How do we know right from wrong?

[Suggestion Box]

probly a very over-used question, but i wanna get a feel for what Christians think. this is not asking what should be the standard of ethics, but what it is for the person responding. how do you decide right from wrong?

 

[Lupinus]

The law teaches us our sinfulness.

 

[Stinker]

Before one gets saved they go by their conscience. When they were 'born again' or saved they received a law 'written on the heart' which is from the Holy Spirit. This then becomes that person's moral guide throughout the rest of their life. When they violate this spiritual law, their conscience lets them know.

 

[Suggestion Box]

well... i was kinda thinking of conscience as 'spiritual law', and law as 'earthly law' (something humans can enforce). the point here is, how many pharisees do we have out there.

 

[ittarter]

probly a very over-used question, but i wanna get a feel for what Christians think. this is not asking what should be the standard of ethics, but what it is for the person responding. how do you decide right from wrong?

Some people like others to tell them what is right and what is wrong.

I am NOT one of those people. I vote "conscience."

As far as I am concerned, right and wrong is exclusively relevant to human actions. There is no immediate right and wrong to thunderstorms or mechanical accidents, for example.

My basic strategy to tell the difference: did someone do something that benefited them at the expense of someone else? The less that it benefits them OR the more it hurts someone else, the more immoral an action it is. The converse, of course, is also true.

Of course, it is often extremely difficult to determine the values of these two factors. I also try to avoid the question of intent -- even though I admit it affects the question of moral action, trying to determine someone's intentions (even my own, at times) seems to me to be quite impossible.

 

[green wolverine]

Before one gets saved they go by their conscience. When they were 'born again' or saved they received a law 'written on the heart' which is from the Holy Spirit. This then becomes that person's moral guide throughout the rest of their life. When they violate this spiritual law, their conscience lets them know.

Good answer.

God has put a conscience in people which is why when someone is doing what they know is wrong, they do all they can to silence it, or worse, try to find a way to convince themselves and others that it isn't wrong. You see this everyday in society with the moral decry.

 

[elephunky]

We all have something within us that sounds an alarm when we do something wrong. Its something that everyone decides for themselves, and they live by those. I like to call these morals and a conciense. Though i cant spell it lol

 

[Suggestion Box]

Before one gets saved they go by their conscience.

i didn't even think of that perspective. for those raised knowing God (or at least of him), i see it as, when you're young you need law (10 commandments, mom and dad, American government, etc.) to guide you, not because you don't have a conscience, but because you don't really wanna obey it. many people never grow out of that 'must have law' phase, thus law continues to dominate our culture. i feel like God's intent here is to get us to realize that by following the 'law' in our hearts (i.e. conscience), we are doing what's natural to the way he made us, and we are happier that way. at that point, we no longer need to be told.

 

[dayhiker]

I don't think that its either or. We can learn from both law and conciense what is wrong. But to me the main test is as Paul says love doesn't hurt ones neighbor. So if our neighbor says something hurts them, then its wrong. That is why I voted other