Ok, so a few years ago there was a picture of a dress to be worn to a wedding going around the internet, eventually going viral, and the questions was, “What color is this dress?” The choices were blue and back or white and gold.
“Media outlets noted that the photo was overexposed and had poor white balance, causing its
colors to be washed out, giving rise to the perception by some that the dress is white and gold rather than its actual
colors.”
Wikipedia, The Dress.
But, neuroscientist Devil Conway says:
“Your visual system is looking at this thing, and you're trying to discount the chromatic bias of the daylight axis... people either discount the blue side, in which case they end up seeing white and gold, or discount the gold side, in which case they end up with blue and black.”
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Wikipedia, The Dress.
When you overexpose a picture through a filter or by manually adjusting the color, you can change the perception of how that picture is seen. So it is with our spiritual outlook of morality.
Why do some people see abortion as a right, but others as a sin?
Also, why do some people see sex before marriage or divorce as acceptable, but others as
a sin?
Like in the case of the dress, our exposure has everything to do with how we view social issues.
Genesis 1:2-4
Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And seeing that the light was good, God separated the light from the
darkness.
God did not call the darkness good. God separated light from darkness, but darkness never really leaves, it is only consumed when light is present.
The Apostle Paul said:
Ephesians 4:18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.
The word darkened, in this verse means “to obscure, to limit ones vision” That is what darkness does when there is no light.
The Psalmist says:
Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.
So, why are their varying opinions on light and dark when it comes to morality? For some, it is that there has been no exposure to God’s word. The people who call darkness light and evil good have had no or limited exposure to God’s word or God himself. They only know one perspective, their own.
They see through their own fallen lens of darkness and the only conclusion they can make is based on what they know from experience, what they have been taught or what the popular opinion of the day is.
Exposure to God’s word is important, especially if you are a believer, if you are to engage those who have had no exposure to God or his word. You are the messenger, the ambassadors of light, grace and truth.
God has given us His word so that we might not only find our way in a dark world, but so others might see the light we are carrying and ask to join our journey.
War
Fellows, we
are in a war. It is good versus evil in a battle over our immense universe.
Oh yes, these two words go together and one is not often mentioned without the
other one. However, what does this even mean? Actually, they are polar opposites of each other, which means we have to choose, right? Are we on the side of good or evil? That depends on how you define them and what influences had an impact on those beliefs such as how you were raised, personal experiences or if you consider yourself a religious person.
Most of us would all like to believe that we are on the side of good or are basically good people.
We would like to believe that murder is clearly evil and everything else is gray. Yet, humans do things that someone else might consider “evil” whether that is cheating on your spouse or bullying
another person. Both of these have an ill effect on someone else which would be a good baseline measurement on whether our actions are good or evil.
Evil, by definition, means “profoundly immoral and wicked”. None of use would use that term to describe ourselves. Good, by definition, means “that which is morally right; righteousness.” We’d all like to believe that about ourselves, yet, we know often do not ascend to this level in our daily behavior and and would deem it hypocritical to define ourselves in this way. So, what shall we do?
It would be wise to consider the words of the early theologian Origen:
“The power of choosing good and evil is within the reach of all.”
Good and evil are choices. We get to choose how we act on what we believe about each. That is our task as humans, to choose. We can choose to be kind or be
mean. We can choose to do good or not. Our actions and inactions have important consequences.
Frankly, they do impact the people that are around us. Therefore, choosing your
path is a powerful responsibility given to us all, so choose in a wise
manner.
