The Conflict (v. 1)
- The inquiry
- The indictment
The Cause (vv. 2-3)
- Our selfish preferences
- Our selfish pleasures
The Conviction (vv. 4-5)
- Charge of adultery
- Cheating on God
The Cure
- Humility before God
- Proximity to God
- Purity in God
More to Consider
The two major ideas vying for supremacy within the last century and a half are state run, centrally planned communism (and its little brother, socialism) and free market, private property centered capitalism. Arthur Brooks of the American Enterprise Institute, presenting for the internet think tank PragerU.com, demonstrates the goal of both political ideologies to work for the basic common good. Quoting Frederic Hayek, Brooks says,
What’s the best way to help poor people escape poverty? Progressives and conservatives have very different answers to this question, but before we explore those answers, let’s agree on this: Both progressives and conservatives believe that the government has a moral obligation to help those who, through bad luck or unfortunate circumstances, can’t help themselves. Here’s what a conservative icon, Nobel Prize-winning economist, Frederic Hayek, said on the subject:
“There is no reason why, in a society that has reached the general level of wealth ours has attained, the first kind of security should not be guaranteed to all...some minimum of food, shelter, and clothing sufficient to preserve health and the capacity to work.”
Whatever the media might tell you, there isn’t a conservative out there who would not agree with Hayek’s statement.
Both philosophies seek to turn collective attention toward a common good, and both have been and are being tried to various levels of success. However, both are human constructs and, therefore each have their weaknesses. Mike Farley
In the absence of a compelling external authority that enables us to draw the line confidently between right and wrong, true and false, we are left to fumble about with only our feelings to guide us. And are these feelings not often driven by self-desire and self-justification? Feelings are notoriously unreliable as a guide to belief or behavior. David F. Wells
