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We live in a world of moral relativism. Truth is only truth if I see it as truth. Some things are not as evil as other things. I was on a website the other day on which people were defending the legalization of marijuana, and the common argument was that marijuana was “not as harmful as alcohol.” Did you ever think of this: the lesser of two evils is still evil! I am tired of hearing “perception is reality.” What a crock! Perception is not reality. Reality is reality, truth is truth, God is God and I am not! What does the last comment in that sentence have to do with the first two parts? When we determine what is true and what is real by our perception of it, we put ourselves in the place of God. We are now the supreme being, everything revolves around us – we are the center of the universe and people should spend their lives pleasing us. Now, I know there are many that do not believe God exists, but this seems to be relatively new. If we look back through world history, some research indicates there are fewer believers today than ever before. This, of course, makes sense. If we can eliminate God, society becomes more permissive, more self-centered than ever before. Not only do we not need God, we don’t want God, because that would displace us from our desired position.
Moral relativism is a consequence of extreme self-esteem. We are always right, what we want is penultimate, our perception of our world is all that matters. Narcissism is rampant in our culture of self-esteem. When self-esteem becomes the be all, end all of how we function, we wrap ourselves in self-love that excludes, by definition, placing the others in the forefront. How many times have you heard the phrase “you can’t love others before you love yourself” or “if you don’t take care of you, no one else will?” This is totally backward. If we all spend our time loving and taking care of ourselves, when do we reach out in relationship and in love and take care of others? It doesn’t happen. Protectionism, entitlement, self determination and “Manifest Destiny” do not work in our world on a political, world level, why should we expect it to be true on an individual level?
We love because God first loved us. That is our example, we have it backwards. God loved us before we even knew who He was. I know someone who said that they never understood what love was until they loved in a situation in which there was no way the object of their love had the ability to love back. What a great lesson! Can we do anything for God to deserve His love? I don’t think so! Yet He loves us anyway. If we spend all of our time loving ourselves or loving others only when we get something out of it, we miss the point of love itself. We give because we love, not because we get. If we act like we love, if we do loving things and expect to get something out of it then it is not love, it is selfishness. If we put ourselves first, we are always asking for more, and resentment builds because we didn’t get what we expect, what we believe we deserve (there’s that entitlement thing), and the relationship breaks down. When people in a true loving relationship submit themselves to each other, give selflessly, there is mutuality in love. People in that sort of relationship get because both give without consideration of self. When we get it right, everyone gets loved. For God so loved….
