I was at work tonight (Giant Tiger) and there was a line-up. As I served one customer, I listened/watched another customer and her 2 children that were next in line. The mom said something and her daughter disagreed with her. When they got to my cash, I confirmed what the mother had said by saying to her daughter (who was no more than 7 or 8), "yeah, your mom was right!" The girl looked at me, and in all seriousness said "There is no such thing as right and wrong." Her mom was surprised and said "Yes there is! There is right and wrong." The girl argued with her back and forth, but since I was on the clock and the mother didn't seem to want my opinion, I didn't offer it. But I did think about it for the rest of the night.
Why do people think that there is no right and wrong? Is it just because they don't want to be responsible to the Person who set the standards of right and wrong? Is it because they don't like the right and wrong? And why does a 7 year old think that there is no right and wrong? She had a brother--surely her parents had told her that she wasn't allowed to hurt her brother. She isn't allowed to go to school and do whatever she wants. I'm sure she would claim "it's not fair that __________", which implies that she knows when things aren't right.
So yeah, there has to be rights and wrongs. We may interpret those a little bit differently, but there are rights and wrongs. And when we interpret within the framework of God's Word, (when we do what we do to please Him), we are going to see that there are very definite rights and wrongs. Very clearly, God has given us guidance and direction. You can't really deny that "Thou shalt not steal" gives room for discussion on right and wrong. God has given us rights and wrongs.
So my next question that I thought over was "Do those rights and wrongs change?" In different cultures, there may be different standards. Over time, things change. Simple example: 150 years ago, it was wrong and completely unacceptable for a woman in a European/American culture to wear pants. Now, it's perfectly acceptable. (If you don't wear pants, you can't deny that it is acceptable for women to wear them in general society. I'm not saying it's wrong not to wear pants--you get my point). Styles have changed. People view fashion differently. But while the style has changed, the principle of modesty haven't changed. God still wants us to be pure in thoughts and actions--150 years ago, the best way for a woman to do this was viewed as wearing skirts and tons of clothes. Now, many people think that a woman can dress modestly in a pair of loose-fitting slacks.
I'm rambling. I've been up for a lot of hours and working for a long time. But you get my point. Scriptures clearly show us that there are rights and wrongs, established by God, since the garden of Eden. Even before sin, God gave Adam and Eve things they could and couldn't do. They had to take care of the garden, name the animals, etc. These were right. The wrong was eating the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
The beautiful thing about it all is that because there are standards of Right and Wrong, there is Someone who set those standards. And He set those standards because He loves us. He wants us to be protected--because He loves us. He wants us to be safe.
One final thought. In Scripture, we are told that we are saved to do right. We are given freedom in Christ to do right. The unsaved people can't choose to do right. They automatically do wrong. They can't help it. We are given freedom to obey Christ. Which is so totally cool.
God is so good. And we are SOOOOO blessed.
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