I previously tried to make the point that I think it is naive to believe that there is not an ultimate standard of right and wrong. I think our own personal decisions and even observing the history of the world brings us to a consistent concept of good and bad ( even if it is not followed). Now I will go into what I think is the state of humanity in relation to this moral code that I believe we are all subject and responsible to.
To begin, I will say that I believe the ultimate standard of right and wrong is the standard set by the God of the Christian bible. I believe that scripture accurately depicts this standard and that Christ lived by and personified this perfect standard. Many of us recognize this code as being expressed by the 10 commandments, but my purpose in writing this is to show that its more than just those 10 sentences.
When Jesus said these words:
Matthew 5: 27-28
27 h“You have heard that it was said, i‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that jeveryone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart."
they were revolutionary as far as how "religion" had worked long before he came to earth. The Jews who lived by this written code had become masters ( more accurately slaves) of the law and had learned it, but spent a great deal of effort trying to figure out how to live around it. They realized that they often would violate the things they had been commanded to do so in a very legalistic manner they would try to approach the law as documents and concepts that they were able to work around and kind of manipulate. But Jesus left no room for such a lifestyle or interpretation. He spoke to the heart issue.
Why did you get in trouble over apologies as a child. If you were like me, you said what you were suppose to say. " I'm sorry for yada yada" but why weren't your parents satisfied? Your heart wasn't in it. They knew that your outward actions were designed to fulfill an obligation and not to do what was right. In the same way, the standard that Christ set was not just about " What you do" but about your heart.
I'm currently reading a book about sexual purity ( Every Man's Battle) and I made an observation while working through it. The book doesn't really talk about cheating on your spouse. This isn't because it condones it, but rather it approaches the heart issue that it feels leads to cheating. It focuses on things like " What do you look at? What do you think about"? If you're in a committed relationship I'd hope that we could agree that even if your spouse isn't physically having a relationship with someone, if they are looking and thinking about it, that is just as much a violation of your commitment to each other. In this same way, if we're going to measure how good or bad we are it has to be a heart issue.
It's easy to say " Hey, I'm nice to people. I haven't killed anyone. I tell the truth." But if our hearts are filled with lust and hate and jealousy and selfishness ( even if we are too scared or don't get a chance to act these things out) we are still sinning.
So are we good people? How bad is it? For me personally, I am ashamed sometimes by the thoughts of my heart. I may be able to fool people, but fooling people isn't what God calls us to. God's standard is holiness. To anyone who read the previous entries I posted, this all started with my reaction to how some guy said he wasn't a bad person for looking at porn. Well, I'll say this. Porn feeds lust and strips sex of its God given glory. It is one of many violations that speak to a heart after our own pleasure and not the will of God.
If such a heart is God's standard, then where do we stand? If you're anything like me, you're not in very good shape and in need of help or better yet a savior.
