Jesus spoke about how our mindset is connected to who we are in His Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5–7). He explained, for example, how Old Testament commandments relate to who we are inside. He said that anyone who even looks at a woman with lust commits adultery in his heart (Matt. 5:28). That’s because sin is a question of our mindset—not simply of what we do externally. He summarized by saying, “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (v. 48).

What is a mindset? It’s not a term we use often. The Bible describes Christians as being people who pursue transformation through the renewal of their mind (Rom. 12:2). This means that the position, orientation, or very framework of our mind has shifted—it’s been “set” by the Spirit of God. That doesn’t mean that our mind is static, but the seed of the Word has been permanently planted, and our whole life of faith springs forth from that seed (Rom. 10:17; James 1:21).

It reminds me of playing baseball when I was little. Baseball was the first sport I learned to play. Once I picked up a bat and learned how to throw a ball, I interpreted every other sport I played through the experience of playing baseball. When I played golf, I knew something of how to swing a club. When I played soccer, I knew what it meant to play offense or defense. I brought a baseball mindset to every sport that I played.

In some ways, the term worldview describes what a mindset is, but that term can be misleading. Sometimes people say, “Well, that’s just your view.” What they mean is that our views don’t need to accord with any objective truth. All that exists is power, and whoever can yell the loudest gets to impose his view of the world on others. But that’s a cynical way of viewing the world. It would mean that power is always our sole motivation, and all truth is relative. But that doesn’t make sense. People are often motivated by other things besides power. And, moreover, you can’t claim that all truth is relative, because that’s an objective truth claim. It’s contradictory.

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