Jesus Revealed in Doctrine BLACK, WHITE, OR GRAY?
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. 1 John 2:15.
Have you ever heard that Seventh-day Adventists don't dance, don't go to shows, don't go to worldly places of amusement? Or are the church standards regarding worldly pleasures and love of the world outdated? Are they simply relics of a legalism that we have outgrown? There are other churches that used to believe as we do, but they have "adjusted to modern times." Where do you make the division? And how do you know where the line should be drawn between what is simply custom and what is right and wrong?
1 John 2 says, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." That's a rather general statement. "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." That's a little more specific. "The world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever."
This doctrine of the church, perhaps more than any other, illustrates the fact that there are some things that appear to be neither black nor white, but are gray. You can't find chapter and verse discussing them specifically, and the devil has done his best to introduce gray areas, because he likes to work with gray. He can get people from white to black through the shades of gray. It's much harder to take people from white straight to black. That's why the deceiver enjoys the gray areas.
If you study the case histories of people who have gone from white to black, no one ever really makes the transition in one big jump. He always goes in little, tiny steps. Sometimes the only thing wrong with step number one might be that it leads to step number two. There might not be anything that you can put your finger on that is inherently wrong in a particular thing, except where it leads. That's where the gray area comes in. How do you know where to cut it? How do you know where to draw the line? This is where Jesus has to be revealed in the gray. If Jesus doesn't reveal Himself to us in the gray area, we're sunk. But He has promised to be with us, and to reveal Himself to us, even in the gray. "And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left" (Isa. 30:21).
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. 1 John 2:15.
Have you ever heard that Seventh-day Adventists don't dance, don't go to shows, don't go to worldly places of amusement? Or are the church standards regarding worldly pleasures and love of the world outdated? Are they simply relics of a legalism that we have outgrown? There are other churches that used to believe as we do, but they have "adjusted to modern times." Where do you make the division? And how do you know where the line should be drawn between what is simply custom and what is right and wrong?
1 John 2 says, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." That's a rather general statement. "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." That's a little more specific. "The world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever."
This doctrine of the church, perhaps more than any other, illustrates the fact that there are some things that appear to be neither black nor white, but are gray. You can't find chapter and verse discussing them specifically, and the devil has done his best to introduce gray areas, because he likes to work with gray. He can get people from white to black through the shades of gray. It's much harder to take people from white straight to black. That's why the deceiver enjoys the gray areas.
If you study the case histories of people who have gone from white to black, no one ever really makes the transition in one big jump. He always goes in little, tiny steps. Sometimes the only thing wrong with step number one might be that it leads to step number two. There might not be anything that you can put your finger on that is inherently wrong in a particular thing, except where it leads. That's where the gray area comes in. How do you know where to cut it? How do you know where to draw the line? This is where Jesus has to be revealed in the gray. If Jesus doesn't reveal Himself to us in the gray area, we're sunk. But He has promised to be with us, and to reveal Himself to us, even in the gray. "And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left" (Isa. 30:21).
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