My dear readers,

Avoid Situational Ethics

Proverbs 16:3: “Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established.”

Situational ethics is a common form of decision making in the world. Very often it is well-meaning people who employ this ethics. The desire to control the outcome of an action because the person has made a considered judgment is often the motive behind situational ethics. The ethics varies from person to person and situation to situation. This person’s foundation in life has little or no absolute convictions. Today he believes it is wrong to lie. Tomorrow he might lie to “create” a good outcome for himself or others as he determines. Parents apply situational ethics in bringing up children. Have we not read in the newspapers how some parents deceive the Ministry of Education by using their parents’ home address which is near the Primary School of their choice in order to get priority in admission? Bribery is called “coffee money” when doing business to benefit the company that needs to support the livelihood of their staff and families.

It would be difficult to say that believers growing up in homes and an environment where situational ethics is pandemic will not be affected by situational ethics. It finds its way into every home through today’s technology. Have we not heard of “believers” practising “courtship evangelism” who deceive their own heart when in reality they are actually courtship-ping unbelievers? They know it is a sin and yet they commit it, numbing their conscience and feeling no guilt or a need to repent and to stop such lies. [Do they not know 2 Corinthians 6:14? “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?”]

Believers need to find a way to stop using this deadly and insidiously carnal situational ethics. It is diabolical as it has the semblance of “goodness” in it and it is often deemed to be done for the good of others. The more this is done, the more acceptable it becomes. The believer’s discernment is put to sleep by its repeated use. His decisions and actions are compromised and they become biblical only when the situation suits his ethics. When this happens, he is lulled into thinking that overall his ethics are sound and God honouring. He fails to realize that partial obedience is disobedience. The counsel to avoid situational ethics is found in Proverbs 16:3.

Trust in the LORD’s sovereignty – “Commit thy works unto the LORD” means “to leave the outcome of your works to the LORD.” The child of God must lean on the doctrine of the LORD’s sovereignty in all he does. In a way, situational ethics is to “play god”. He does not trust that his LORD can work all things out for the good of His children. He must intervene. He lacks faith. His lack of faith could mean that he does not know his LORD well. He might be a true believer but he struggles to believe that the LORD is all-powerful. He sees the LORD as just the God of the believers who cannot control the affairs and actions of unbelievers. He perceives the LORD to be a localized God instead of being the God of heaven and earth, that He is in control only within the domain and lives of the children of God and that in the world of Satan His power diminishes. Even the powers of authorities and mighty men frighten him. He can see these earthly powers but he struggles to see God’s celestial powers! Though he is surrounded by the evidence of the LORD’s omnipotent might in creation day and night, somehow the scales on his eyes blind him. He fails to trust in the LORD’s sovereignty.

There are others who might have made the LORD into their own image. Their relationship and knowledge of the LORD are based upon ideas mixed with truth and errors. Other gods they used to believe in in the past might not have been totally discarded. They mix these notions with the truth of the Holy Scriptures that they learned. Such a syncretistic view of the LORD will also result in taking matters into one’s own hands. It is as if the LORD is bound by space and time like the idols of old, His eyes are myopic instead of blind like the idols, His arms are too short that He cannot help unlike the arms of the idols that cannot move, and His ears are partially deaf thus their cries are not always heard.

But the LORD who is the covenantal God of all believers is the God of heaven and earth. All things in this wide universe are His handiwork. He made them and has absolute sovereign control over all things. The sun will not shine if He does not say so. The sun will not burn itself out because the LORD sustains it. The clouds will not pour any life-giving rain to water the earth if the LORD does not guide them by His omnipotent hand. The births and deaths of every human are in the LORD’s hand. No baby can be born if the LORD does not will it to be so. The beginning and end of all life are not only known to the LORD but He orders them as He wills. “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths” (Prov 3:5-6).

Think of the LORD’s sovereignty – The child of God must begin his trust in his LORD from his thought process. The origin of his thought has to be the knowledge of the LORD’s sovereignty. This is the guiding light from which all his thoughts must commence as he studies the Holy Scriptures. Whatever the outcome of the believer’s decisions, he must do what the Bible says and trust the LORD to bring all things to pass for His eternal glory and the spiritual blessings of His children. The LORD’s foreknowledge and immutability are the foundation of all things that come and go from this earthly stage. All things change but not the believer’s covenantal LORD. The believer who obeys the Word of God will experience how the LORD will order his every step. “The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD upholdeth him with his hand” (Ps 37:23-24).

The more he studies and obeys the Word of God, the deeper will his trust in his LORD become. The more he knows his LORD through diligent study of His Word, the easier it will be for him to exercise his faith. The more he exercises his faith, the stronger he becomes. Situational ethics will quickly be replaced by biblical thought and actions. Trusting in the LORD becomes a blessed new way of life and witness.

Food for Thought – Will your ethics be based upon FEAR or FAITH, GOLD or GOD?