“Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ be in you, except ye be reprobates.” (2 Cor. 13:5)
Many people today in this world have a confused idea about what is right and wrong. They use their own opinions as a basis for life and morality. In other words, they do that which is right in their own eyes. Many of these folks have never read, nor studied, the Bible, and their fruits bear witness of this fact. The Lord Jesus said by their fruits ye shall know them. What kind of fruit are you bearing? Does the fruit you are bearing indicate the intrinsic goodness that the Lord by His Spirit has placed within your heart? Or does the fruit you bear indicate that you are walking according to the desires and lusts of the flesh?
How can you know what kind of fruit you are bearing? Where can I go or what can I read that will give me the right information that I can trust? What will identify the fruit that I am bearing? The Word of God is that right source. The Holy Spirit gives us at the hand of Paul that All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
(2 Tim. 3:16, 17)
Are your own ideas the basis you use to judge between right and wrong? How do your own ideas measure up to the word of God? Are you confident that you are in the will of God? How do you know? Do you base right and wrong on your own feelings? It is said commonly "if it feels good do it." Is that your motto? Saul of Tarsus truly thought within himself to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. (Acts 26:9) He went so far as to say that he had lived in all good conscience before God until this day, when he appeared before Ananias the high priest in Acts 23:1. He thought he was doing right when he was persecuting those that followed the Lord Jesus Christ before his experience on the Damascus road, but he was sincerely wrong. Paul's conscience approved his persecuting the followers of Jesus of Nazareth, and so he could say he lived in all good conscience. Your conscience can be so full of ungodly teaching that your judgment of right and wrong is greatly hindered at best. How is it with your conscience? Have you filled your conscience with scripture, or with the philosophies of men? We should use the Bible as the only authority for discerning between right and wrong. Deuteronomy 29:29 says that The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.
The Bible was written for God's children so that we would know how to survive in this corrupt world. Our conscience cannot be trusted, for if we have not read the Word of God and studied it and attended church services where it is being expounded we cannot expect to be living in the will of God nor doing that which is pleasing to Him. God hates sin whether done ignorantly or not. Let us be challenged to examine ourselves whether we be in the faith using the word of God as our only basis for judgment. May God help us to identify those areas where we have sinned against Him, and may He help us to repent and be converted. May the Lord add His blessings is our prayer.
In His love and mercy,
Elder Shannon Whipp