Do you know the difference between ought and should? I did not until I heard something about the fact that we now live in a world that has no true ought. Do you have anything that you ought to do? I do. Do you have anything that you ought to believe? I do. How about do you have anything you should do? I do not. Do you have anything that you should believe? I do not. I believe however that ought, brings us hope and should does not.
Ought, is defined by Merriam-Webster dictionary as a noun as a moral obligation, as a verb used to express obligation, advisability, natural expectation, or logical consequence. Should is the past tense of shall which is defined as 1 a. used to express what is inevitable or seems likely to happen in the future b. used to express simple futurity 2. used to express determination they 3 a. used to express a command or exhortation b. used in laws, regulations, or directives to express what is mandatory 4 archaic a: will have to b: will be able to. It seems to me that they used to be synonyms. The archaic definition of shall seems to be more in line with the definition of ought. I am not giving me things to add to my should book. I am adding to my ought to book.
The world has totally messed up the concept of ought. They would say that we ought to agree with every behavior, even those which God would call sinful. It has redefined words like tolerance and coexistence to mean that we ought to totally agree with our neighbors in all things. We should celebrate their differences. This I believe goes against the teachings of Christ. In John 8 we find the story of the woman caught in adultery. Jesus chooses not to condemn the woman for here act of adultery but Jesus tells her, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.” (ESV) John 8:11b I see here that Jesus tolerates her behavior but does not agree with it. Afterall, He tells her to go and sin no more. We live in the same kind of world we must tolerate the person but not the behavior. We must coexist with the person but not necessarily agree with their behaviors.
Since ought is a moral obligation, there are things that I must do. I am morally required to do them. The Bible has hundreds of commands that as a believer I ought to follow or at least I ought to want to follow. I put it that way because as a Christian I do not earn my way into heaven because of my works, rather I work my way into heaven because of Christ’s works in particular His sacrificial death and resurrection.
I would like to look at just three of the commands we are given. When Jesus was approached by a lawyer, a Pharisee, in Matthew 22:36-39 the discourse went like this “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (ESV) So the first two commandments are these. The third we find in John 13:34-35, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (ESV) I see here that we are to love God first, love our neighbors and love our fellow believers. But what does this mean? The word love in this context does not mean the same as the world uses the term today. The Greek word in all these cases is the same word used in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (ESV) We find that the only place we find the use of this particular Greek word translated as love is the New Testament. It is not found in any other historical documents of the time. So what is this love based on the usage in the New Testament I would like to submit to you that it means, The steadfast, sacrificial zeal that seeks the true good of another. When I look at that and say I ought to love God, I ought to love my neighbor, and I ought to love my fellow believers in Christ I am overflowing with hope. I have hope because of my love for God, my neighbor and my fellow believers have hope because I am always looking out for their true good.
So, join me in these three oughts’ and have hope for yourself and give hope to others. The death of Jesus Christ on the cross satisfied the penalty for my sins and yours as well. It satisfied all my sins from the past, in the present and in the future and yours too. My penalty and yours was satisfied on the cross by the death of Jesus who became sin for me and you. Because of that we ought to believe in Jesus. I hope that you join me in choosing Jesus.
If you have not read my previous blogs, you can find them here.
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