In our life we make choices, judgments, every moment of the day we are awake. We decide what to wear, what to eat, where to go, and of course whether to do something or not. Should I sit at the computer and type this or should I go to bed because it is late? Should I get a drink? What kind of drink? It’s these kinds of choices that enable us to be in control of our lives. We decided what to do and when. It’s our greatest freedom.
So how do we make decisions? We do so by weighing the results of the options available. Do I want a drink? “Yes” means that I am refreshed. “No” means that I remain thirsty. So I get a drink. What kind of drink should I get? Orange juice may upset my stomach but has Vitamin C and tastes good. Water would be refreshing but is boring. Coke would keep me awake longer and tastes great but has a lot of calories. We weigh the choices and choose what best fits our needs.
But what about decision making on a higher level? What about making decisions about right and wrong as opposed to mere preference? What if our preference is to do the wrong thing?
Humans are flawed creatures – more likely to choose the wrong than the right. We will inerrantly choose the path of least resistance instead of what would be the right thing to do. But God calls us to a higher standard.
Yes I said “higher.” As in better or best. It’s not just that God wants us to do the right thing, but it’s also that God wants us to live the right way by doing the right things every time! In fact, God asks us for 100% adherence to this rule. If we want to follow God we must do the right thing.
So who makes the right thing? How do we know what the right thing is? Of course, this is where it gets tricky. The world undermines us by telling us that there are two standards for doing the right thing: theoretical and practical. “Its all well and good that we should give a tithe to the church… but in reality we can’t really afford to give 10% of our income away.” Theoretically, the world will say, we should do what God tells us to do. But practically, we must find some middle ground based on what we understand to be the situation. God isn’t concerned with whether we choose Water or Coke to drink. But there is no middle ground with God when it comes to right and wrong things – higher level decisions.
Take arguments, for instance. Not every situation has two wrong participants, equally wrong, and equally at fault. At the same time two people can be wrong for different things in the same situation. Even so the wrongs of the one can never be used to justify the wrongs of the other. In God’s eyes they are both wrong for their personal choices and there is no justification. There is no middle ground or sharing the blame. Everyone is individual to God and individually responsible for their self.
Some people may say that this is a closed minded, black and white way of seeing the world. Of course, the speaker would almost certainly not be a follower of Christ as we know him from the Bible! Even so, is it really wrong to see choices in black and white? I’m not talking about preference choices like what kind of beverage to drink. I’m talking about right and wrong. I would ask that person this simple question: If you knew something was absolutely the right thing to do would you do it regardless of what others said? Chances are good that I wouldn’t get a clear “yes” or “no” answer on that. That should be a sign for you: If someone knows what is right and refuses to do it or equivocates or negotiates it then you are dealing with someone that is completely lost (of their own volition.)
How can we know that something is the right thing to do and not do it? How can we know that something is the wrong thing to do and do it anyway? We need only look to our sin nature for those answers.
But what of the person who says, “Who made you king who gets to decide what is right or wrong?” That’s a good question! God gave us 3500 years of written history of decisions of real people who made real bad and real good choices. God told us their stories and at the same time told us the right and wrong way they acted. Jesus came and lived on this planet to … Oh wait! This is all theoretical isn’t it? You want something practical?
Who, then, decided to let me choose what is right and wrong? The Holy Spirit did. Isn’t that a can of worms? Everyone knows that those crack pots on TV think they are being led by the Holy Spirit. So how can we know the truth? My favorite verse spells it out for us: “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free” (John 8:31, 32).
We can only know the Truth when we actively and purposefully follow Christ. If we slip into our own religion (like many of those on TV), create our own religion, or follow no religion then we step away from the ability to know the Truth. And we ignore the Holy Spirit and his warnings and urging.
We make decisions every day. How we choose to act is the most important thing we will ever do. It shows us who we are, where we are and where we are going. God says that doing the right thing for him is a spiritual act of worship! When we are presented with a choice and we choose the right path for the glory of God we are worshiping him. Our choice not to act when we know we should is an act of spiritual refusal of God.
Our choices reveal who we are as well; what kind of person we are. “To thine own self be true!” Shakespeare’s Hamlet said. Shakespeare isn’t saying that we must all do what we want to. I believe he is referring to doing what we know is right and not doing what we know is wrong. The alternative is deceiving ourselves, which ultimately leads to our destruction. When we make decisions based upon what others want us to do and not on what we know to be right or wrong we lose the very essence of ourselves.
This is a key to this whole issue: whose person are we? The world wants us to be our own person – which really means be the world’s person – believing that all situations have gray areas, that there is no right or wrong, just opinion and that compromise is the highest virtue. We aren’t really our own person in that situation, we are slaves to the world’s nothingness. Jesus came to save us from that nothingness and to give definition to the outlines of creation. There are rules and rights and wrongs. There are blacks and whites. Compromise is not a virtue. When we make choices Christ wants us to we become his person! And there is glorious freedom in that!
Like you may have, I’ve made these kinds of right or wrong decisions and suffered the worldly backlash. I really thought that I would be respected, even if not agreed with, for being true to myself and the Truth. But the world is a lie. It tells us to do what we think is right and then hates those who do. But we can never make our decisions based upon how the world will respond to them. We have to be true to ourselves and our God. When we know something is wrong we must not do it. When we know something is right then we must act on it.
Is there ever a time when it’s wrong to do the right thing? Do the external consequences ever outweigh the internal? Not according to God. There is no middle ground. God gave us all the Truth, the rights and wrongs, and the only part that we need to play in this drama is choosing which of those two choices to do.
How we choose to respond tells the world, ourselves and God everything there is to know about us.
ashertopia 