First of all is the standard of our religious beliefs. People are raised with more or less religious standards from which they judge their conduct and the conduct of others. Today less religious standards prevail. In our present context religion is more habit and tradition with little impact on daily life. The casting off of moral absolutes has caused religion to become a follower of cultural morality and not a standard and leader and judge of morality.
Second is the standard of ethics or a personal moral code. Our ethics and morals, which should come from our religious beliefs, today are dictated to us by our culture which is driven by a powerful liberal, secular, ungodly media. Most of us adopt what our culture accepts as normal and acceptable and much too often the religious establishment supports their cultural ethic. Homosexuality and same sex "marriage" is a clear example of a sinful culture imposing its ethics and moral code upon the majority. Hollywood is a leader in this establishment of a cultural ethic.
Third is the standard of law. What the law calls legal becomes what is acceptable as good and right conduct. Cultural ethic and morality eventually changes the law of the land which legitimizes conduct for the general public. The acceptance of abortion and now doctor assisted death are two examples of culture influencing the courts to legitimize what is wrong and evil to make it generally acceptable.
So we can see that the failure of religious beliefs to influence culture leads to legality of what is wrong and evil, and its acceptance as good and right.
As Christians we have a standard that is above religion, cultural ethics and legal pronouncements. We have the Word of God, the Bible, the Holy Spirit within us Who applies the Word of God. We also have a new nature which seeks to proclaim and live out the will of God, showing forth His holy and loving character. This living relationship with God transcends institutional religion, cultural ethics and the legalizing of immorality. What the Bible and the Holy Spirit should produce in us as believers is a worldview that enables us to properly assess religion, culture and law with a clear understanding of what is good and right and acceptable to God and then to act accordingly in this world.
Unfortunately I find in my own experience that as believers we have not developed this worldview and are too easily conformed to this world rather than being transformed by the renewing of our minds which leads to righteous and godly behavior. We say yes to many things we should be saying no to because we are not thinking in biblical terms. We have not brought enough biblical thinking into everyday life choices.
What a privilege is ours to belong to our loving Father and to Jesus our Lord in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Let is honor our God in all that we are and do.
* The idea for this blog came from some comments by G. A. Williamson in his book The World of Josephus p 66.
Thank you for sharing that. It's interesting that in Romans 1-2 Paul clearly explains that God has written a certain standard of morality on everyone's heart through what has been created and through their own conscience. This standard applies even to those who have never read the Bible, so that all men are without excuse. But clearly our modern culture has thrown out both the Bible and what God has written on our hearts.
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