May2015_Faith and Living

Right & Wrong – Good & Evil

How does a person know what’s right, good, just, honourable and what’s not?  These things are often determined in a person by upbringing and by what they’ve been taught.  But what if the upbringing and teaching are absent or bad?  What if a child/youth is simply left to their own devices and judgments? 

I was watching the six o’clock news last night and it was just plain depressing.  Some truly horrible things are happening around the State…child murders, elderly people bashed senseless by youths etc, etc.  I’m increasingly meeting people who struggle to discern between what is good and what is evil.  The lines between what’s right and what’s wrong have become blurred for them.  They see nothing wrong with taking what belongs to someone else, or bashing someone for the few dollars in their purse.  I have spoken with people who have sexually abused children and there is little or no remorse as if it’s no big deal.  Their moral compass seems never to have been calibrated.

There’s a bible verse, “He has shown you man what is good and what does the Lord require of you?  To act justly; and to love mercy; and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8.  Our nation’s laws and justice system were founded upon biblical truth in a day when the Bible was seen by society as a light, a compass and the supreme authority of belief and righteousness.  The Ten Commandments were not the Ten Suggestions.  Our ethical standards sprung from them.  When a nation or society rejects Biblical authority, things start to go awry. 

There’s a sad verse at a time in Israel’s history when terrible things were happening, that kind of sums up our own day here in Australia and in other places… “In those days Israel had no king;  Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” Judges 21:25.  There are absolutes regarding right and wrong, good and evil.  God has stated them.  We need to rediscover what they are.  We need to re-instate the bible as our authority on these matters.  We need to re-instate the King (God) at the centre of our lives so that we ‘act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God.’

Gary Levens,  Pastor of Dayboro Church.