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Who decides what is right and wrong anyway?

There are those who argue that there is no absolute standard of right and wrong. So that what one may see as alright, another might see as wrong and vice versa. This is common post-modern thinking, but it doesn’t work. Like it or not we live in a world of absolutes.

There are rules and guidelines that need to be followed when constructing a building to ensure that it is built correctly. They are not invented to spoil our fun of building crooked buildings that will be a danger to people. Of course not. These absolutes, these rules are made for our long term good and our safety.

It is the same with living. There are absolute standards laid down by God Himself.

Some time ago my son bought a wardrobe from IKEA. Being a typical male he charged on ahead without reading the instructions. It looked simple enough and he thought he could quickly knock it together. He would gladly admit he is no carpenter but this wasn’t exactly a tough job. Two hours later, as he was struggling to find where the final pieces went, he presumed IKEA had made a mistake and included the wrong parts. It was then that he realised he had built the wardrobe back to front. How stupid he felt! Why didn’t he follow the instruction sheet provided? Why didn’t he do the obvious thing and follow the guidelines? It would have saved him time and a load of mess, and the stress level he experienced would not have been an issue.

Unfortunately, and more seriously, we humans do something quite similar. We totally ignore the Creator’s instructions, think we can go it alone, do our own thing, but end up in a whole heap of trouble.

God is the Creator of the universe. He brought it into being, and He sustains it. He has, therefore, every right to bring standards into the world that are irreplaceable and unchanging. Some of them we easily agree with: murder is wrong; as is paedophilia; but we then begin to struggle with a few that we want to call ‘grey areas’. We want to challenge whether homosexual activity really is wrong. And we prefer to excuse a little lie.

We are soon on shaky ground, because we are leaving the Creator’s instructions behind and, in effect, saying to Him, ‘we know best’.

God made the world; God sustains the world; one day, God will judge the world. These things considered it is right and fair that God sets the standards. God rules according to His laws.

The trouble is we love sin too much. We enjoy doing wrong. That is why God the Father sent Jesus the Son to be the Saviour of the world.