To do what we already know is right

While it is true that many Christians get caught up in legalism (rigid adherence to often times man made rules) the opposite error screws us up just as much. If we are honest with ourselves, not one of us lives up to what we already know is right. I know I don't. That is why I need forgiveness and why, as I often put it, I need my Anglican fix (confession and absolution, and I never feel so free and so clean as when after I have blown it, I go and confess to Him and ask His help to do better – this is the very opposite of a guilt trip!).

We live in a culture that has lost it's way, that no longer knows what is right and wrong. We can know, but it's not about figuring it out intellectually. It starts with working from where we are at, it starts with being consistent with what we already believe is right and what is wrong. When we go against our own conscience we sear it (the image is of being seared with a red hot iron – after a while there is no feeling!). We have all done it, given in to what we knew was wrong and then suppressed the guilt. But guilt is not dealt with by sitting on it, it is dealt with by being forgiven. When we sit on it, it becomes easier the next time to do the same thing, and then after a while we change our minds about it being wrong. We can even get belligerent at those who hold the view we formerly held!

I have shared this illustration before but it stuck with me. The girl in the caff who told me “I don't think adultery is wrong.” I suspect she was hitting on me, but I looked her in the eye and told her “That's because you want to do it.” Her hand came up not quite quickly enough to hide her “guilty as charged smile.” The point is that we are so very very good at justifying what we do. So that our morality is tied more to what we do, than to what we (initially) believe. And what we do changes what we believe (no one wants to be a villain in his or her own eyes!).

The way forward is to start by doing the things we already know are right, and by being open to admit it when we are wrong. It's all summed up in a saying of Jesus “Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.” Doing is believing!