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The Internal Battle Between Right and Wrong

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Are You Conscious of Your Conscience?

Each of us has an ongoing internal battle of right and wrong. To make this internal conflict even more difficult, we’re bombarded by external forces pulling us in different directions.

How do we determine who’s going to win this battle?

What makes one thing right and another wrong? How do we know which is which? Ultimately, it comes down to what you use to measure right and wrong.

This battle is difficult, but no one said it was going to be easy.

As a Christian, I use the Scripture, the whole Scripture, for this. If I’m going to base my rights and wrongs in the Bible, I need to be careful to not pick and choose only small pieces but use the whole thing.

Just like a blueprint for building, if I don’t use the whole plan the building won’t be what it was designed to be.

The Bible is the blueprint for building my life.

We also have a built in right and wrong meter called a conscience. This meter is a sense of moral goodness for one’s own conduct, intentions or character together with a feeling of right or good. We can choose to listen to it or not.

Someone was asked if they knew the difference between conscience and conscious. They answered, CONSCIENCE is being aware of what’s right and wrong, CONSCIOUS is wishing you didn’t.

The battle of right and wrong doesn’t begin where we think it does…IT BEGINS WHERE WE THINK.

If decisions are choices…and our thinking determines our decisions, then we do what we do because of our thinking. It’s up to us to make the choices wisely. I would recommend following the blueprint.

What Makes Things Right and Wrong?

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This Is A Question as Old as Time Itself


 

The Ring of Gyges is a mythical magic artifact mentioned by Plato in Book 2 of his Republic. It grants its owner the power to become invisible at will.


In recounting of the myth, an unnamed ancestor of Gyges was a shepherd in the service of the ruler of Lydia. After an earthquake, a cave was revealed in a mountainside where he was feeding his flock. Entering the cave, he discovered that it was in fact a tomb with a bronze horse containing a corpse larger than that of a man, who wore a golden ring, which he pocketed. Later he discovered that the ring gave him the power to become invisible by adjusting it. He then arranged to be chosen as one of the messengers who reported to the king as to the status of the flocks. Arriving at the palace, he used his new power of invisibility to seduce the queen, and with her help he murdered the king, and became king of Lydia himself.


Through the story of the ring, Republic considers whether a person would do right or wrong if there was no fear of being caught or punished.


How would you act if there was no fear of being caught?


Whether a Christian or not I believe that we naturally are born with a sense of what is right and wrong. Last week I wrote about different things done in the light and dark. I think this is evidence that we are born with an internal compass for right.


This doesn’t mean that we aren’t constantly fighting against evil that is trying to pull us off course.

 


In Matthew 3:2, John says, “Turn to God and change the way you think and act, because the kingdom of heaven is near.” As Christian’s we believe this right and wrong comes from God and the pull of the fallen comes from Satan.

 

 

Doing right or wrong is a choice and if there is a Hell you have much more to lose if you choose wrong.

 

It’s Not Easy to Be A Hall of Fame Dad

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But Nobody Said It Was Going to Be

 

There’s a Hall of Fame for almost everything, that’s not to say that is an easy place to be inducted into. It does speak to the fact that we like being recognized for what we’re good at. What do you want to be good at?


With this past Sunday being Father’s Day, Pastor Lee spoke about the Dad’s Hall of Fame. Every Dad should want to be there, but not all will make it. Being a “Hall of Fame Dad” doesn’t require a biological connection, it just requires connection. This can be; step, adopted, grand, brother, uncle, church, etc.


Here are three things that should be done well, to be inducted into the “Dad Hall of Fame”:


Make time – Time is the hardest thing to give. There never seems to be enough. There are so many things…really good and important things…we neglect to set aside time for our children. When we get someone’s undivided attention, we feel validated and worthy. This is the one thing that all kids crave. If you want to get inducted into the hall of fame, spend time with your kids.

 

 

Teach the difference of right and wrong – There are too many kids growing up without father figures in their lives. Most single parent homes have a mother who is working to keep food on the table and a roof overhead. This leaves too many young people learning right and wrong from other young people. Growing up without a father is a problem that goes beyond just humans.


Teaching right and wrong is part of the natural order of things as shown in the Absence of Fathers: A Story of Elephants and Men 


Years ago, in the Kruger National Park and game reserve in South Africa, the elephant population had outgrown what the park could sustain. A plan was devised to relocate some of the elephants. This was done with a harness and a helicopter. Due to the size of the large bulls, the females and young males were the ones moved to another game reserve.

 


What happened later in the second game reserve was strange. Rangers began to find dead bodies of the endangered white rhinos. At first poachers were suspected, but the rhinos had not been shot or poached. It was discovered that they were being killed by a marauding band of aggressive juvenile male elephants…the ones relocated from Kruger. Something had gone terribly wrong.


What had been missing was a large dominant bull to provide a role model and keep the younger bulls in line. The rangers then moved some of the older bulls to the new location and within weeks the bizarre violent behavior of the juvenile elephants had stopped. The younger elephants just needed an older male to teach them the difference of right and wrong.


Show love – Love can be shown in many ways; the most important thing is that it’s shown. This means more than just saying it. Love is about putting other’s needs ahead of your own. The Bible is full of examples of our Heavenly Father’s love for us.

 

 


If we do these three things constantly and to the best of our ability our chances of being inducted into the “Dads Hall of Fame” improve greatly. It’s never too late to start, so get started!