Do the Right Thing

 April 19, 2024

Friday

Several years ago there was a movie called "Do the Right Thing." Today, people don't know what the right thing is.

If the right thing means that you can do anything you want as long as you don't hurt others, then, you can't do anything you want. You have a responsibility to those around you. You can't speed down the road recklessly without eventually hurting others. You can't drink until your liver is pickled without hurting others. You can't make money and keep it all to yourself without hurting others. Let's face it. Doing whatever you want is going to hurt others.

It doesn't fare any better when what is right is what conventional wisdom says is right. This is exactly the problem of the racism that existed in this country. The majoring of the people were white who disregarded people of other races. Therefore, treating people of color badly was considered the right thing to do. And this goes beyond racism. Riots are a perfect example of this. When the majority of the people around you are destroying and looting, doing what the majority is doing will seem right. Those who are arrested use this as their defense. I was doing what others were doing, I'm just the one who got caught. (Sounds a lot like getting a speeding ticket, huh?) Right or wrong cannot be determined by what others are doing even if they are in the majority.

Some people claim that the way they were raised is a good means of knowing what's right and wrong. That one, at least, is possibly valid. However, was everything you learned as you grew up right? Is it possible that those who raised you had a different standard than what is truly right? Where did they get what was right or wrong? All of these must be considered. Too often, the inherited values were the mores of the society from the past. Thus, they may become more stable than going with the flow of today's rights and wrongs but they are not eternal in what is right and wrong. This method causes the children's children's children to continue to suffer the sins of the past.

No, right and wrong must be established beyond a society. It must go beyond what feels right. It must go beyond not hurting others. It must go beyond what others say it is. It must go beyond the way a person is raised. It stands true when everything and everyone opposes it. It is right and that which opposes it is wrong.

Recently, I observed a vote by politicians. I realized that they don't know what is right or wrong. They are voting by party line rather than convictions of right and wrong. Their right seems to be whatever will get them re-elected. Right is defined as campaign donations and votes from the area they "serve."

Why are we in this place today? People don't know what is right. People are floundering as crime and governmental corruption rages around them. People are hiding in their homes expecting the next political candidate to right things that have turned upside-down. Of course, they are only asking what will be done for them rather than what is truly right.

The Apostle Paul wrote almost two millennia ago:

Romans 1:21 (NASB 2020) ²¹ For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their reasonings, and their senseless hearts were darkened.

Now, is this what has happened? Are people becoming futile in their reasonings? Are their hearts darkened? I don't know how we can say that this isn't exactly what is going on today. A darkened heart does not know what is right or wrong. It doesn't even know where to find what is right. Reasonings must, therefore, become futile.

The solution to our dilemma is not easy. It will not come because we have elected the "right" politicians to office. It will not change if we solve whatever  society tells us are our greatest threats. It will only come when a society returns to God humbly and thanks Him for what He will do. This comes only when the people of God quit playing games with God and fully commit themselves to Him These people will walk humbly with Him and thank Him continually. This is called revival.

This message is not to those who don't know the Lord. I want everyone to come to know the Lord in a relationship that changes their eternity. However, it will not be because we have tried to clean up our society but because we have been dramatically changed as believers for we have come into an intimate relationship with the Living God.

There are only three things I know to do. One, I must be a person who humbly walks with God. I must be one who does His will completely without question. Two, I must tell others who God is with the hope that they will do more than believe in Him. They must know Him. That only comes from a walk with Him. Three,  I must pray for God's revival. I pray that the Holy Spirit sweeps through this world with power. Yes, the light is still shining in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.

Will you join me in this? Will you act to know what is right? I personally believe this is the only hope we have to change a disintegrating society.