Control and restriction are negative words in today's American society, except where governmental law specifies that certain restrictions and controls are necessary to protect the members of the community. In this case, controls and restrictions are for the benefit of the community and individual as well. Controls and restrictions help to ensure that others are safe from the unbridled actions of another. But it also helps to ensure that the person himself remains safe and comes to become a responsible adult in the community. Rules are made to establish control and are implemented and governed by authority.
Authority can either be accepted willingly or imposed forcefully. All people at some or many points in their life have had problems with authority and have opposed it by breaking the rules (Romans 3:23). Difficulty with authority naturally leads to a rebellion. If we have had poor authority figures in our lives, we have likely rebelled to most forms of authority because it is difficult to distinguish a good authority (to which we willingly yield) from a bad authority (that demands or imposes obedience).
In the Christian life, there are several authorities, which are intended to reflect the ultimate authority: God. The authorities are God's Word (the Bible), God's leaders (in the church), God's leaders (in the home), God's leaders (in the community). The rebellious person has trouble (for any number of reasons) with dealing with yielded authority, and therefore also has trouble with God.
All these things (rebellion, rules, restrictions, and authority) are wrapped up in morality; things that are good or bad. Who decides what is good and what is bad?
1. Individual
2. Societal (collective)
3. Absolute
Individual morality means that each person decides what is good and what is bad. "What is right for you" characterizes this type of morality.
Societal morality is a consensus or plurality of individual personal morals. "The common good" characterizes this type of morality. Laws that govern behaviors of individuals are enacted and enforced to define that which is out of alignment with the common good. Societal collectives do not have to be in the majority to rule and therefore define what is right and wrong; any collective that can assert its morality and enforce it has the power to define morality for the rest of society.
Morality always has a context. Both of these first types of morality can be called relative morality because they are dependent on individual or collective definitions of good and bad. Good and evil are subjective concepts (at best) outside of the context of God. Morality by itself has no meaning; it must be defined in the context of an authority.
When God is considered in the moral equation, our understanding of God influences and perhaps governs our morals. If God is dispassionate and disinterested in our lives, then we are left decide for ourselves what is right and wrong. However, if God is personal and all-powerful, then we would need to understand what God defines as good and bad since an all-powerful Being possesses the power to enforce His definition of good and bad, right and wrong. God's morality is Absolute Morality.
Individuals declare what is good and what is bad. It is this declaration that sets up the societal morals, which enacts the rules and restrictions, which creates the authority, which is rebelled against by people whose morals do not match the pluralism, consensus, or dictatorship of society.
Sin is a violation of a defined moral good.
A person who claims the authority to define right and wrong (personal morals) is "a god unto himself." Anyone who violates that person's individual morals creates an offense (sin) between them.
The Christian understanding of sin more often refers to a violation of God's standard, but sin, like morality, is contextual. That is not to say that sinning against the personal morality of another is wrong - it all depends on the authority to define right from wrong.
For someone who believes that God exists and wants to know Him, the alignment to His rules and definitions must be resolved. This is not easy, and especially hard for those of us who have had a problem with authority. It is in our nature to have our own personal morals; it is the nature of free choice. Some of our chosen morals do not align with God's morals. We can choose to keep ours or we can choose to adopt God's morals. Alignment means eliminating the conflict between the individual and absolute moral systems.
In the Bible, Pharaoh said to Moses, "who is this God that I should serve Him?" An important question that if asked sincerely would find an answer. The God of the Bible does not impose His authority until He calls a person to account (Judgment Day). This is because God is Love and Love will never force itself on anyone. You can only respond to love or reject it. Condemnation comes only through a person's rejection (as Pharaoh did) for "God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." Elsewhere in the Bible God has said, "I have set before you both life and death, and I would have you choose life." He does not force life, nor does He even force death, because Love will not force; it can only compel. Death is a separation and people who choose not to align with God are already separated.
Love defines what is good and bad and we can accept it or reject it. Absolute morality is based on love. Those who demand authority do not understand its Source. Those who seek to impose morality do not understand love. Pharisees demanded to know by whose authority Jesus preached. Jesus said he would reveal His Source if they would first tell him whether John the Baptist spoke with the authority of God or men. The pharisees balked at the question because if they said, "of God" then Jesus was validated, but if "of men" they were worried about their own positions because the people considered John a prophet of God. Because they said, "we do not know," Jesus would not answer their question. The pharisees would not accept Christ's True Authority because it conflicted with the authority that they knew and practiced.
Will you live in rebellion to God? Will you cause God to live in rebellion to your morals?
Will you yield to the authority of God and surrender to His morals, whatever they may be? Or will you be conquered and submitted on a day when authority is imposed?
"Who is God that we might serve Him?"
Copyright, Mark Metcalfe, 1992 August; 2003 April
See my published Christian Men's Articles
See my Sunday School series on Marriage and Parenting
Created: March 23, 1999
Updated: April 9, 2003