The Bible says: ‘The ways of right-living people glow with light; the longer they live, the brighter they shine. But the road of wrongdoing gets darker and darker – travellers can’t see a thing; they fall flat on their faces’ (vv. 18-19 MSG). How can we know what’s right and wrong, what’s ethical and moral? People have been debating that for centuries. We’re human so we tend to go easy on ourselves and let ourselves off while expecting others to be perfect and not do wrong, especially towards ourselves. Well, that’s not a great expectation to have – in fact it’s pretty unrealistic. We don’t need to set ourselves off on a guilt trip, but we do need to live according to God’s ethics. And when we fail, we need to recognise that and remember that others will fall short too. Judging others is God’s job, not ours. We just need to focus ourselves on sticking to God’s idea of right and wrong. We can find out what that is in the Bible and by asking Him to show us how to walk in the light rather than the dark. Once we start to understand God’s principles, we can start to make the right decisions and ethical decisions. And by making honest, ethical decisions we can spread a bit more of God’s love and Kingdom to others. In Psalm 119, David said ‘By your words I can see where I’m going; they throw a beam of light on my dark path. I’ve committed myself and I’ll never turn back from living by your righteous order’ (vv.105-106 MSG). Will you do the same?
What now?
Remember those WWJD bracelets that were really popular a while ago? We’re not going to make you wear a bracelet (unless you really want to) but try getting into the habit of asking ‘What would Jesus do?’ whenever you have a decision to make.