A worldview is “the overall perspective from which one sees and interprets the world.” (note 1) It is a model for viewing and understanding reality. Everyone has a worldview and everything in life emanates from one's worldview—decisions, attitudes, values, principles, perspectives, words, actions, results, etc.
According to Dictionary.com, the word secular is an adjective that means "of or pertaining to worldly things or to things that are not regarded as religious, spiritual, or sacred." (note 2)
A secular worldview is, then, a model for interpreting reality that is not connected to God.
An example of a secular worldview is seen in the view of greed espoused by John Stossel. In the 1999 ABC News Special: Greed with John Stossel, greed was defined as the “motive behind people who produce the products that we enjoy.” Stossel quoted economist and greed advocate Walter Williams who said, "In a free market, you get more for yourself by serving your fellow man . . . You don't have to care about him, just serve him. Greed gets people to cooperate. If you want to benefit from other greedy people, you have to make sure they benefit from you.“ (note 3)
Stossel's thesis was that greed is good in that greed motivates people to serve others. The presupposition behind his thesis appears to be that the end result of serving men is good and can be accomplished even if the motive is self-centered and self-serving.
This presupposition is contrary to Scripture. For example, note King Solomon's words in Proverbs 21:2, "All a man's ways seem right to him, but the LORD weighs the heart" (NIV). God always looks first at our heart to see our motives. The only right motive is to obey God, which is rooted inexorably in the singular worship of God and God alone.
Greed is inconsistent with the singular worship of God because greed is a symptom of the worship of money. This is why the apostle Paul stated, in the above text, that greed is idolatry.
It is a law of God's universe that we cannot worship God and money—they are mutually exclusive. (note 4) To truly worship God means that we cannot worship money.
In Psalms 1, King David articulated the maxim that the worship of God leads to blessing and the worship of anything else leads to judgment. To enjoy blessings and favor in this life, therefore, we must worship God alone.
Here is your business tip: To enjoy favor and blessings in your organization, you must build a culture based on a biblical worldview, which, by definition, is rooted in the singular worship of God alone. One of the corollaries is that you must aggressively search out, expose, and eliminate any greedy practices. Accordingly, you must always evaluate the motives for every decision and action, and the motives of every worker. Any worker focused on "what's in it for me” will be cancer to the organization. Enduringly successful organizations are built by selfless workers who are growing in Christ, are doing what they are called to do, and are committed to obeying the will of God according to the ways of God.
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1. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/worldview.
2. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/secular.
3. http://digg.com/political_opinion/Greed_Is_Good_Yes_It_drives_us_to_do_many_good_things_in_
the_marketplace.
4. Luke 16:13.
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