Right and Wrong Choices
A friend likes to post inspirational quotes on her social media. I usually enjoy reading them (and love staying connected with her and others), but I couldn’t get past one particular quote. It was from a self-help guru who said, “There are no wrong choices; there are only different choices.”
No wrong choices? Really?
I don’t know about that person, but I can personally attest to making hundreds (thousands?) of wrong choices in my life. Trust me, they weren’t just different, they were wrong.
To say there are no wrong choices is to say that there is no such thing as right and wrong. No absolutes, only personal preferences.
But the Bible says otherwise. There is a standard of right and wrong, and God has communicated this standard in His Word. And He has given us the freedom to choose. Joshua 24:15 lays out our options: “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve…But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord” (NIV).
Our society is filled with self-styled experts. Technology provides access to built-in audiences. Social media creates platforms as people tweet on Twitter, post on blogs, and update their Facebook pages. Innuendo substitutes for fact, opinion replaces research, and emotion circumvents objectivity. People often become comfortable communicating what they want to be true, rather than what is true.
Let’s face it: many people want to believe they are the determining authority for right and wrong:
What’s wrong for you isn’t wrong for me.
You can’t legislate morality.
Don’t force your prudish standards on me.
Do what makes you feel good.
But what happens when every person does “what is right in their own eyes” (Judges 21:25)? The result is a disconnect from the One who created us and who therefore has the right to require accountability to Him. When we do that, we set ourselves adrift on the ocean of our own individual preferences without a rudder or an anchor. What starts out as a grand adventure deteriorates into regret. Choices we make on the basis of temporary pleasure carry eternal consequences.
No matter how large or small our sphere of influence may be, we all have a responsibility to communicate truth. Everyone influences someone. And declaring there is no “right” or “wrong” does not make it so.
Values are communicated by how we live. By the words we speak. By the choices we make.
What are you communicating with your choices?
Good job and very relevant. My best to you.
Thank you, Lucy.
“Self” help, eh?
The voice of selfishness is loud.
Individualism.
Me.
Thanks for your help, Ava.
Totally agree! A few years ago, there was a class on “absolute truth.” It was incredible how many felt there was no such thing. Don’t we see that even more so today? Thank you, Ava.
There are definitely strong differences between right and wrong. When we choose wrongly, it isn’t merely a different choice. It’s quite often blatantly sinful, a choice for which Jesus shed his blood and died on our behalf. It’s best to choose what God’s Word says is NOT sin. We can’t go wrong when doing what God’s Word says is right.
Convicting and very true! This stuck hard in me: “many people want to believe they are the determining authority for right and wrong.” I’ve been struggling with this lesson with one of my kids recently. God gives us the standard and wants us to be obedient, and we need to teach our kids to be obedient to us so they can be obedient to God… and make the RIGHT choices in line with His will. Thanks, Ava!
Right on the mark Ava. I think that is becoming a common thought in society and even in our churches. There are wrong choices and they come with consequences too. Thanks for pointing us back to truth and what is right.
There is right and there is wrong. Too often, people try to justify their actions and words by giving in to the “wrong”. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the light.
As soon as you mentioned Judges, I thought, “The whole world needs to read that book of the Bible. Years of anarchy! I wouldn’t have wanted to live in those times (and I’m not thrilled with the hints of anarchy today). Satan loves to create confusion by calling right and wrong “bigoted judgments.”