What do you do when all your options are different sins?

[Pop D.]

Including doing nothing. Just choose the least evil?

 

[timothyu]

Sin is nothing but putting our will ahead of the will of God, purposely pursuing self interest which creates gain at the expense of another, the opposite of the will of God for us.

 

[Sabertooth]

Including doing nothing. Just choose the least evil?

"If any of you lacks wisdom,

let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach,
and it will be given to him.​

But let him ask in faith, with no doubting,

for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.​

For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;

he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways." James 1:5-8 NKJV​

You should have your pastor or some other in-person elder weigh in on the particulars of your situation.

"Where there is no counsel, the people fall;
But in the multitude of counselors there is safety." Proverbs 11:14 NKJV

 

[chevyontheriver]

Including doing nothing. Just choose the least evil?

You pray. You fast even. You seek counsel. The last part is a check on your thinking processes to see what you missed or got wrong.

 

[Petros2015]

You should have your pastor or some other in-person elder weigh in on the particulars of your situation.
"Where there is no counsel, the people fall;
But in the multitude of counselors there is safety." Proverbs 11:14 NKJV

Yeah seek good counsel, the options and perspectives my mind presents are often not complete or valid.
Good counsel can save a man from making some bad mistakes thinking those are the only options.

 

[BobRyan]

Including doing nothing. Just choose the least evil?

Rom 8:4-11 says that the lost person has no option but to choose the Gospel plan of escape -- or else to sin, because "they do not submit to the Law of God - neither indeed can they submit". However the person who is born-again and walks by the Holy Spirit - as the Holy Spirit dictates - complies with the Law of God.

 

[PloverWing]

Including doing nothing. Just choose the least evil?

In one of my college courses, we read some of Reinhold Niebuhr's writings. One of the things Niebuhr wrote was that in some human situations, there is no morally good choice, no choice that is free from sin. (I think it's in The Nature and Destiny of Man, but it's been a long time.) That bothered me, a lot, and I still don't know if I agree with him. But I agree that there are some situations in which, if there's a morally good choice, it's really hard to find.

Think, pray, ask for wise counsel, do everything you can to find another option. Sometimes there are creative courses of action that we haven't thought of.

If you've exhausted all that and still haven't found an alternative, then, yes, choose the least evil. I don't like it, but it's the best I've got.

 

[2PhiloVoid]

In one of my college courses, we read some of Reinhold Niebuhr's writings. One of the things Niebuhr wrote was that in some human situations, there is no morally good choice, no choice that is free from sin. (I think it's in The Nature and Destiny of Man, but it's been a long time.) That bothered me, a lot, and I still don't know if I agree with him. But I agree that there are some situations in which, if there's a morally good choice, it's really hard to find.

Think, pray, ask for wise counsel, do everything you can to find another option. Sometimes there are creative courses of action that we haven't thought of.

If you've exhausted all that and still haven't found an alternative, then, yes, choose the least evil. I don't like it, but it's the best I've got.

... I'm kind of doubting that 'all' of his options are a sin.

 

[2PhiloVoid]

Including doing nothing. Just choose the least evil?

Doing "nothing" might be the most righteous thing you can do in some cases. But of course, it's all relative to the yet undisclosed details of your particular situation ... which none of us knows about.

 

[timothyu]

The problem

Luke 16:15 And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.

James 4:4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

Options

Matthew 22:
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

James 1:27 Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Romans 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Long live the counter-culture of the Kingdom. For the current generation, beware Corporatism and their campaign of building back better for the elite. It will lead to a single earthly power not of the Kingdom but of a global kingdom of it's own. The ultimate but final goal of the Adversary.

 

[com7fy8]

Including doing nothing. Just choose the least evil?

If you see that you must choose between two wrong things, it is possible you are not seeing correctly. And you need to pray and discover what God has you do, and I will offer that God will not have you choosing between two evil choices >

"Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am tempted by God'; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone." (James 1:13)

With God, there is no such thing as "doing nothing" > we pray, first, make sure with God.

 

[timothyu]

we pray, first, make sure with God.

Yes, the god of this world is self oriented. The true God is about others.

 

[PloverWing]

... I'm kind of doubting that 'all' of his options are a sin.

It's hard to say without knowing more. One scenario that does come up in people's lives, and that presents a moral dilemma, is the use of violence in defense of self or others, and maybe that's the OP's situation. On the other hand, if the OP has the freedom to post the question to the Internet, then they're probably not in imminent physical danger and thus may be able to find non-violent options.

@Pop D. , can you give us any idea what kind of moral dilemma you're looking at?

 

[trophy33]

Including doing nothing. Just choose the least evil?

I do not think its possible.

Its more probable that something you regard being a sin is not a sin or there are other options you did not think about.

But if it hypothetically happened, I would go with the least evil or perhaps wait for some time to see if something will change or something new appear.

 

[RaymondG]

Including doing nothing. Just choose the least evil?

I do not believe suck a situation exists. Do you have an example?

 

[Faithful777]

The answer was given, if anyone remembers though...



Matthew 5:29 And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

Matthew 5:30 And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

Matthew 18:9 And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.

 

[Sketcher]

Including doing nothing. Just choose the least evil?

That's what I've felt about voting (or not) in the last two national elections. I made my choices after much prayer and deliberation.

 

[Pop D.]

For example, lying to someone to hide something you know would be devastating to them.

 

[rebornfree]

Theoretically the least evil seems like the best choice of bad options, but I believe God may provide another way. It makes me think of the horrible situation in Genesis 19 v 1-16 when Lot offered his daughters to the men of the city to prevent a worse sin. Thankfully the Lord intervened using His angels to save the family. He is the God of miracles. In Exodus 14 when the Israelites were being chased by their enemies and were camped by the sea, God parted the sea for them. (I think of it like having our backs against the wall with nowhere to go, but then God breaks through and provides a way we probably wouldn't have thought of.) So seek the Lord in prayer (and maybe fasting and/or Godly advice from a mature Christian) and expect the miraculous. Circumstances may change or you may find that one of the options is not how you thought it and is not a sin after all. God bless my friend.

 

[Faithful777]

Lot has a righteous mans soul, and was not trying to do sin, at the time it must have been the Hebrews way to save a guest in your house..


2 Peter 2:7 And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:
8 (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds




God shows the way of faithfulness, and the ways of enemies..




Proverbs 27:6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.


Psalm 141:5 Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness: and let him reprove me; it shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head: for yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities.

Psalm 28:3 Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbours, but mischief is in their hearts.

Psalm 12:2 They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak.

Psalm 12:3 The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things:

Proverbs 26:28 A lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it; and a flattering mouth worketh ruin.


Proverbs 27:14 He that blesseth his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, it shall be counted a curse to him.

Galatians 4:16 Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?