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We’ve seen a rash of this recently…
A public figure holds a tearful press conference after details of scandalous activity have been exposed. Or sordid facts about a celebrity’s life are publicized after his or her death.
Sometimes even the family didn’t know the sorry details. Reputations are tarnished and families humiliated.
The results are devastating—as if they’d been hit with a moral taser.
Paying the price
I often wonder, “How did such people think they could get away with this behavior?” Apparently it just never occurred to them that it would end in their public humiliation.
But it’s not just the rich and famous. We all have a remarkable capacity to rationalize our behavior and fool ourselves into believing we can hide our moral lapses—and that others will never know.
While most of us will never have our dirty laundry hung outside for the whole world to see on TV, it is a principle that things have a way of coming out. When unethical behavior at school or work, sexual immorality, substance abuse or any other sinful behavior occurs, laws are set in motion that will eventually bring those things to light.
We may seem to get away with something for a while, but in due course we pay the price.
No cover-ups
A prime example of this law was King David of Israel in the Bible. He had an illicit sexual relationship with beautiful Bathsheba that led to a pregnancy. His attempted cover-up resulted in the murder of her husband Uriah.
If anyone was in a position to successfully hide the truth, it was David. He had phenomenal power in the nation, yet God used a prophet to expose David’s sin. He got away with nothing and paid a high price for his moral failure.
I’ve lost track of how many times coworkers have lost jobs because behavior they thought was secret became known. The one thing they all had in common was that they didn’t think anyone knew. They thought they’d found a way to beat the system.
But it’s a system that can’t be beat—because God set it up. Everything we do, we do before our all-knowing Creator. “You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your countenance” (Psalm 90:8). Even if by chance we appear to get away with habitual sin before man, God still sees it.
We can change
No one’s perfect. We all sin. But what happens when deep down we want to change and work hard to do better? God is quick to forgive and to help.
As Christians striving to be more like Jesus Christ, we’re not to be in the business of covering up sin. We’re in the business of rooting it out. God is perfecting our character. He wants us to face our spiritual shortcomings and deal with them.
Avoiding moral tasers
Moral tasers effectively bring problems to our attention, but they’re also devastating. It’s like the alcoholic who hits rock bottom before he realizes he has a problem. It’s great that he finally came to that realization, but it sure would have been better if he’d seen the warning signs earlier.
Avoiding these tasers means thinking differently, as you can read in “Spiritual Quotient: The Type of Smarts We Don’t Learn in School.”
Isn’t it better to honestly recognize our faults and ask God for forgiveness and for His help to change our ways? Why try to fool ourselves by covering up bad behavior?
Better to be proactive and learn the lesson of the moral taser from those we see on TV. VT
- About the Author -
Paul Hadley and his wife, Karen, live in Columbus, Ohio, where they attend the United Church of God.
School is mostly over in the northern hemisphere and with it those dreaded exams! But here’s one more test:
Abortion
- Recently in the news a man was murdered while he was serving as an usher in his church. He was one of a few doctors in America who performed late-term abortions. Another man who was against abortion walked into the church and shot the doctor. Which of the two were godly men?
- The doctor who performed abortions.
- The man who opposed abortions but murdered the doctor.
There are times when life gives you only two answers and supposedly one is right. Yet there’s another answer that’s often overlooked and often not considered.
If you guessed the often not considered answer is “c. None of the above,” you’re correct. Neither of these men did righteous acts that would support a biblical reputation as godly men. In our corrupt society one legally murdered and the other illegally murdered, yet both broke the Sixth Commandment.
Homosexuality
Another highly controversial issue is homosexuality. Just saying the word provokes in different types of people anger and opinions at both ends of the spectrum.
But society has put people into two categories: 1) You either support it completely, or 2) you’re a bigot and want to cause harm. However, there’s a third category often overlooked. Some people don’t support homosexuality, recognize it is contrary to biblical principles, but do have concern for the individual. Here’s a case where the cliché is true: “Hate the sin, not the sinner.”
Sin in the mind
Did you know that sin in the mind is the same as actually committing the act? Jesus said, “But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28).
This is the same for all actions. If you’re angry to the point of hating someone—for whatever wrong behavior—then you’re just as wrong as the wrong action or lifestyle itself. Righteous anger must be carefully measured and have godly motives and intents, as in, “Be angry, and do not sin” (Ephesians 4:26).
Although not always the popular view in modern society and becoming less popular every day, God’s way of life is truth. Truth is always the right answer, no matter the question.
The vertical mind
Vertical thinking seeks to let a godly heart direct our thoughts and actions. Such a heart is motivated by love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control—there’s no law against these!
Every day we face questions that have right and wrong answers. The answers we choose determine whether we live moral lives. How do we know what the right answer is? Develop a sound working knowledge of God’s Word, the Bible—it has the correct answer for every question.
To gear your mind to find the right answers, take a few minutes to read “Got a Decision to Make? Read This First!” VT
- About the Author -
Chad Messerly and his wife, Jennifer, both Ambassador Bible Center graduates, live near Cambridge, Ohio, where they attend the United Church of God with their young daughter.
