Two ~

Right and Wrong, Good and Bad

Tell me ~ ~ ~

Is it the entire Muslim movement that’s bad? Or merely those “radical Islamics”?

Is the notion of legalizing gay marriage really so wrong? Or even exploring one’s own sexuality?

And is engaging in war a “good” thing or “bad”? What about simply owning guns?

Is gambling a sinful behavior? Howzabout going to R~ rated movies?

So, according to The New Testament, is it okay to eat bacon these days? And shrimp cocktail? I like shrimp.

And what about doing a few tequila shots on my birthday? A few margaritas? A single glass of wine with dinner?

I ask you, dear reader, were you popping off answers in your head to the previous questions? Me too.

Of course, the next couple of questions would probably have to be:

“From where did we derive our responses?” and “What truly makes something right or wrong?”

I’d say most people feel as though they can instinctively differentiate right from wrong. In any given circumstance, a person will take just a moment to ponder their take on things before really taking a stance on the subject. Now, some may genuinely be free-thinkers and draw their conclusions from within, while others weigh stances from society or the media to formulate an opinion from there. Friends and family~ life experiences~ personal sentiment~ many factors can contribute, for better or worse.

But then, as Christians, we know better, don’t we? We know that any conclusions made apart from God’s wisdom are usually faulty. I mean, just look at that mess we made of Eden, right?!? So how is it that we believers still fall into such traps? (We do, you know.)

There on our bookshelves, in our desks or lockers at work, tossed into the back seats of our cars, we have our Bibles. God’s Word to us within reach, just waiting to impart His wisdom. And beyond that? We have The Holy Spirit Himself to commune with, whom Jesus called our Advocate or ‘Helper’. All that we need in order to make righteous decisions awaits us 24/7. And all God’s people say “amen”, as we’re aware of the obvious blessings, yes? So, we read our Holy Bibles, and go to God in prayer, as we intend to live our lives greatly influenced by Him.

Yet, there’s often a dis- connect, yes, something amiss when it comes down to our actual actions. It’s like: good heart? check! best of intentions? check! aaaand fail! Somehow we’ve failed to do what’s right in the follow- through, and maybe it’s something we never even recognize. Often times, we feel justified in many of the choices we make because they seem right to us. Perhaps we make those seemingly ideal choices according to the so-called logic of man. And maybe those decisions that we made even bring forth some seemingly desired results, which obviously makes us happy. But did we actually do what God wanted us to? More often than not, our own faulty human rationale hinders our ability to do right by God.
Now we may truly desire to do some good, and to do our best in following God and His Word. But for whatever reason, we casually default to our natural inclinations. I’m sure it has something to do with our internal comfort factor, the way we subliminally slap down any notion that doesn’t feel right to our natural sensibilities. But why?!? I mean, why do we do that?!? Is it because we feel our instincts are so trustworthy? I mean, can we follow our own desires, simply doing whatever comes ‘naturally’?!? No way! We already know better than that, don’t we? We should!
You see, the world, (that is, the people of this world), are already riding that silly slope in a fog of cluelessness. . . promoting that anything “natural” should be embraced as something good. To which, I would promptly have to call BS. Although, I will admit that the very word “natural” does evoke a sentiment of something wholesome, and possibly untainted. Let’s just put that notion to the test. For example? Okay.

Check it out. I have friends both Christian and secular that really seem to enjoy their pot, and insist on making a case for their marijuana use based on it’s ‘natural’ origins. But then, I usually counter with, “What about poison ivy then? Or poison oak? Totally natural, but I don’t see you smoking that.” “Or what of that ‘all-natural’ dog crap laying around the yard?!? I’ve yet to observe anyone add that to a batch of brownies.” Granted this is me being a smartass, but then again, it’s true.
In somewhat similar fashion to that argument for loco weed, people also defend certain behaviors on the merits that they come ‘naturally’ to some.

Of course, I’m referring to homosexuality here . . . but it also applies to adultery, transgenderism, and lest we forget, fornication of any kind. Now I’m speaking to all of us here, when I say that there’s no rationalizing sinful behavior. . . even when things feel right, even when things feel natural. A lot of couples try to substantiate their actions as somehow loftier by pointing out that there’s real love in the relationship, but buzzzz! Can anyone show me where God has declared that it’s cool to hook up merely on the merits that you’re really into each other?!? I don’t believe so~ not even if you’re engaged. Though society may accept it, what does that matter? Do we serve society? Or bend the knee to whatever society dictates? It might just benefit us to keep in mind that the greater majority of society is going straight to Hell. (Yes, both figuratively and literally.)
Now, many people claim to be “born this way or that”, with certain natural inclinations. To which we can reply, “Okay. . . So what?” I mean, I believe them. What they claim may be perfectly true, but does that make something acceptable? Or suddenly give anyone license to go against God’s directives? I’ve never heard Him say so, and we all have our inclinations that come naturally to us. For some it may be telling white lies; for others, possibly shoplifting; whilst for others, it may just be killing people, or engaging in fruity (i.e. gay) behavior. Ain’t none of us perfect. Of course, if The Good Lord wanted to suddenly make being gay A-okay, (or robbing banks or anything else, for that matter), then it would be. But He hasn’t thus far. And that’s really the point. We’ve been enlightened by God. Therefore, since we know the deal, we have no excuses.
To reiterate once again: God is God. And only He calls the shots. So can it be said that whatever He determines as righteous is just that? In a word, yes. And whatever He deems as wicked is just that as well.
Surely, some folks envision that there’s some cosmic set of rules to live by, magically existing somewhere on their own volition. And it’s typically those same knuckleheads that assume that God is merely the enforcer of those prefab standards, but it isn’t like that. There really are no preset boundaries of what’s right or wrong, except for that which God determines by His own character. And that’s a massive part of what it means for God to be Sovereign as well.
Now, I won’t go too terribly deep into these subjects, but consider that some notorious individuals like Jack the Ripper. . . Adolph Hitler. . . and Jeffery Dahmer. . . were all just doing what they felt like doing. Or should I say, “what came naturally” to them? To which, many would argue, “But we’re not like those guys!” Hmmm. (If you say so:) But we’ve already discussed Adam n’ Eve. And what about Moses? Or David, at times? Or Samson? Or Jonah? And so on and so forth. . . predestined men of God, always following till faltering at whatever point they strayed from God’s lead to do what came naturally to them.
What about Saul, (yes, later known as Paul), as he hunted down Jesus’ disciples? I’m sure he felt he was doing the right thing by God. . . until God showed him the light.

Or consider Peter, if you would. We know that Peter must have considered himself a passionate follower, and devoted friend of Jesus. He wasn’t off conniving like that Judas Iscariot. Supposedly, he was truly committed to The Lord’s best interest, and doing what was right. . . or so he thought. Yet, even with the best of intentions, Peter was often failing. I offer you Exhibit A, dear reader:

From Matthew, Chapter 16 (NIV):

²¹ From that time on Jesus began to explain to His disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of The Law, and that He must be killed and on the third day raised to life.
²² Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to You!”
²³ Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”

Whoa!

Can you imagine how Peter must have felt at that moment?!? He must have felt like such a douche! And yet, just before that, he must have passionately felt that he was doing the right thing.
But remind me to tell you later, dear reader, about how Peter chopped some guy’s ear off. Classic!

Negotiating the Terms of

‘Good’ and ‘Bad‘

Now just as most of feel that we can instinctively discern right from wrong, we also believe that we can differentiate the “good” things from the “bad”. After all, these are simple words, and seemingly simple concepts, aren’t they? I’d say so. Yet certain words can hold various meanings. So I’d like to clarify just what I mean, as I use the words “good” and “bad” in this section.
To start with, I’m really not speaking about the terms ‘good and bad’ in the ‘righteous versus wicked’ sense of the words like: “It was really good of you to pray for that dude Johnny.” or “Johnny did a very bad thing when he stole that Dodge.” (We basically just covered all that in the ‘Right and Wrong’ section.)
But then, I’m really not intending ‘good and bad’ as in ‘pleasant versus unpleasant’ either, as in: “That restaurant had some really good tortellini, though the service was pretty bad.” Though I would say that this second option is probably our most common means of weighing things out. Don’t know if you’ve ever considered this, dear reader, but we do typically categorize whether something is any good or not based merely on whether it appeals to us. And, I’m pretty sure this has been our inclination since we we’re kids. For instance? Well, I do believe most of us as youngsters would’ve dubbed cupcakes as a “good” thing, but usually would’ve avoided that broccoli lurking on our plates as something “bad”. Back in the day, making a decision was just that simple. In fact, the entire decision making process only took a moment, and was practically devoid of any real thought. Just sentiment. At five years old, we rarely considered the value of any possible nutrients within, nor, conversely, of what an abundance of sugar might do to our health. We only thought: cake = good, broccoli = bad, and that was the total extent of it. “Thanks, taste buds!”
Many of us have fought bravely to maintain such mindsets well into our adult years. And I’m only kinda kidding here, as most individuals still make determinations of what should be put into positive and negative columns based solely on their personal whims. Of course, we’ve already concluded, this is rarely the best policy, as our rationale often fails us. Can I get an ‘Amen’ here? Awesome.

Though I realize all of this may only seem a matter of verbiage or semantics to some, let me get to the nitty-gritty of what I’m trying to convey.
In any given moment, there are decisions and their subsequent actions to be deemed as either good or bad, but there’s usually only one option that proves truly ideal. And it’s only the ideal (or correct) choice that equates the good one. Hence, all other options can be considered as bad by default. So “bad” in this definition often means = non-ideal, incorrect, second-rate, and so forth. Care for an example here? Alrighty. Ponder the terms of good and bad as conveyed in the following: “Good choice in sticking with that carne asada, Rob. Everyone who ate the chicken or pork last night went home with some explosive diarrhea.” You see, in most people’s perspective, whatever that one choice was that didn’t make one crap their britches was probably the good one, as all other options were, well, shitty.
All joking aside though, there are massive stakes involved regarding our consideration of what qualifies as good or bad. And this ideal stands especially true when determining the course of our lives in The Lord. Having the proper perspective on things is key. And, as we’ve already discussed quite a bit, we can hardly rely on our own inclinations. We’re forever finding that we’re not as savvy or clever as we had thought. Sometimes we find seemingly “good” benefits resulting from seemingly “bad” events. Whereas, on the flip-side, we may reap what we might consider some “bad” repercussions from what we had considered a “good” situation.
What’s more, we often miscategorize many things because we simply can’t recognize the outcome for being either good or bad. Or, there may be some bittersweet combination or trade-off of the two. We may even believe things turned out aces when they really ended horribly in the grand scheme of things to come. In other words ~ What the heck do we know anyway?!? We only experience everything from our very limited perspectives. To state the obvious once again, none of us are God. We can’t know everything, and we hardly see “the big picture”, as it were. The simple truth is, we’re pretty clueless without seeking out and embracing God’s point of view. In fact, one of the few things that we do know is that everything God does is good and righteous. And we can rely on that. Amen? Now I realize this may sound like little more than ballyhoo to those that don’t know the score. But to those of us in the know, God has forever proven Himself worthy. . . even when He’s had nothing to prove. Plus, those of us who genuinely put our faith in God find further affirmation as we continue to follow Him.

So keep this verse with you:

“And we know that God causes all things
to work together for good
to those who love God,
to those who are called according to His purpose.”
Romans 8:28 (NASB)

Now I’m certain some may call this verse rudimentary. Whatever! Those Christians can go suck a whole carton of dirty eggs. We can rest assured, these are more than little ditties to be rattled off ’round Sunday school. These are a true Christian’s words to live by, dear reader, and if we had some super- condensed versions of such Scriptures, they might just read “Trust God”.
Then I’d have to add, that with our limited portion of wisdom and knowledge, trusting in The Lord is the best policy we can ever follow. And may I just add, the smartest move? After all, it’s not only that God knows everything. It’s that The Almighty actually exudes the parameters of what qualifies as right and wrong and good and bad. In the simplest of terms, HE IS THE STANDARD, and thereby sets the bar in every evidence of His character. So who else could ever fill- us- in better? Now although our human selves may not take pleasure in all that The Lord wills, or even innately consider certain things God does as “good”. . . “good” is exactly what they are.
Consider if you will, when we have winter storms accompanied by flooding and all of the so-called negative impacts of such weather. We usually call that “bad” weather, don’t we? Sure. And we do so simply because we don’t find it pleasing to our lives. Perhaps the wind launches a flagpole through our front window, or the flood currents carry our new barbeque away, or maybe some kid gets hit by lightning while he’s drinking a Yoohoo down in the riverbed. I realize that’d hardly be a cause for celebration in most people’s opinions. Yet God does control the weather, so whatever conditions He desires for any particular day are perfect and yes, a good thing. . . because God deemed it so. Of course, we don’t have to pretend any event is pleasant, when it isn’t. Nor do we have to suppress our emotions or feign delight. We simply need to discipline ourselves to rise above our natural view of a situation for that from God’s vantage point. . . and embrace reality. Mind you, a difficult situation doesn’t even have to be explained in any other light in order to make sense to us, (or for people to be okay with The Lord’s actions). It simply is what it is, by the grace of God. And we can trust in The Lord that everything will be good in the end.

Now on the flip side of said coin, there may be times when we jump to the conclusion mat, assessing a scenario is better circumstance than it is. Case in point~ Nice guy Harold hits the California state lottery for seventeen million bucks. Oh happy day for that man, right?!? I mean, this is a positively good thing for Harold, right?!? One would think so. But then Harold’s phone starts blowing up . Suddenly, he’s got a lot more so-called friends seeking favors, and looking for him to pick up all their tabs. Then, he finds out he’s being taxed thirty percent on his recent winnings, and his banker disappears with the money that was supposed to go toward mutual funds. Maybe one day his daughter is kidnapped, tortured, and held for a ransom of two million. (Hey, I didn’t do it.) I’m just making this stuff up, ya know?!? So, maybe (with a different twist) Harold has a seemingly excellent existence with his new-found fortune, but loses his focus in the mix, and forgets to live for The Lord. Let’s say he gets dressed up with new socks and everything, and goes off traveling the world for the next two and half years. . . meets some charming lady along the way, buys her a wiener schnitzel at Oktoberfest, falls in love yada- yada- yada, and when he returns, he buys her a new mini mansion and himself a brand new Hyundai! As they venture toward their ‘happily ever after’, it may seem that Harold has the world on a string, but that would be far from ideal. ‘Cause even if that Hyundai was made of gold, well, what does it profit a man to gain the world, and yet. . . ? Point being, anybody would have thought that Harold’s lottery hit was something good, and yet~ who knew? I mean, other than God?
Lots of variables in this life. Career choices, what hobbies to pursue, where to live, who to vote for in the next election, grape jelly versus strawberry preserves on your English muffin, whom to date. . .
I mean, supposing you date somebody that you enjoy, who adequately fulfills all those boxes you were looking to check? They’re somewhat attractive, caring, sort of funny, ambitious, etcetera, and The Lord allows you to marry this person and live an alright life . . . only God actually had someone better lined up for you all along. Ooooooh! Maybe it was your high school sweetheart’s second cousin, whom would’ve been a much better match, way more compatible in bed, a far better cook, lots more fun to be around, great at wrapping Christmas gifts for midgets, and whom you would’ve been wildly in love with and vice-versa? You might have thought you had made a good decision on your own with option one, but noooo~ turns out, it was actually your loss, you bonehead! If you could view things from The Lord’s vantage point, would you go on calling your original decision a good one?!? I thought not! Now consider this~

Maybe you decide to go to school for nursing ’cause you like wearing white crocs n’ lavender scrubs on the daily, but you end up contracting some wicked case of cosmic herpes in the hospital where you work. . . whereas you were ideally supposed to be working in a museum in Bruges all the while, where you would have met your true love. . . who doesn’t have cosmic herpes, but instead, was waiting with a warm stack of chocolate croissants and a sweet Dalmatian named Colin. Nice going, doofus! You would have known all this if you had only followed the Lord’s lead. But noOOoo~ you had to work that big hospital in the valley! “Bad” move made via not conferring with The Almighty. And there are plenty more scenarios where these came from, but you’re smart. You get my meaning.

Which brings us back to that infamous story with Peter and the bloody ear. . . You recall Peter’s previous blunder, and how Jesus had to put him ‘in check’ for his actions? Well, pan ahead to the time of Jesus’ impending arrest, (soon to be followed by His death), and Peter still doesn’t want to let any of it happen.

From John, Chapter 18 (NIV):

⁴ Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to Him, went out and asked them, “who is it you want?”
⁵ “Jesus of Nazareth”, they replied.
“I am He”, Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.) ⁶ When Jesus said, “I am He.” they drew back and fell to the ground.
⁷ Again He asked them, “Who is it you want?”
And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.”
⁸ “I told you that I am He”, Jesus answered. “If you are looking for Me, then let these men go.” ⁹ This happened so that the words He had spoken would be fulfilled: “I have not lost one of those You gave Me.“
¹⁰ Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.)
¹¹ Jesus commanded Peter, “Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given Me?”

Doh! Although he loved The Lord, it seems Peter did the wrong thing again! (Though it did work out well as an example for us to learn from. . . and probably, an experience for others to take notice of at the time. Especially as Jesus picked up the dude’s ear, and stuck it back on his head, in just the right place. I mean, you don’t see that every day, right?) Anyway~ Rather than first seeking out what God would have him do, Peter did what he felt was the right move. I’m sure he thought he was doing some good, in the midst of a seemingly bad situation. But his discernment may have been amiss, as it at least seems it didn’t come from God. . . though God did allow it, didn’t He? Hmm. (Serious food for thought, dear reader.)

Jesus, on the other hand, was very much in tune with His Father’s will, and that of The Holy Spirit. Hence, He knew what actions were called for. So although The Messiah had done no wrong whatsoever, and though He seriously dreaded what it was that He would have to endure, He gave Himself over to be arrested. And Jesus was subsequently put through all that followed. Enduring false accusations. Persecution. Brutal beatings and lashings. Being mocked and spit upon. Then, eventually being nailed to a cross, and left hanging there in agony, until the moment He died for our salvation~

Obviously, the preceding paragraph falls short, as it fails to convey the living nightmare Jesus embraced. Yet you know the details, dear reader.

And we call that day~~~ Good Friday.