More on Relativism

Relativism muddies the waters of morality. When there are disagreements about what is right and wrong in certain situations, relativists like to say, “See? There is no absolute morality. It’s all just people’s opinion.” But arguing over what’s right and wrong doesn’t mean that there isn’t an absolute right and wrong in every situation. It just means people disagree about it—even if God’s Word is very clear.

God has promised us that His ways are the truth and they lead to life. Disobedience to His ways lead to death. As Paul explained: “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

Take, for example, one of the saddest products of relativism—abortion. There are obviously differing opinions about the “morality” of abortion—some people say that a woman has a right to the freedom to control her own body; others think that a woman should not be allowed to end an unborn child’s life. Relativists use these differing opinions to say that there isn’t an absolute moral law in this case, just people’s opinions.

Oddly enough, each side of the argument is protecting what it thinks is a moral value: Those against abortion are defending the value that life should be protected, and those for abortion are defending the value that a woman should have freedom over her body. In the case of abortion, the real issue is about which value is greater or more important—is life more important, or is a woman’s freedom over her body more important? Since the unborn are human beings, a baby’s right to life is the value that should win out because a person’s right to life outweighs a person’s right to individual freedom. Even if there’s a debate on when life actually begins, abortion is still always wrong because it robs the unborn of the opportunity to live.

Even though there may be debate about what’s right, that doesn’t mean that the truth about what’s right and what’s wrong doesn’t exist at all. The disagreement about abortion exists because people are ignoring the Moral Law so that they can do what they want to do.

God has given us the absolute Moral Law in His Word. Moral values are absolute—even if we don’t quite understand how to apply them in certain circumstances and even if we don’t always live by them.

When you’re struggling with what it looks like to honor God in a certain moral situation, ask Him to guide you, and ask some of His faithful followers to help you. He promises that He’ll give you wisdom whenever you ask for it: “If you need wisdom—if you want to know what God wants you to do—ask him, and he will gladly tell you” (James 1:5 NLT).

When you know what is right and true in a situation, don’t let other people’s arguments about the matter sway you. Ask yourself: What are these people looking to get out of this situation? What motivation could they have for disobeying God? Behind their lofty arguments and philosophies will be the fact that they simply want to do what they want to do

[From YouthWalk e-Devo]