Let’s face it—life is complicated. We believe in right and wrong, good and evil, and absolute truth, but it’s not absolutely clear in every situation what is the right choice and what is the wrong choice. Absolutes don’t always translate cleanly to real-world application. That’s not to deny the existence of absolute truth or God’s revealed will as the standard for morality, it’s just to recognize that sometimes it is very difficult to know how to apply our knowledge of right and wrong to a specific situation that we find ourselves in.

For example, a preacher might tell the congregation to love each other with a Christ-like love. When the Bible commands us to love one another, it speaks not primarily of a feeling, but a resolve to selflessly act in the best interests of another person. This leaves a man sitting in the pew wondering how to apply this to his situation at work. He is the CEO of his company and he knows that another man in the same church owns a smaller company in the same field. A third, larger company has just moved into town, threatening to take over the market. The CEO knows that if his company is going to survive the pressure brought by the larger company, he will have to tighten things up and reduce his prices. But in doing so, he might put his smaller competitor (his brother in Christ) out of a job that he has spent years investing in. What is the loving thing to do? He has a responsibility to his own employees and their families, but he also wants to do the loving thing for his brother in Christ who owns the smaller company. He wants to do the right thing, but it’s not immediately clear what “the right thing to do” is.

We should not think of life—with all its messiness and complexity—like a standardized test, as if every situation we find ourselves in has four options labeled A, B, C, and D, three of which are completely wrong and one of which is completely right. God is not interested in his people merely “knowing all the right answers” in an ideal world. He wants his people to be growing in Christlike virtues and learning how to live out those virtues in a wide variety of complex and ever-changing situations. God didn’t give us a book with a million rules for every single scenario in life. Rather, he invites us into a relationship with him, showing us who he is, who we are without him, and who we are supposed to become in Christ. So pay close attention to your heart and your motives. Strive to become more like Christ and exhibit the same virtues that he perfectly embodied. That won’t magically give us all the answers in every situation, but it will equip us with the character and virtue we need to navigate the situation in a godly way that glorifies the Lord.