First Principles

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I first realized the importance of principles in the early days of my counseling career as I sought to create a model of ministry. Here are a few of the principles I’ve recognized as simple, yet profound, truths.

What makes man uniquely man is God.

When we try to understand man, the thing that stands out is that man, fallen man, is not man as God intended man to be. It is God’s presence within the human spirit that makes man man, man as God intended man to be. God never intended for man to be without the living presence of the living God for one moment. Man was created a temple to house God. Without God, man is a lifeless temple. Thus, the very first thing a person must look at in developing a concept of man is God.

To truly know man, one must know God.

Man has always felt that he is the center of the universe and that all you have to do to know and understand man is study and observe man. Nothing could be further from the truth.

As the Bible tells us, we are created in the image of God. Thus, the more one knows of the Image, the more he will know of the image-bearer. To study man without studying God will create a concept of man this is totally incomplete.

Fallen man is incurably religious.

If man was created to house God but lost that ability at the fall, it explains what the French philosopher Blaise Pascal once said: "In every human being there is a God-shaped vacuum which only God can fill." It is because of this "God-shaped vacuum" that man has always sought after God. Even in the most primitive cultures man is found to be religious. There is the insatiable and desperate search to find God, to fill the void created at the fall.

The difference between the Christian and non-Christian is that a Christian is a spiritual being, while the non-Christian is a religious being. There is a world of difference between the two. The spiritual being is one who has found God in the person of Jesus Christ. The Spirit of God has taken up residence in his human spirit. The religious being has not come to know Christ, but seeks to find God, in whatever form he may conceive of Him.

The basic need of man is to worship.

Because man is incurably religious, one way or another, man will worship. Mainly he worships what he himself creates – his job, family, possessions, etc. Worship he must and worship he does. Worship is the natural expression of a religious being, and man is, above all else, a religious being – created to be filled with God and constantly longing to fill that void. And he attempts to do this through worship.

Man in his fallen state has the same capacity for evil that he had for good prior to the fall.

Few Christians really understand the depravity of man. We tend to see good in everyone; thus we fail to understand the extent of evil that a person is capable of. Man always tries to portray himself in the best light. Evil people are viewed as sick, not evil. In his own mind, man believes himself to be inherently good, inherently likable and lovable. Thus, he tries to avoid any accountability for his own shortcomings and sins that would indicate that he’s anything other than inherently good.

Yet Scripture tells us that, in our fallen state, our hearts are "deceitfully wicked." Since we were created to be in constant union with God through His Spirit dwelling in our spirits, when His Spirit is not present, we are on our own and defenseless against the influences of Satan and his minions. Our capacity to do every kind of evil is as great as was our capacity to do every kind of good when we were in union with God. When God once again takes up residence in our spirits as a result of the new birth, the tables are turned again.

I love to meditate on God’s Word and think through these and other basic principles of how man actually is as opposed to how he believes himself or portrays himself to be. We cannot truly help people until we understand the basics about them.