by Zeke Flores<\/p>\n
Most people don’t make a deliberate choice between good and evil. That is, they don’t sit there thinking about the moral implications of a choice; they simply do what they want, and then when it turns bad, they’re surprised at “what happened.” But everything we do is a choice in some way. The choice is between what we ought <\/b>to do and what we want <\/b>to do. The trick is wanting what we ought to do!<\/p>\n “For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil I do not want<\/em>” (Romans 7:19).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Zeke Flores Most people don’t make a deliberate choice between good and evil. That is, they don’t sit there thinking about the moral implications of a choice; they simply do what they want, and then when it turns bad, they’re surprised at “what happened.” But everything we do is a choice in some way.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[763,38],"class_list":["post-89407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-decisions","tag-morality"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":92970,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-sovereignty-of-god-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":89407,"position":0},"title":"The Sovereignty of God (Benton)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 31, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton I recently saw someone suggest that Calvinists would change John 3:19 to read: \"And this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, but I sovereignly chose not to regenerate them, so they had no choice but to love darkness instead.\" This would need\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15479,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-could-adam-and-eve-not-know-of-good-and-evil-until-they-ate-a-fruit\/","url_meta":{"origin":89407,"position":1},"title":"How could Adam and Eve not know of good and evil until they ate a fruit?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 15, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, How does one respond to someone who mocks the Christian faith by saying, \"The first human did not have knowledge of right or wrong and only got such ability after eating a fruit.\" He says that sounds like a far-fetched fairy tale. Answer: What changes between childhood and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":63774,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-is-evil-allowed\/","url_meta":{"origin":89407,"position":2},"title":"Why Is Evil Allowed?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 23, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Ecclesiastes 8:6-13 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It has happened again. Incomprehensible horror has struck to kill innocent children. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But we want to know why? Why did it happen? Why couldn\u2019t it be stopped? \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019ve seen guns blamed, drugs blamed, psychological problems blamed, schools blamed, and, yes, even God\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24819,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/free-will-and-the-power-of-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":89407,"position":3},"title":"Free Will and the Power of God","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 16, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton A gentleman called me recently to discuss the idea of men having free will. He believed that if a person can choose his own destiny, then he is working against God's will. Therefore he believes that a concept of free will is at odds with the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/rock-n-roll-monkey-FTfjMijq-Ws-unsplash-263x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":16347,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-i-decide-who-to-vote-for\/","url_meta":{"origin":89407,"position":4},"title":"How do I decide who to vote for?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 12, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My question has to do with voting. Since I am able to vote, are there any Bible verses for which I can turn to for deciding who to vote for?\u00a0 It is important for me to select the best candidate for running this country. Thanks! Answer: Christians ought to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43125,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-evil-in-this-world-makes-me-want-to-be-a-buddhist\/","url_meta":{"origin":89407,"position":5},"title":"The evil in this world makes me want to be a Buddhist","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 14, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I read your response to the person asking questions about theodicy. I don't feel you did a good job answering: Inasmuch as I can understand God \"letting\" a bad person hang themselves, it makes no sense that innocent, good, sincere people should suffer as a result. A young couple\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89407\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}