Today I made the point that, in light of Hebrews 5:14, the more spiritually mature a person is, the more clearly he or she is able to discern the difference between good and evil.
What are some examples of moral issues where the right and wrong side should be clear to Christians, but often is not? And what's an example of an issue which many Christians treat as if it's cut and dry, when it actually is not?
MM
2 comments:
Something I am personally recognizing as a much more complicated issue than I ever thought is helping the poor.
God reveals his concern for the needy and especially ones who cannot care for themselves (widows and orphans) in so many areas of his word that I can't question its importance. It's right to help the poor.
But it's not cut and dry, because 'how' I help poor really matters. If I am not led by God in my 'how,' then I can cause some serious harm to the people I am intending to help by creating an unhealthy dependency upon foreigners for support, unknowingly encouraging stigmas, even compromising a child's safety by my ignorance of cultural differences and expectations.
Just giving up and deciding not to help is not an option that God leaves open, so I'm seeking God about this and studying to learn how I can help without harming. I came across World Vision's "Programming Guidance for Children Deprived of Parental Care."
While I disagree with some of the theories and suggestions put forth, most of this report is helping open my eyes to the high level of humility I need to have in order to serve God by helping the poor.
Well it took me two weeks but here goes. Now about those moral issues. Is it possible that the better we are at discernment, the more we see that things aren't so easily categorized as all good or all evil? For example, look at drinking alcohol. (Notice I'm not using homosexuality) Many Christians will put drinking alcohol in the evil column. Others will put it in the good column. Jesus drank wine they say. At one point in our history it was completely outlawed. So what is it? Good or evil? Probably neither. If you drink excessively and do harm to yourself or others, either physically or emotionally, it's bad. If you have a glass of wine in the evening, it's probably good. Even the act of killing is justified at times and may be put into either column. Is it wartime? Is it self defense? Again shades of grey. So as Jesus stated, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’[a] 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] There is no commandment greater than these.” It would seem that this is "ruler" we should use to measure our moral issues against. Does my drinking cause me to love the Lord less? Does it cause me to love my neighbor or myself less? Does it cause me to do harm to my neighbor? If the answer is yes, then for me, drinking alcohol would be evil. If not, then it can be good. When Christians start to categorize every action into good or evil with no room to bend, it causes rifts between neighbors, it takes the focus away from God and puts it on us. The rules become our "God". I believe the more spiritually mature a person becomes, the more he is able to see the grey.
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