Have you ever been in a situation where you had a choice to make a right choice or a wrong choice? I am sure you have! We have all been in situations like that before, and I am also sure that, just like me, you have at times made the right choice and at times made the wrong choice. Making choices for this world is part of life, and because of sin in the world, we find ourselves at times choosing between what is right and what is wrong.
However, in a culture that tends to manipulate and even redefine what is considered right and wrong, it can be difficult for youth, and all people for that matter, to be able to properly distinguish between what is right and wrong and then therefore make the right choices over wrong choices. Thus, it is important for pastors, church workers, and other leaders to help youth, and all people, understand God’s design and purpose with what is right and wrong so that people can truly love others in accordance with God’s Word. In turn, this article will attempt to provide some helpful teaching points surrounding right and wrong so that youth, and all people, may better understand right and wrong and how they can make the right and loving choices.
Teaching Point 1: God in His Moral Law has already determined what is right and wrong!
Humans cannot create and establish what is right and wrong, though we want to create our own standard of right and wrong. In fact, part of the temptation to Eve was the devil deceiving Eve to think that she will be like God, where then she could “establish her own standard of right and wrong, to define truth for herself,”[1] if she eats from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The truth is we are not God, and God has already determined what is right and wrong.
This right and wrong is found in God’s Moral Law, which is the Ten Commandments. We can find the Ten Commandments in the Bible, but also in everyone’s hearts, including unbelievers.[2] Romans 2:14-15 communicates: “For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them….”[3]
Whether one trusts in Jesus or not, the point is God is God, and He alone has determined what is right and wrong for this world.
Teaching Point 2: To love someone is to love someone according to God’s Moral Law!
Though the primary purpose of God’s Moral Law is to shows us our sins, God’s Moral Law has another purpose which can be called the guide purpose or function. In other words, the Moral Law guides us on how to live in this world according to His will. Moreover, because God guides us with His Moral Law, a person can truly know how to love another person in this world.
Let’s take the Seventh Commandment—Do Not Steal for example. If a youth steals money from his/her grandparents, is that a loving action or unloving action? It is an unloving action because in this example it is hurting the grandparents by taking their money. In fact, maybe the stolen money was money that the grandparents set aside for food that week, and now without that money grandma and grandpa cannot buy food. On the other hand, the loving action would be not stealing the money and helping grandma and grandpa properly protect their money so that it is available to them when they need to use it.
In any case, whether we are talking about stealing, gossiping, or any other commandment from God, the point is God’s Moral Law guides us in showing true love for our neighbor.
Teaching Point 3: We all fail at making right choices; that’s why we need Jesus!
No one, except Jesus, has made the right choices all the time. “As it is written: ‘None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God’” (Romans 3:10-11).[4] The truth is we all have made wrong or sinful choices in our lives, but what is also true is that we are forgiven for all our sins in Christ. “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace…” (Ephesians 1:7).[5]
Now Jesus did not die for us to continue to live in our sinful choices willfully and deliberately, but He did die for us so that we may be forgiven, and we are forgiven in Christ so that now we may serve Him and our neighbor according to His will, that is, God’s Moral Law, the Ten Commandments. Do we live perfectly every day according to God’s Moral Law? No, but good thing that we are forgiven for those sins in Christ as well!
[1] Commentary from Genesis 3:5 found within Engelbrecht, Edward, editor. The Lutheran Study Bible. Concordia Publishing House, 2009.
[2] Though their conviction is weakened due to original sin, Commandments 4-10 can still be found in everybody hearts, including unbelievers based on Romans 2:14-15, because those commandments focus on right and wrong for this world. The Commandments 1-3 deal with our relationship with God, and since original sin as destroyed our original righteous image of God to the point that we cannot know God or His ways except when He reveals Himself to us and His ways through Scripture. “For the mind that is set on flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot” (Romans 8:7, The Holy Bible, The Pew and Worship Edition, Large Print, English Standard Version (Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, 2001).
[3] The Holy Bible, The Pew and Worship Edition, Large Print, English Standard Version (Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, 2001).
[4] The Holy Bible, The Pew and Worship Edition, Large Print, English Standard Version (Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, 2001).
[5] Ibid.
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