Right Things

Your worldview determines how you “see” life. From our perspective as followers of Jesus (who had a distinctly biblical worldview), we should be looking at the world around us through the lens of Scripture. If we see the world from the point of view of the Bible, then we have a distinctly ethical vision of our world. Basically, the message of Scripture is framed by the boundary between right and wrong. The most powerful statement of fundamental human ethics is the Ten Commandments.

This past Sunday, we looked at a passage in Colossians 3 intended by Paul as a description of the component parts of the process of sin. In Chapter 3, the Apostle informed his readers of how sin begins with spur of the moment thoughts or actions, and ends in fundamentally destructive behaviors and motives.

In the list in verse 5, Paul described the process whose end is sexual immorality. Now, if you remember, we saw how Paul had put his list together by starting with the end result, working back to the initial thought. Consequently, we can see how sexual immorality is basically a selfish, destructive behavior. Sexual immorality is born out of a selfish motive: greed. Greed is an unhealthy desire for something. If indulged, greed will lead to our being willing to do whatever is necessary to get what we want. Our desire, by the way, can be for something legitimate or illegitimate.

So, we can see how sexual immorality gets its start. Now, sex is okay, but only between a husband and a wife. Having sexual desires is natural; how we fulfill them is the issue. If we become driven by our sexuality, if we become greedy for sex, we will do whatever is necessary in our attempt to satisfy our desire. Mostly, what we will do is use others As we yield to this fleeting passion.

In verse 8, the subject of Paul’s list is anger. This list shows the connection between actions and motives, just as verse 5 does. In verse 8, the last word, anger (a motive), is the end result of a beginning action, abusive speech from one’s mouth. Further, just as with selfish physical desires, the process of anger, when its course is run, ends in destructive thoughts and deeds.

In James 1.12-16, we find another treatment of the issue of motive and actions. In James, the writer showed how our basic, physical desires are our worst enemies. Homer, in the Odyssey, described how the Sirens, with their beautiful, but deceptive song, tried to lure Odysseus to his death. When unrestrained and uncontrolled (Odysseus had himself tied to his ship’s mast and his sailor’s ears plugged with beeswax to prevent them from succumbing to the Sirens’ song), our desires, with their song, will lure us to a shameful and quite possibly a destructive death.

So, we can understand the need for a biblical worldview. If we see our physical needs and desires through the lens of Scripture, we will keep them under control, instead of being controlled by them. We will find life and freedom by living our lives based on Scripture; we will find bondage and death if we live our lives in the clutches of our passions.

Our world today is filled with all kinds of ethical challenges. These run the gamut from fetal stem cell research (the question of the nature of human life) to how we express ourselves sexually. As believers, we must forge for ourselves a well-thought-out position on all the ethical issues of our day. We cannot avoid these challenges, excusing ourselves because we think or want such questions to be “above our pay-grade.” They are not.

Some of the pressing dilemmas of our time have to do with the nature of human life. We will begin our investigation of the major social issues of our day by looking at when life begins, how we can know when life begins, and what the basic issues are concerning the nature of life. If we can establish a basic concept of life’s worth, we can put all other issues in perspective. If human life is special, if human life has a fundamental God-given value, we can then begin to answer a host of other questions about right and wrong.

Read Psalm 139.13-17; Jeremiah 1.5-10; Luke 1.8-15, 26-35, 39-44, before Sunday.