Making the Right Choices
I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.â€
Deut. 19-20 (NKJV)
Moral Choices:Â Three things in moral theology that distinguish between good and bad: act (object), intention (motive), and circumstance (situation). The act is doing the right thing, the intention is the right motive, and the circumstance is the right way. All three must be in place for the action to be morally right. If the right thing is done for the wrong reason: giving money for the poor for the purpose of recognition, then my action is morally wrong. If I tackle a man to prevent him from preventing another man from reaching his goal in a football game then it is morally right, but if I do the same thing in a restaurant, the act is wrong. Each act done separately leads to error: legalism (keep laws to be right), subjectivism (as long as I am sincere, then it is okay), and relativism (because things change the situation dictates what is right and wrong).In summary, know the right thing while having the right heart making the right choice by discerning the right time and circumstance.
Peter Kreeft, Making Choices: Practical Wisdom for Everyday Moral Decisions (Cincinnati, OH: Servant Books, 1990), 30.