Living Black and White in a Grayscale World

New technology exists, but printers used to print in dots. In order to print gray, they printed black dots separated by white space. The closer together, the darker the gray, and vice versa. At a distance, it looks gray. Viewed closely, you could see the dots.

Today, we live in a morally grayscale world. "Good and bad" is often seen as a gray area. And, viewed from a distance, we'd actually agree on that. I suspect, though, that if you looked closely enough, you'd find a black and white world.

At first pass it's actually fairly straightforward. We have God's commands; now go out and do likewise. Black and white. "Is it okay to commit adultery?" No. "But, what about if I really, really want to?" No. "What about if we're really in love?" No. Black and white. But even there it can get murky. "Is it wrong to kill another human?" Yes! "What if it's accidental?" Oh, well, no. "What if it's in self defense or the defense of an innocent?" Well, okay. And now something perceived as "black and white" descends into "gray."

Most people at this point go with a relativistic approach. "Good/bad for me; bad/good for you. It all depends." I'd like to propose another viewpoint. I'd like to see if we can return to black and white.

In Scripture there are two overarching rules. Number one is God's glory. The purpose of all creation is the Creator. David wrote, "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork." (Psa 19:1-6). He wrote, "O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth! You have set Your glory above the heavens." (Psa 8:1). Paul wrote, "What can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made." (Rom 1:19-20). Humans were made in His image (Gen 1:26). The aim of everything is to glorify God (1 Cor 10:31). The other overarching rule is love. When asked about the most important commandment, Jesus said,

"The most important is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." (Mark 12:29-31)

Love. Love God (first) and love your neighbor (second). But note that critical point Jesus makes; "There is no other commandment greater than these." As Paul wrote, "Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." (Rom 13:10).

We've boiled it down now to two principles -- God's glory and love. If our ongoing, constant self-evaluation is "Am I doing this for God's glory?" and "Am I doing this for love?", I think we'd find a crystalized approach to our actions and attitudes. From a distance, perhaps it does look grayscale, but up close, it's pretty black and white. At a distance, your actions to glorify God and love God and your neighbor may look different than mine (gray), but up close, it's just those two -- black and white. We will, certainly, tend to obscure it. Mostly we just won't think about it. And an uninformed approach -- devoid of God's Word -- about what glorifies God and what love looks like will make it murky at a distance. But if you take God at His Word and aim to glorify God and love God and your neighbors in all you do, I suspect it will greatly simplify your view of right and wrong.