“Everybody is doing it!” At least that is what people keep telling me to justify their conduct. Three things ought to be said about this kind of reasoning.
First, it is not true. Not everyone is doing anything in a moral sense. Some people may be doing it and most people may be doing it, but not everybody is doing it. It is far more likely that everyone you know, or most of the people that you are hanging around with, are doing it. However, there are scores and scores of people who are not doing it—no matter what it is.
Second, it is foolish. If you follow that line of reasoning, the practices of the majority become the moral standard by which right and wrong are measured. That’s the kind of reasoning that allowed the Nazis to go along with Hitler’s extermination of six million Jews. After all, everybody was doing it.
Third, right is right even if no one is doing it. And wrong is wrong even if everybody is doing it. There is such a thing as an absolute right and wrong apart from the practices, habits, and conduct of people.
It is time we stopped trying to justify our actions with this kind of nonsense. It is time we measured our lives by the accurate standard of God’s word. For that is the standard by which we shall be judged ultimately.