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No Gray Areas
A daily devotion for May 10th
From your friends at RayStedman.org
Read: 1 John 2:20-21
...no lie comes from the truth (1 John 2:21b).
Have you learned yet that no lie is of the truth, that there is no possible
harmony between a lie and the truth? In other words, that there are no gray
areas in life; that a thing is either black (a lie) or it is white (the
truth), and there are no gray areas, though there may be a mingling of black
with white. Every Christian has an ability to exercise moral judgment to
distinguish right from wrong. It is amazing how many Christians have not
learned this yet and still go on echoing the lie of the world, that there
can be a blending of truth and error. John utterly cuts the ground out from
under that. I wrote to you, he says, because you have found this out, if you
know Jesus Christ. You may not have thought through the implications, but
you must know that there is no possibility of blending a lie with the truth.
One of the glorious things about God's secret purpose, which is the
restoring of the life of God to the spirit of man, is that it also
reestablishes standards of absolute values and makes moral judgments
possible. It shifts us from control by a conscience of convenience to
control by a conscience of conviction. These days we are hearing much about
situational ethics, relativism in the realm of moral judgments. What are
these? If you cheat on an examination because you do not like the teacher,
that is wrong. But if you do it because you are desperate to get a good
grade and there is no other way to do it-you have been letting the whole
thing slide until exam time and there is no other way but to cheat, then,
that is right.
But John says, No more! Now you know the one who is the truth, and you
cannot get by so easily any more. Sooner or later you must explain your
actions to Him, and all those wonderful excuses that went over so smoothly
with your spouse or friends sound very lame when repeated to Him. He is
totally unimpressed by them. He does not say anything; He simply folds His
arms and looks at you. You start stammering, and pretty soon you stop,
because, as John says, No lie comes from the truth, and you know that now.
Give heed to these things. Begin to examine the philosophies around you, the
suggestions and explanations of life that are presented to you. Measure them
according to the truth. Have you come to know the truth as it is in Jesus?
Are you ready to listen to the Word of God, unfolded by the Spirit of God,
in order that you might understand the world in which you live and the
person who lives in it-you? Are you willing to understand how God made you,
how He intends you to function, how He wants you to react to situations?
Will you let Him teach you to depend no longer upon the false sense of
ability that you have lived on all your life, but to renounce that and rely
instead upon His life within? That is why John is writing. He writes these
things, he says, because he knows the necessary equipment is there. Now use
it!
Father, help me to understand the truth as it is in Christ. Help me to turn
from every siren voice that beckons me away from Him and to bring all the
things I discover, all experiences, all reasonings, to Him.
Life Application
Excuses we make can merely echo the lies of the world. Have we found the
absolute truth as it is in Christ or do our excuses reveal gray areas where
none should exist?
Related Message
For more on this portion of Scripture read the message:
The Hard Core of Truth
or listen to the audio by clicking:
Listen to Ray
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Copyright C 2014 Ray Stedman Ministries - This daily devotion is from the
book The Power of His Presence: a year of devotions from the writings of Ray
Stedman, compiled by Mark Mitchell. It may be copied for personal
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Victoria E Gilkerson
