Let’s make no mistake about it: there are actions that are flatly, objectively wrong that no amount of good intentions can make right. The Ten Commandments and many of the other 613 commandments in the Bible can help us with that.
But then there’s a whole world of things we do day by day the moral status of which is determined by our intention — by what our motive is.
And in such cases, it seems to me that the determining question that has to be answered is this: why am I doing this?
Is my dominant motive to please God or am I being carried along by some other interest? Is this what God wants for me or am I just getting this for myself? Am I acting on God’s guidance here or am I just doing my own thing?
And if we are committed to do what God wants us to do, he will never fail to answer that question.
