We all struggle with gray areas–areas where it’s difficult to know what we should do.
How do you tell right from wrong?
Jerry Bridges in The Pursuit of Holiness shared his friends advice for knowing right from wrong.
I hope you will find this helpful.
“Years ago a friend gave me what he called his ‘Formula: How to Know Right from Wrong.’ The formula asks four questions based on three verses in 1 Corinthians:
- ‘Everything is permissible for me’–but not everything is beneficial’ (1 Corinthians 6:12). Question 1: Is it helpful–physically, spiritually, and mentally?
- ‘Everything is permissible for me’–but I will not be mastered by anything (1 Corinthians 6:12). Question 2: Does it bring me under its power?
- ‘Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall’ (1 Corinthians 8:13). Question 3: Does it hurt others?
- ‘So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God’ (1 Corinthians 10:31). Question 4: Does it glorify God?”
Here are the three verses:
” ‘All things are lawful for me,’ but not all things are helpful. ‘All things are lawful for me,’ but I will not be enslaved by anything”–1 Corinthians 6:12.
“Therefore, if food is a cause of my brother’s falling, I will never eat meat, lest I cause my brother to fall”–1 Corinthians 8:13.
“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God”–1 Corinthians 10:31.
In Christ, we have freedom, but we also have responsibility to the holy God. Our moral living is not the means by which we are saved but the consequence of having been saved.
Let us seek to always live for Him and please Him in all we do.
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