Ip Man 2 and the Christian Worldview

I just watched "Ip Man 2" on Netflix. I really enjoyed the movie. But it got me wondering, "So how does the Christian worldview compare with Ip Man's worldview?"

In the film, the main character has the unusual Chinese name Ip Man. He's the kung fu grandmaster who eventually trained kung fu legend Bruce Lee. It's an exciting film, culminating with a bizarrely conceived Chinese-Western boxing match. Ip Man using martial arts, and Mr. Twister using Western boxing techniques, duke it out. I'll leave it for you to guess who wins. Definitely an adrenalin rush.

This movie has all kinds of great themes. It has a modest, respectable hero who, even though he can beat up a whole gang attacking him with knives and staves, discourages fighting and goes out of his way to care for people around him. It has good vs. evil, where the evil is unambiguously so. It has reconciliation, discipleship, death. And the good guy usually prevails and the bad guy usually gets his comeuppance.

And you can't help but think that the Chinese-Western boxing match is a metaphor for two worldviews.

I am a Christian. I am the man I am because of God's hand on my life. Jesus Christ allowed himself to be murdered in order that he might reconcile people like me to God. (I know, it's not obvious how murdering Christ brings about reconciliation. But it does, and it's magnificent! If you're interested, I'll gladly talk to you off-line about that.)

I admire Ip Man. He faces challenges with an unflappable demeanor. He has this air of moral rectitude. He stands for God and country. Nope, strike that. He stands for country and traditional culture. Is that bad? On the surface, the answer is "obviously not."

But isn't it interesting that the fantasy worlds constructed by Hollywood (and Hong Kong, in this case) in film after film never have a sovereign God? In this respect, art miserably fails to imitate life.

Hear me with the right tone here. I am not whining. I'm not asking for men to give God a fair chance. I'm announcing emphatically that God condemns them for omitting Him from their thinking and their lifestyle. (See for yourself: Jeremiah 29:17-19; John 3:18-19; Psalm 14:1-3; Mark 16:16 )

In Chinese film, there's a sense of deity in the culture and heritage of the people. In American film, there's a sense of truth, justice, and the American way. Both are inadequate, incomplete substitutes for a godly life. Hear the whole story from a biblical prophet (Micah 6:8):

He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the LORD require of you
But to do justly,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God?

In the Hollywood constructs, they're all about the "justice" and "mercy" stuff. It's the requirement "to walk humbly with your God" that causes them to stumble. Every single time. Observe:

1. It's a requirement to walk humbly with your God. It's a requirement levied by God Himself. As the old joke goes, "They're not The Ten Suggestions." The prophet said, "God has shown you what He requires of you." We're not ignorant. "I'd prefer not, thank you very much," we politely demur. But no matter how nicely we say it, our serene sense of entitlement to do our own thing is stubborn rebellion. (When we see our children do it, we recognize it for what it is.)
2. The requirement is about a walk. That's symbolic language for a lifestyle. God's not interested in merely a weekly performance, but in your whole life.
3. He requires us to walk humbly with God. In America we get "humble" wrong. To us, humble means "modest" or "self-deprecating" (instead of ostentatious). It means puny or poor ("a man of humble means"). These are side effects of true humility, which is a sense of bowed, reverent submissiveness to God. When someone is really humble before God, their life habits will likely be modest. But modesty by itself misses the core of humility.
4. When we get a better sense of God's God-ness and our smallness, humility comes more easily. After all, we are flesh and blood creatures who can be stopped cold by bombs and cancer and hunger. And God? God merely spoke and just about everything we attribute to the Big Bang happened. On top of that, He got involved. He was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself.
5. And when the one true God becomes your God, you've got Him right where He wants you.

So Ip Man's worldview, though noble, misses the mark of the divine requirement. And when you get that wrong, you're on the path to destruction. So when the credits roll at the end of the movie and the hero stands triumphant, realize that that's not really the end of the story (see Hebrews 9:27).

Take to heart what the prophet proclaimed and make it your life's purpose to walk humbly with God. More than decency and morality, that's the essence of the Christian worldview (see Matthew 6:33).