chiefly about humanity. Instead, the Bible is a book about God, revealing Christ, demonstrating God’s great character. Although it was written through human authors, and although it was written to a human audience, it is not written chiefly about any human apart from the incarnate Christ. To put it another way, God is the central character, the true protagonist, in the book that He authored and gave to us.
We Can be Ethnocentric.
eth-no-cen-tric (adjective) evaluating other peoples and cultures according to the standards of one’s own culture.
Ethnocentrism is both dangerous and destructive, and it is a view point that stands in conflict to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Ethnocentrism is the view that elevates one’s own culture, race, or ethnic group above the rest, and then evaluates all other groups based upon the standards of one’s own group.
Ethnocentrism is not new. In fact, we can trace ethnocentrism all the way through the Biblical narrative. There is perhaps no greater example than that of Jonah. Jonah was an Old Testament prophet of Israel, and God spoke to him giving him a specific message to deliver a specific people. As a prophet, Jonah’s job was to be God’s mouthpiece, to literally speak God’s message to people, and to not encumber that message in anyway. However, as we read in Jonah’s story, Jonah had an objection that caused him to attempt to run from God… His objection stemmed from ethnocentrism.
Jonah knew that if he were to deliver the message that God wanted him to deliver, and if he were to go to the people to which God called him to go… something terrible would happen; the people would hear, they would repent and turn to God, and that God was going to forgive them and spare them. You might read this and think, “that doesn’t sound terrible at all.” Well, the problem was that in Jonah’s eyes, the people of Nineveh were not a part of God’s people. They weren’t a part of the culture of God’s people. They looked different, worshipped differently, talked and thought differently, and they were in so many ways dangerous enemies of Israel. And God was calling Jonah, an Israeli prophet, to go to those people… It was absurd!
But, that was exactly what God was calling Jonah to do. Through Israel God was calling the nations to himself, and the gospel was never to be owned by any one people.
As we fast-forward to the book of Ephesians, Paul speaks directly to this as he writes…
For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. (Ephesians 2:14-16 ESV)
There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. (Ephesians 4:4-6 ESV)
Ethnocentrism runs counter to the gospel message, as God seek to bring the nations to himself in such a way that people from every tribe, every tongue, and every people will seek Him. The church is not white and western, not European, not Chinese, not African, or any other, as the gospel is not perfectly at home in any one culture. Instead, the gospel calls all people to God, as the gospel is best expressed through the collection of diverse peoples through the work of Christ.
In other words, the world does not revolve around mankind, and it certainly does not revolve around any one subset group therein.
We Can Be Selfcentric.
self-cen-tric (adjective) Someone who clearly believes that the world spins around him/her. It’s not the same as ego-centric or self-centered, because the self-centric person is not full of him or herself. He or she only believes that everything in the world has to do with him or her.
Above all other views, selfcentrism is king among 21st century Americans. As we have grown more individualistic and independent, and as postmodernity has altered the way we perceive life, we have arrived at a place in which we believe that we are the center of the world. We hear things such as , “It is all about my happiness,” “It is all about what I believe to be true,” or “it is all about my personal journey.” The truth is that when all of life is subjective, by consequence, all of life revolves around the individual.
Ultimately, selfcentrism is overcome through the gospel. In fact, it is impossible to defend selfcentrism in light of the work of Christ on the cross. There are many scriptures to consider, but none more applicable that Philippians 2….
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:3-8 ESV)
Jesus destroys selfcetrism through humility, and then calls his follower to do the same. Selfcentrism and humility are not compatible, as one will inevitably destroy the other. Christ humbled Himself, and thereby uprooted selfcentrism.
We are so small. Our lives are but a vapor. But, that fact is not to lead us to depression! Rather, it is to remind us of how incredible our God is, that He would love us, that He would call us to Himself, and that He would reveal Himself to us.
Another Option; We Can Be Theocentric.
the-o-cen-tric (adjective) having God as the center focus.
This leads us well to a fourth option. Theocentrism refuses every tendency to place humanity (as a whole or in it’s parts) as the center of life. Instead, theocentrism sees God as the only center of the universe, the only worthy focal point, and the only One who’s shoulders can bear the weight of the center.
True satisfaction and fulfillment cannot be found if our world is centered around anyone or anything apart from Jesus Christ. Nothing and no one else is able to bear that weight. We need a true center. We need a focus, an aim. Let us strive everyday to focus our hearts on God as the center, as our center, as the only true center of our lives. When we understand that all of life and all of creation is for Him and His glory, we are able to walk in the fullness for which we were created! We are able to experience the joy of a Theocentric perspective centered upon Christ.