Our text for today is Galatians 6:14
“For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
When you raise kids, you eventually hear the question, “Why can’t I do that?” Followed by “It’s not wrong.” When you get older in life, you have that same question to yourself about the things you want to do. I mean, if it is not wrong and you want to do it, then do it! Right?
Well, maybe, maybe not.
To challenge that thought, think about the following truth.
In the 18th century, a blind man was found sitting at the corner of a street in a large city. The fact that he was blind is significant because he had a lighted lantern sitting beside him. Someone went up to him and asked why he had a lantern since both darkness and light were the same to him. He replied, “I have it so that no one may stumble over me.”
When it comes to right and wrong, we all should think like that blind man. There are things we can do that do not bother us personally. We have overcome that problem, but someone watching us may not be where we are. They may stumble and fall.
So, here is the point of the story: Some things are wrong because they are wrong. Some things are wrong not because they are wrong, but because our own actions may cause someone else to stumble. We don’t do wrong things, because they are wrong. We don’t do some things that are not wrong, because we love others.
I think this is part of the meaning of Romans 14:7, “For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself.”
Lonnie Davis