In a world obsessed with relationships, community, empathy, and "putting people first," it's easy to assume that centring our lives around others is the path to true fulfilment. We hear it everywhere: Build strong connections. Prioritise others. Love people well. These are good impulses—until they become the foundation rather than the fruit. What happens when we make people-centrism (an overemphasis on human relationships and potential as the centre of life) our starting point? Scripture warns us through the doctrine of total depravity: humanity, apart from God's grace, is deeply flawed and incapable of sustained righteousness. "Man and righteousness are worlds apart," as the biblical view puts it simply. People fail. Relationships fracture. Good intentions erode under selfishness, disappointment, or burnout. When we build our hope primarily on fellow creatures, discouragement is inevitable. The weight becomes pointless and burdensome. This risk extends to other-centrism—the noble idea of always putting others ahead of self. While it echoes Christ's self-sacrifice, it still forces a fundamental choice: creator or creature? Without resolving this through a biblical epistemology, we drift back into human-centred striving. The resolution is straightforward yet revolutionary: Creator over creature. Our relationship with fellow humans must flow from—and be filtered through—our relationship with God. Horizontal love (neighbour as self) is only sustainable when rooted in vertical love (God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength). Jesus Himself established this order in the two greatest commandments:
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself." (Matthew 22:37-39, ESV; see also Leviticus 19:18)
Notice the sequence. The first commandment is not optional or interchangeable—it's foundational. Loving God wholly shapes how we love others: with realism about sin, reliance on grace, endurance through failure, and direction from divine revelation. What we do with fellow human beings must depend on what God says. This God-first priority is the heartbeat of human flourishing at every level:
· Micro (personal life): Inner peace and purpose come from alignment with the Creator's will, not endless self-improvement or people-pleasing.
· Meso (relationships and community): Marriages, families, and churches thrive when grace-filled love flows from submission to God, not codependent expectations.
· Macro (society and culture): Justice, ethics, and social good endure only when grounded in God's unchanging agenda, not shifting human ideals.
The perfect examples? Christ and David—both from Bethlehem, the "house of bread." Jesus perfectly embodied the divine agenda: "Not my will, but yours be done" (Luke 22:42). He loved others flawlessly because He was fully submitted to the Father. David, "a man after God's own heart" (Acts 13:22), pursued God's will amid personal and relational chaos—his failures didn't derail him because his compass was the Creator. This is the core unravelling in The God-Agendum: Unravelling God's Will and Man's Purpose in the Divine Plan. The book explores how aligning with God's sovereign agenda frees us from the futility of people-centred living. It offers a roadmap to discern divine priorities, avoid relational discouragement, and experience genuine flourishing—not through optimistic humanism, but through humble dependence on the unchanging God. If you've ever felt exhausted by trying to "fix" relationships, society, or yourself through sheer human effort, consider this: True life begins when we parse people-centrism through other-centrism in the right order—Creator first.Curious to dive deeper? Explore The God-Agendum and discover how embracing God's plan transforms everything from personal purpose to communal impact.
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