Right Over Wrong

There are lots of things that are wrong—things that break the Ten Commandments in one way or another. Those of us who have been taught from childhood that these things are wrong know the truth about them. Hopefully, we avoid them. Prayerfully, we never do them.

But often it seems as if we’re surrounded by people who routinely do wrong. Somehow it doesn’t seem like it’s wrong if you can get away with it, right? Wrong!

“There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Proverbs 14:12).

So then, why are people so quick to do wrong? “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil” (Ecclesiastes 8:11). They don’t always get caught immediately, so they foolishly assume that it must be okay.

But the reality is this: right is right and wrong is wrong. Some may try to make everything grey and wipe out the distinction between right and wrong, but the truth is the truth—and “no lie is of the truth” (1 John 2:21).

In this issue of the Youth Messenger, we’re talking about some real issues that affect young people. We are living in an age when “judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter” (Isaiah 59:14). But even in the final generation of this fallen planet, God will have a people that know the difference between right and wrong—and behave uprightly, through His strength.

“God calls for men [and youth!] of decided fidelity. He has no use in an emergency for two-sided men. He wants men who will lay their hand upon a wrong work and say, ‘This is not according to the will of God.’ ”—Selected Messages, bk. 2, p. 153.

It will take courage to stand boldly for what is right, regardless of the cost. But we are bidden, “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21).

May the Lord grant us this type of courage. Jesus gave His life to make it possible!