MORALITY

Proverbs 23:26—My son, give me your heart and let your eyes keep to my ways . . .

There is a spur on the 11,239 ft. Mount Hood where a small rock shelter stands firm against the winds of time. Atop this small ridge is a spectacular view of Mount Rainier, Mount Adams, Mount St. Helens, hundreds of square miles of valleys, streams, lakes and hills carpeted with green forests. I love the high ground. There are few things in life more beautiful than standing in thin air to watch the sun rise in silent majesty over a glacier-covered volcano and all that surrounds it. It is not hard to understand why Oregon and Washington are called “God’s country”.

King Solomon wrote in Proverbs 4:18,19, “The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day. But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble.” Was it from his chariot on the heights of Jerusalem that he followed shafts of sunlight as they worked their way across the Kidron valley and formed an illustration in his mind?

The longer one travels the highway of morality, the clearer its way becomes. It contains no pot-holes of rebellion. Righteousness refuses to wind in the confusing circles of rationalism. Virtue understands and avoids the eroding torrents of carnality. Probity bypasses boulders of depravity.

The Heavenly Father shines forth His holiness as the foundation of the moral road. He projects His truth through His word. “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path” (Psalm 119:105). God recognized humanity’s immoral condition and in the deepest of love sacrificed His Son to enable us to abandon the hopeless farrago of sin and its freeway to hell. But who of us sees Jesus? He is no longer here on earth. So the One Who once stated, “I am the Light of the world”, enlightened His own followers. “You are the light of the world . . . Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:14,16).

If we neglect to be moral people we extinguish our light. Yet, how do those who stumble in the darkness escape their evil if we will not be God’s holy beams? “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:24,25). Yes, morality matters. The higher we climb the better we see the way.

Inspiration

Morality is not something with which we are gifted, we make morality; it is another word for character . . . Morality is not only correct conduct on the outside, but correct thinking within where only God can see.—Oswald Chambers in The Servant As His Lord