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Story
November 29, 1952
The Tribune
Roanoke, Virginia
What is this article about?
1952 devotional lesson based on Matthew 12 and Ephesians 5:11-20, discussing what makes actions right—not popularity or legality, but alignment with God's will and human welfare as per Jesus' teachings—applied to critiquing the liquor traffic on Temperance Sunday.
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SCRIPTURE: MATTHEW 12
DEVOTIONAL READING:
Ephesians 5:11-20.
What Makes Right?
Lesson for November 30, 1952
What makes right, right? It cannot be determined by counting votes. The voice of the people is not necessarily the voice of God.
Even if everybody in the world did exactly what is right (which has never happened in this world yet) it still would not be right merely because they all did it. If "right" meant nothing more than what everybody does or what most people do, then right would change as often as popular opinion changed.
It would change with the climate, with the calendar. But right is something more enduring than popular opinions, customs or enthusiasms.
Does "Right" Mean "Legal"?
Another notion of what it is that makes right, is Law. If it's legal it's right, if it's illegal it's wrong.
But haven't we often heard the expression, "There ought to be a law...?"
The person who says that means that there is something which is right that isn't legal; he wants a law to match what is right. Or again, laws are sometimes repealed. But no one would ever vote to repeal a law if he didn't think the law was wrong. Good men sometimes repeal laws; but no good man ever wanted to repeal "right."
There is a variety of this idea which has more truth in it: namely, that right is the same thing as the law of God. But God does not make acts right or wrong simply by ordering them to be so.
Could God have said, Thou shalt kill. thou shalt bear false witness?
Could he have said, Thou shalt hate thy God and hate thy neighbor? Of course not. He could not have made such nonsense-laws, such wicked commandments, because he is not that kind of God, for one thing, and for another thing because if he did, it would have meant the destruction of the human race. Although right, and the will of God, are really the same thing, yet an act is right not because God wills or commands it but because it is right.
How Jesus Looked at It
How did Jesus our Lord stand on this question? What made a thing right, for him? He got into trouble with the lawyers of his time, and he got into trouble with what we would call D.D.'s and prominent preachers and professors of theology (the Pharisees): they called him "bad" and had him executed accordingly.
So there was evidently a difference between his way of looking at "right" and their way. It was precisely on this point that they split.
Jesus tried to make clear, though the Pharisees were too blind to see it, that the Sabbath law, any law of God or good rule of man, is right and good only in so far as it promotes the welfare of man. This is not setting up man above God, for God is man's Creator. Right is what develops God's children; wrong is what stunts, deforms, defeats and destroys them.
To put it in another way: The test of right and wrong is always this: Will this thing make people better and make better people? If so, it is right. All our laws, institutions and interests must be brought to the test of their effect on human welfare. And of course, in Jesus' view, the welfare of man includes social, spiritual and mental well-being and growth, not physical health and financial wealth alone.
Liquor and Welfare
This being Temperance Sunday, it is a good time to think about the liquor traffic in the light of all this.
Think it out for yourself. Remember, alcohol is a habit-forming drug, and all talk about liquor cannot erase that very plain fact.
Now think about the whole business of making it, glamorizing it in advertising, selling it and using it.
Look around you in your home community, and in our nation at large, and ask: Does it bring more benefit to people in your community than it brings harm? In the purpose of the business human welfare?
Ask the welfare agencies in your community-the Red Cross, the hospital, the agencies that look after the poor, the orphanage, and so on-ask these people: Does the liquor business make your work easier? Is the liquor trade the ally of the public school and the church?
Does it make better citizens, better Christians? If it does, and only if it does, then as a Christian can you call it right.
(Copyright, 1952 by the Division of Christian Education, National Council of the Churches of Christ of the United States of America. Released by WNU Features.)
NOTICE ... The TRIBUNE Office Closes at 1:00 Sat
DEVOTIONAL READING:
Ephesians 5:11-20.
What Makes Right?
Lesson for November 30, 1952
What makes right, right? It cannot be determined by counting votes. The voice of the people is not necessarily the voice of God.
Even if everybody in the world did exactly what is right (which has never happened in this world yet) it still would not be right merely because they all did it. If "right" meant nothing more than what everybody does or what most people do, then right would change as often as popular opinion changed.
It would change with the climate, with the calendar. But right is something more enduring than popular opinions, customs or enthusiasms.
Does "Right" Mean "Legal"?
Another notion of what it is that makes right, is Law. If it's legal it's right, if it's illegal it's wrong.
But haven't we often heard the expression, "There ought to be a law...?"
The person who says that means that there is something which is right that isn't legal; he wants a law to match what is right. Or again, laws are sometimes repealed. But no one would ever vote to repeal a law if he didn't think the law was wrong. Good men sometimes repeal laws; but no good man ever wanted to repeal "right."
There is a variety of this idea which has more truth in it: namely, that right is the same thing as the law of God. But God does not make acts right or wrong simply by ordering them to be so.
Could God have said, Thou shalt kill. thou shalt bear false witness?
Could he have said, Thou shalt hate thy God and hate thy neighbor? Of course not. He could not have made such nonsense-laws, such wicked commandments, because he is not that kind of God, for one thing, and for another thing because if he did, it would have meant the destruction of the human race. Although right, and the will of God, are really the same thing, yet an act is right not because God wills or commands it but because it is right.
How Jesus Looked at It
How did Jesus our Lord stand on this question? What made a thing right, for him? He got into trouble with the lawyers of his time, and he got into trouble with what we would call D.D.'s and prominent preachers and professors of theology (the Pharisees): they called him "bad" and had him executed accordingly.
So there was evidently a difference between his way of looking at "right" and their way. It was precisely on this point that they split.
Jesus tried to make clear, though the Pharisees were too blind to see it, that the Sabbath law, any law of God or good rule of man, is right and good only in so far as it promotes the welfare of man. This is not setting up man above God, for God is man's Creator. Right is what develops God's children; wrong is what stunts, deforms, defeats and destroys them.
To put it in another way: The test of right and wrong is always this: Will this thing make people better and make better people? If so, it is right. All our laws, institutions and interests must be brought to the test of their effect on human welfare. And of course, in Jesus' view, the welfare of man includes social, spiritual and mental well-being and growth, not physical health and financial wealth alone.
Liquor and Welfare
This being Temperance Sunday, it is a good time to think about the liquor traffic in the light of all this.
Think it out for yourself. Remember, alcohol is a habit-forming drug, and all talk about liquor cannot erase that very plain fact.
Now think about the whole business of making it, glamorizing it in advertising, selling it and using it.
Look around you in your home community, and in our nation at large, and ask: Does it bring more benefit to people in your community than it brings harm? In the purpose of the business human welfare?
Ask the welfare agencies in your community-the Red Cross, the hospital, the agencies that look after the poor, the orphanage, and so on-ask these people: Does the liquor business make your work easier? Is the liquor trade the ally of the public school and the church?
Does it make better citizens, better Christians? If it does, and only if it does, then as a Christian can you call it right.
(Copyright, 1952 by the Division of Christian Education, National Council of the Churches of Christ of the United States of America. Released by WNU Features.)
NOTICE ... The TRIBUNE Office Closes at 1:00 Sat
What sub-type of article is it?
Devotional Lesson
Moral Teaching
What themes does it cover?
Moral Virtue
Providence Divine
Justice
What keywords are associated?
Morality
Right And Wrong
Gods Will
Jesus Teachings
Human Welfare
Temperance
Liquor Traffic
What entities or persons were involved?
Jesus
God
Pharisees
Story Details
Key Persons
Jesus
God
Pharisees
Event Date
November 30, 1952
Story Details
The lesson explores the nature of right and wrong, rejecting definitions based on popularity or legality, asserting that right aligns with God's inherent will and promotes human welfare as exemplified by Jesus' teachings against the Pharisees, and applies this criterion to evaluate the liquor traffic's impact on society.