I have had an idea bouncing around in my head for awhile, that I haven't been able to solidify until now. Basically, it is sinful to do something that you believe is wrong, even if that action was not inherently wrong for any other reason. (Paul talks about this in 1Cor 8 in regards to eating certain meat.) But believing something is right obviously doesn't automatically make it right, certain things are inherently wrong, regardless of what you believe about them. The lack of symmetry or balance in this concept has been bothering me. Since most things in life are not so one sided, I assumed something wasn't right about that.
I was looking at right and wrong as two existing groups of actions, and seeing that we as humans had the authority to move possible actions from one group to the other, but not the other direction. What if we instead look at all actions as inherently potentially right? Things only get assigned the label "wrong" if someone (including God) decides to label them that way. In the beginning there was only one action with that label, eating from the forbidden tree. If Adam had slapped Eve, would that have been sinful, I don't know? Even if there is an underlying natural morality that exists outside of the Biblical commandments, (being the truth that the Bible merely describes) that would just be one more source for those labels. The Bible adds many more of those labels throughout the Old Testament. Jesus seems to have removed many of those, and added different ones in the New Testament. The new labels are much more subject to interpretation than the old ones, but far broader in their scope.
So mankind has the authority to add those "wrong" labels in a variety of ways, but not to remove ones already placed there by others, especially ones from God. The government has the authority to place those labels on certain actions, and they become wrong. (Romans 13) But things don't need to be illegal to be wrong, take abortion for example. But if the government tries to remove those labels that God has clearly placed, like the Chinese approach to forced abortions, the government is clearly overstepping its authority.
It is the same with individuals, in that we have the authority to label actions as wrong, if we believe they are. This usually happens based on our varied interpretations of the principles presented in the Bible, that aren't specific commands. But we don't have the authority to remove the labels that were added by others. Underage drinking is wrong because it is illegal, regardless of what you believe the Bible says on that specific issue. But it may not be wrong if you are in another country, that hasn't added that label. But if you happen to believe that it is wrong to kiss someone you aren't married to, and then in the heat of the moment you do that, it is sinful. But someone else doing the exact same thing may not be sinning at all.
Parents have the Biblical authority to place those labels on actions for their children, similar to the government. These labels are usually based on their interpretations of Biblical principles, and they apply regardless of their children’s interpretations. This is one of those times where we see the tremendous amount of responsibility placed on parenting.
When viewed from this labeling perspective, it appears more balanced for two reasons. Even if our labels were irrevocable, if all actions are initially right, we are just narrowing the infinite set of options, as opposed to removing from a limited number of "right" actions. But the real symmetry comes from the fact that we can remove the "wrong" labels that we place, if we later learn more specific truth in that area. The government can remove the labels they place as well, as in Prohibition, but not ones we place on ourselves. Even if they specifically make it legal to do drugs, if we interpret the verses abut our body as a temple to prohibit that action, then it is still wrong for us.
The key thing to remember is that: while the labels that we ourselves place do apply to us, they do not necessarily apply to others, unless we have authority over them. It is wise to avoid offending others by respecting the labels they assign to certain actions (1Cor 8), but we should not judge others actions against the labels that we ourselves have created.
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