We Christians like to make everything an issue of right vs. wrong. Can I do this according to the rules? Can I get away with this lawfully? Sometimes, though, “Is this a sin?” is the wrong question. A better question is often a little muddier, but just as important. Is this wise?
The Psalms open on the first verse with a description of a life lived on an unwise trajectory. “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful.” (Psalm 1:1 NKJV) Here’s a wisdom principle – don’t take your advice about life from people who don’t have a relationship with the God you love and serve.
This doesn’t mean that non-Christians never have good advice. But overall, the philosophies of humanism, secularism, materialism, and plenty of other -ism’s give rise to opinions about moral issues that aren’t grounded in eternal truth, but rather in the whims of a culture in flux. And notice the pattern of regression…
First, we walk in the counsel, the advice, the worldview of the ungodly…
Then we stand (we’re no longer going forward) in the way of those who act out their ungodly thinking patterns…
Then we’re sitting in the seat of those who are downright cynical toward the truth of God.
There is a better way. Verse two says that the blessed man’s “delight is in the law of the Lord (the moral principles of God, not just the mosaic law code), and in His law he meditates day and night.” Today is a good day to start meditating and dwelling on the wisdom of God in His Word.
