Right and Wrong: Who Decides?

“…but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.”
Ephesians 6:6

A friend facing a moral dilemma recently said to me “I am struggling with my decision, but I want to do the right thing”. As we talked together in an attempt to work through the issue, I asked the question, “Do the right thing by whose standards?” This seems to be the key question as we face many of the difficult decisions of life and attempt to do what is right.

“Do the right thing by whose standards” is the question. It is not that there is a lack of standards. Standards abound all around us. Everyone has their standards because everyone believes in moral absolutes. Meaning that everyone has a point where they declare what they believe to be right and wrong. At some point everyone will say “that is wrong” and in so doing they declare what is for them a moral absolute. The issue isn’t whether or not people believe in moral absolutes, the issue is who gets to decide what the moral absolutes are. That was the issue in the Garden of Eden and it is the issue today.

A key distinction of being a Christian is that we affirm the fact that God gets to decide what is right and wrong and, in turn, we get to obey. To do otherwise is to expect to have a relationship with God on our terms as opposed to His. Something He is not anxious to do. As Followers of Jesus Christ we must not succumb to the pressure from the world to ignore or manipulate a standard that God has clearly set forth in His Word. Jesus put it simply in Luke 6:46, “Why do you call me Lord, Lord and not do what I say?”

Will we bat 1.000? Not this side of heaven. But the issue is not our batting average, it is our honest and genuine motive, intent and desire to do the will of God from the heart.

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