Doing what we know to be wrong

When we act in ways that we ourselves feel to be wrong, we do serious damage to our soul. I am not here thinking about acts that are serious or illegal, but rather the moment-by-moment small actions, the words we utter that we know are unjust, hurtful, not quite true or are one-sided or self-serving.

We are all familiar with such behaviour, so why is this anything other than a simple description of 'normal life'? Where is the danger to our soul?

When we do what we ourselves know to be wrong, even by some small measure, then we begin to distrust ourselves, to know ourselves as deceitful people, sometimes unkind or even cruel, liars; we begin to despise ourselves.

If we do something to put the matter right - for example, by apologising and making serious amends - then we may regain our footing, at least for a while. But where we do not put matters right, then we are on a very slippery slope indeed. While initially our conscience speaks to warn us of the danger, we quickly acclimatise to small deceits, then to greater ones, and then see all such behaviour as 'just normal'. Our conscience is first drowned out, then anaesthetised, then broken.

Soon all trust is gone, in ourselves and others; we expect nothing better than half-truth from politicians, deception from advertisers and the media, money-grabbing by those who are selling, and self-interest from all others, including ourselves. We look back with faint amusement at 'old-fashioned honesty' - that innocent and naive quality of yesteryear that no longer fits our sophisticated and complicated world; a world in which all kinds of deception and perversion are not just normal, but valid expressions of oneself and are to be accepted, and even admired or encouraged.

We have drowned out conscience, redefined bad as good and begun to believe in it, made ourselves impervious to truth, felt pride in our 'broadmindedness', and left ourselves dead.

Ignoring our conscience, even in small matters, is very serious indeed. And there is no way back ...

... except by submitting to the Truth*.


* see the Bible, John 14v6