Mere Morality

What is the difference between doing what's right and not doing what's wrong? Have you ever asked yourself this question? There are some times in our lives where we have more than one choice. We can openly chose to do wrong, we can chose not to do wrong, or we can chose to do what is right.

But aren't doing what is right and not doing what is wrong the same thing? Well, thats a good question. Let's look at some examples and see what conclusion we come to.

Imagine a dark alley. As you walk through it, you see two men beating up a teenager. Now, if you agree that what they are doing is actively wrong and do not join in with the two men in beating the teenager, you did not choose to do the wrong thing. But if you also chose to  help the teenager get away from this abuse, most likely being beat by these two men in the process, you would actively choose the right thing.

Here's another example. Imagine yourself as a child. You and three other children are picking on another child. Although you really don't mean it in spite, you can see that the other child is not taking this well. If you chose to stop teasing the kid, then you chose to not do what is wrong. You can walk away and no longer be actively doing what is wrong. But if you choose to apologize and ask the other three children to stop as well you have chosen what is right.

What do we call these two things? Well, to not chose wrong is called morality. Moral choices are those that are usually easy to spot when they are made in the wrong way. The other choice is called character. Character is visible when we make an active intentional correct choice. So what is the relationship between character and morality?

We must first make moral choices before we can have character. It sounds obvious, but let's think about this for a minute. So often we want to use a different set of rules for one thing than for another. We try to have morals and character in one field of our lives and then we turn around and make an immoral choice in another part of our lives. We then wonder why it is so hard to have character in the other parts of our life. It is impossible to have consistent character if we still willfully make immoral choices in some part of our lives. The effect is felt in the other parts of our relationship with people, but more importantly, with God.

Here's another example. An art thief manages a bank by day. As an art thief, he has no problem making the immoral choice of stealing from other people. But as a bank manager, he has the opportunity to steal from people in a thousand ways. Do you think he will have character (consistently) in his day job? Whether he steals ten million from a firm, or ten cents off of his employee's check, either way he will make the immoral choice at some point.

Conclusion

In the same way, if we make immoral choices in some aspects of our lives, yet expect to have true Godly character, we deceive ourselves. We need to start with morality, then build up to character. (Romans 5 has more on this subject) This starts with the realization that we are not moral by nature, but fallen. We need to repent of our fallen state, turn around with God's help and grace, and move toward morality and character. May God help us to do so as people, then as a church.