What about Morals? My CED app dictionary defines morals as “motivation based on ideas of right and wrong”. Motivation is defined by the same dictionary as the psychological feature that arouses an organism to action toward a desired goal; the reason for action; that which gives purpose and direction to behavior. It’s what gives us purpose and direction in our life. It’s what causes us to get out of bed in the morning; that motivation may be our bodies hunger for nourishment. So some motivation is for our very living, to keep us going, otherwise we will die.
The other parts of morals are “ideas of right and wrong.” Ideas are our thoughts, that are physical and can be made into a physical bodily action, lead by our motivation. Ideas are actions in our mind.
We are now left with “right and wrong”. Well this is where it gets sticky. People of the world live in different societies, with different values, ideas, and philosophies. I will speak of these as people groups. Some people groups are isolated from world events, world news, and other people groups and because of this they tend to be less advanced by western definitions. It seems that the more that people groups interrelate with each other the more of a variety of “ideas” are shared. This makes sense to me.
If we can understand or relate to what I have said so far then to me it is clear that maybe not all people groups share the same “ideas of right and wrong”. I think we can see this in everyday news around the world when we see events happen that cause harm to people in some way that are directly caused by other people. The people causing harm to other people have a different “idea of right and wrong”; or do they? It may seem “clear to me” that maybe not all people groups share the same “ideas of right and wrong”, but I am missing something in that line of thought.
If we hold true to believe that God is the creator of all things, so then the same truth holds that His word is true. The Holy Bible is God’s true word. True is a definite meaning that absolutely, without blur, means not false. There is no maybe in True. True is pure. With this belief and faith we can add God’s Word to our very being, our morals, our “ideas of right and wrong”; our motivation in life.
In God’s Word, our Bible, there is some insight as to the understanding that all people are born with an understanding of “right and wrong”. Read Romans 1: 18-20. “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities- his eternal power and divine nature- have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” NIV. The apostle Paul wrote, according to God, this insight if you will that we have sort of a built in check system of understanding/knowledge of “right and wrong”. People have no excuse because God has made it plain to them. Read on down to Romans 1:21-32. This scripture flies directly against what World Vision has decided to do as I read in this article a few days ago, http://news.yahoo.com/major-christian-charity-lifts-same-sex-marriage-ban-203900472.html.
Before we throw the first stone, Romans 2:1 says “You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.” Well, not that we all have same sex marriages, but we all have sinned. Paul is addressing people who were passing judgment on others for same sex relations, yet they too were involved in the same thing; hypocrisy.
Let me come to my point in this writing. I am addressing our very Christian being as a group of people who are our brothers and sisters in Christ. Jesus said that we are to love one another, to love your enemies. This is a very hard command to follow indeed for most people. What I see happening is that this command is being mixed into a big bowl of soup and some people are also adding that it is OK to accept people who claim to be Christian yet are living counter lives. 1 Corinthians 5: 11 “But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.” NIV. Paul is writing to the Church in Corinth as he heard there was acceptance of a man sleeping with his father’s wife, vs. 1. He goes on speaking about people who say they are Christian but live a life counter to that.
When a person becomes a Christian, a series of events/changes will happen from the inside out, as it has for all true Christians. This change can take some time; I know it did in me. Jesus will work in you, change you and your thoughts, but you have to let Him in and let Him go to work in you. This is where I believe that people who claim to be Christians are falling off the wagon, so to speak, before they have allowed God to complete a work in them. Our everyday life as Christians is a choice of “right and wrong” of allowing God in and for Him to work in us. It is a battle against the very real Satan, where he will tempt you into moving from “right” or “True” to “wrong” or “maybe”. It’s the maybe that will get us. A sort of half truth, or truth mixed with lie that causes our people group, our society to stray wrong. I am not speaking of meeting people where they are. Jesus went into the “sick” to change them. We are all in that same boat; we are all saved from sin. We as Christians are to meet all people, to love them, to introduce them to Christ. As Christians we will grow in Christ, more every day. I believe it is during this growth in Christ that we all realize our sins as we have repented (or stopped doing it/changed direction). God will work in us so that we ourselves will change our desires and mold ourselves into a more perfect person in Christ. You will find that you no longer want that “thing” you always wanted before. You will find that certain desire/drive/achievement that you had has been changed into another desire/drive/achievement. That is God at work in you. It is good; it is what is best for you according to God.
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