1. There IS a right and wrong –
2. The problem then is HOW do I make such choices…
3. Here are some simple suggestions –
1. Is it right with God
NOTE: SEVERAL ‘assumptions’ are being made here! –
1. There is a GOD
2. The Bible is the revelation of God to man -
1. Gal. 5:19ff
2. 1 Cor. 6:9-10
3. Romans 1:
4. Prov. 6:
B. Applied Principle – harder.
1. Seen in ‘such like’ of Gal. 5:
2. Require some give and take in each other –
3. Murder à abortion,
2. Is it Legal – 1 Peter
2:13-14, Rom. 13:
a. NOT ALL legal things are morally correct – ie, abortion, divorce, fornication, --
b. BUT, things ‘morally’ correct and ‘legally wrong’ – are wrong.
3. Is it OK with parents – Eph. 6:1-4
4. Does It Bother my conscience –
a. biblical word
A. from greek work suneidesis (suneidesis) - a compound word from ‘sun’ (with) and ‘oida’ (to know). It appears some 32 times in the NT.
B. English word, from con (with) and science (knowledge).
C. Literally, ‘a joint knowing or a knowing together with one’s self’
D. It is something APART from ‘knowledge’, it has to do with what we DO with the knowledge that we have.
E. Bible speaks about the HEART in a fourfold manner:
1. Intellect - which one perceives, reasons, remembers and digests information in a categorized way.
2. Will - by which one determines, purposes, or intends to do something or not.
3. Emotion - that part that has to do with one’s feelings, attitudes, and disposition.
4. Conscience - which enables on to reflect in relation to a standard concerning what one thinks, says, or does.
F. The conscience is that faculty of man with which he has been endowed by the Creator, that approves or disapproves in the light of what one believes is right or wrong.
G. The conscience then is more like the moral governor of life -
b. – the application, will only do that which I understand to be right –
Acts 23:1
And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.
Acts 24:16
16 And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.
1 Timothy 3:9
9 Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.
c. I will educate my Conscience – and live by it.
5. Who will I wrongly influence –
a. 1 Cor. 8 – 10
b. Eating meat is ‘morally right’ – but not if it causes a brother to stumble – ie, commit idolatry!
6. Who am I hiding it from ….