You ought not say that dear!” the mother exclaimed to her little boy, after he repeated a curse word he had heard someone else use. Oh how true it is that we often mimic the actions and vocabulary of those around us. All too often this happens without us giving it much thought. Yet, have we ever stopped long enough to consider that little word “ought”? The term implies a distinction between what we should do and what we should not do.
When parents tells children what they ought to do, they are trying to encourage proper behavior. However, how did the parent decide what should be done? Not many years earlier, they themselves were in the place of a child. Some behavior their parents would not have tolerated, they are now permitting with their own children. Sadly, much of the advice being given is based upon changeable social norms.
Ethics basically pertains to human behavior regarding right and wrong – principles of morality. For ethics to be legitimate there must be a standard. The Bible reveals that the standard is based upon God Himself. To Israel of old, Jehovah declared, “be ye holy; for I am holy …be ye holy, for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44-45; cf., 1 Peter 1:16). If there is no God (Psalm 14:1; 53:1), there can be no such thing as right and wrong. Without a standard we must wander adrift in subjectivity!
Human conduct and accountability are based upon the divinely endowed freedom of choice. “For we must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ; that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10).
[Editor’s Note: Mankind is no more capable of being his own moral compass today than he was anciently. “O LORD, I know the way of man is not in himself; It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps” (Jeremiah 10:23 NKJV). It is as important in modern times as it was thousands of years ago for we mortals to choose wisely to serve God and conform to His divine instructions. “And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15). ~ Louis Rushmore, Editor]
