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Copyright, 1995 by Rick Janelle. Permission granted to use our articles in any manner, so long as the content is not changed and the name of the author is left on the article.
Ron Brown
Some things are wrong within themselves. It has always been wrong to lie, steal, murder and commit adultery. These are sins against our fellow men. They violate the moral law, hence, those who are guilty of such are immoral.
There are other things that are right only because God commands them. Most of these commandments have to do with our relationship with God. They are a test of mans faith and many of them are contrary to human reason. In religion, we walk by faith and not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7)
A thing may be "morally right" and at the same time "religiously wrong." We must respect Gods religious laws as well as his moral laws. Many fail to comprehend worship of God and service to him because they look at everything from a moral viewpoint only. We must love and respect God as well as our fellowman.
We must view spiritual things from a spiritual viewpoint, (1 Corinthians 2:14) and remember that Gods ways are higher than mans ways. Isaiah 55:8,9 says, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."
The prophet Jeremiah declared, "O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." (Jeremiah 10:23)
What men think is right may not be right. We are commanded to "Prove all things; hold fast to that which is good." (1 Thessalonians 5:21) We must search the scriptures and prove that what we teach and preach is in harmony with the same. Again from the Bible we have this warning, "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." (Proverbs 16:25)
Many today are guilty of walking by fleshly and physical feelings, that is, being governed by what they "know naturally." This is what people in Judes day were guilty of as well.
"But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves." (Jude 10)
We must not be governed in our worship and service to God by what we loveand by what appeals to us. we must be governed by what the Holy Spirit has revealed in the Bible for our spirits to read and understand. Jesus said, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." (John 6:63)
Let us do our best to see things from Gods viewpoint. We should respect and be governed by his will as revealed in the Bible. Consider the following examples:
It is not morally wrong to eat fruit. However, Adam and eve sinned by doing so. (Genesis 3:1-24) Why was it wrong? God said not to do it. To transgress a moral law is to commit immoral sin. To transgress religious law is to become guilty of religious sin. God requires that man respect and obey religious law, as well as moral law. Eve failed to do so. Many today are following in her footsteps.
"And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the LORD." (Leviticus 10:1,2)
Here we have another example of a thing being morally right but religiously wrong. No act of immorality was committed by offering strange fire, yet it was a sin. According to the record, they just offered fire that God had not commanded. God told Adam and Eve specifically not to eat fruit from the tree in the midst of the garden. God had not commanded Nadab and Abihu not to offer strange fire. He had simply given instructions as to what kind of fire to offer. This prohibited every other kind.
We must follow the positive instructions of the Lord. If he has not authorized a thing in worship, we must not use it. To worship and serve him as he directs in his word is to walk by faith. To presume that something else will please God just as well, and to follow in the steps of Nadab and Abihu is to commit religious sin.
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