The Bible contains two kinds of statements related to proper
conduct. Some of them describe the nature of God, the sort of world
he created, and what he has done for particular groups of people. It
also contains statements telling us what we ought to do, both as
creatures of this God and, in some instances, as the unique
beneficiaries of his redemptive activity. Consequently, the Bible
sets forth a moral viewpoint or ethical system, supported by reasons
that justify its content and urgency. The writers of Scripture were
not moral philosophers, outlining their position in technical detail;
nevertheless, they intended to reveal what pleases our God and
Savior, so that the saints are “thoroughly equipped for every
good work” (2 Tim. 3:16–17). The Bible, therefore,
is the foundational resource for moral discernment, the definitive
statement of what Christians must do and who they must become.
The
Sources of Moral Knowledge
Scripture
identifies two sources of moral knowledge. First, all human beings
have the law of God “written on their hearts” (Rom.
2:15). We have a conscience, a God-given awareness of right and wrong
that acquits or convicts us, depending on how we respond to it. The
fall of humankind has damaged this source of knowledge, and our
consciences can become “seared” through chronic
disobedience and doctrinal treason (1 Tim. 4:2). We do not,
therefore, see infallibly what our duties are. Nevertheless, the
apostle Paul argues that every human being knows enough of God’s
law—and indeed, enough about his nature as God—to
eliminate every defense on judgment day (Rom. 1:18–20). No one
will be able to say to God in that hour, “I had no idea who you
were and no hint of what you expected of me.”
Second,
as noted above, we have the Bible as a source of knowledge, this one
being fully adequate and sufficiently clear to guide our choices.
Knowing Scripture is necessary for Christian ethics because it offers
a high-definition view of what conscience can (even in its best
moments) scarcely grasp. The Bible proclaims not only what the church
must do, often in straightforward, concrete terms, but also (at
least, in many cases) why God’s will has its particular content
and why obedience is an emergency, not a safely deferred, improvement
project. The Bible does not, and really could not, answer every
ethical question put to it in unambiguous detail. New technologies
and cultural shifts have created dilemmas unimagined in the first
century or any previous age. But the church can be assured that a
faithful reading of and response to Scripture will, by the grace of
God, please him even today, whatever our particular circumstances.
The
Logic of Biblical Morality
The
moral teaching of Scripture has an identifiable structure consisting
of duties and final objectives. When we obey God’s
commandments, which is our duty, his ultimate goals or objectives in
creating us are realized. In this sense, biblical morality is
complete and informative compared to systems derived from other
worldviews. It explains what life is all about, but also what we must
do from day to day. This entire picture emerges from Scripture
because its theological statements are always practically applied and
never presented with merely theoretical interest.
The
objectives of biblical morality.
The objectives of an ethical system are its final ends or purposes:
the results that obedience is supposed to yield. In the Bible, two
objectives have this ultimate significance, one being the anticipated
side effect of the other.
To
glorify God.
The biblical writers proclaim the spectacular goodness of God. He is
maximally excellent in all ways as the Creator, including wisdom,
power, justice, and love. He is the holy God who, almost in spite of
that fact, loves us and gave his Son, Jesus, to suffer for our sins
so that we might live eternally in his presence. In these respects,
God stands alone, not simply in experience but necessarily so. No one
ever has, and no one ever could, be like him. Thus, the final
objective of all human striving must be to glorify this God—to
know him, to praise him, and to value what he values. Our actions
must testify to his excellence, honoring him and encouraging others
to do likewise. Obedience treasures what God treasures, shuns what he
abhors, and allows his power to work in our lives, causing us to live
in unity with our fellow believers. These patterns of behavior define
what it means to glorify God.
To
be happy in God’s presence.
The second goal or objective of biblical morality is to be happy in
ways that are proper for God’s creatures. In this sense, the
Christian system of ethics differs from moral theories that either
reject happiness altogether, viewing it as an unworthy goal, or else
reduce it to a merely practical necessity—that is, we sinners
need our incentives. On the contrary, the God of Scripture plainly
desires our happiness and often presents himself as the final source
of it when calling his people to obedience. This tendency follows
from the perfect goodness of God and his freedom in creating all
things. He did not have to make anything else, but he did so; and
because he has no needs, his purposes must have been selfless rather
than selfish. He created in order to give rather than to get, and the
very best he desires for any of us is the happiness that results from
our glorifying him together, as one body in Christ. Likewise, then,
biblical morality differs from ethical systems that make human
happiness an intrinsic good, so that any means to it is acceptable.
God wants us to be happy, but our happiness must come from bringing
him glory. All other forms of happiness are deceptive and transitory.
The heavenly scenes of the book of Revelation show the church what
happiness God has in store for them if they overcome the trials of
this life (so, e.g., Rev. 4–5; 7; 21–22; cf. 1 Cor.
2:9; Heb. 12:2).
The
means of biblical morality.
Not surprisingly, the Bible also shows us how to glorify God—how
to reflect his majesty in our daily lives, how to praise him, and how
to value what he values. Within the whole of this teaching, several
major themes can be discerned, five leading examples of which appear
below, allowing some overlap between them.
Trusting
in God’s promises.
Biblical faith is the confidence that God will do for us what he has
promised. We believe that he can and will meet our needs and not
allow us to endure pointless suffering. When we trust him, we
proclaim his greatness and acknowledge our own dependence upon him.
Both Rom. 4 and Heb. 11 make this point in ways that reflect upon OT
history with an application to the present Christian life. The gospel
is a promise concerning the death, burial, and resurrection of
Christ; and faith assures us that God will reckon these events to our
account. Conversely, we often violate God’s commandments
because we doubt that he will give us what we need when we need it
(so, e.g., Abraham’s capitulation to Sarah in Gen. 16, with its
corresponding negative results).
Keeping
holiness and impurity separated.
God is the all-powerful, all-knowing, morally perfect Creator of the
universe. All things depend on him for their existence, and he is
extreme both in his commitment to justice and his desire to love.
Consequently, God’s creatures encounter him as “holy,”
as the ominously transcendent or dangerously perfect deity. He stands
alone, apart from everything else, and life in his presence cannot
entail business as usual. The shorthand way of expressing this duty
is to say that we ourselves must be holy, as he is holy, by shunning
all forms of impurity. In this way, for example, the ancient
Israelites prepared themselves to enter Yahweh’s presence and
gave him public honor (Lev. 11:44; 19:2; Ps. 24:3–4; Isa.
6:1–5; cf. 1 Pet. 1:15–16).
In
Scripture, the distinction between the pure and the impure, or the
holy and the unholy, is sometimes intrinsic and sometimes
pedagogical. Breaking any of the Ten Commandments makes one
intrinsically impure. It is always evil, everywhere, for anyone to
have other gods, make idols, and disrespect parents. It is evil to
lie, steal, and murder. Even breaking the Sabbath is wrong if it
expresses unbelief in God’s ability and willingness to provide.
But some lines between purity and impurity—or, in other cases,
just between the sacred and the common—seem to be drawn by God
for instructional purposes only. They do not separate good from evil
as such, but they compel the Israelites to “practice Yahweh’s
presence” by honoring boundaries imposed on domestic life. It
is not evil to eat pork, but doing that is forbidden in the OT and
permitted in the NT (Lev. 11:7; Mark 7:19). It is not evil to wear
blended cloth, but doing that is forbidden in the OT and passed over
in the NT (Lev. 19:19). Therefore, as suggested, Levitical rules of
this kind must have had some instrumental purpose, serving an
objective beyond themselves. They impose the holiness of Yahweh on
everyday choices, as the Holy Spirit now presses the claims of God
upon his church. This separation of impurity and holiness is, in any
case, a constant theme in the OT, and it carries over into the NT as
well, where it informs the question “What must I do to be
saved?” (cf. Acts 16:30).
Imitating
God/Christ.
The biblical writers also construe the moral life as an imitation of
God and/or Christ, especially when the virtues of mercy, humility,
and endurance are at stake. In the OT, Yahweh’s behavior toward
people becomes the standard for Israel’s own conduct. So, for
example, he says, “But let the one who boasts boast about this:
that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the Lord, who
exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these
I delight” (Jer. 9:24). In the NT, similar inferences appear,
as when Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will
be called children of God” (Matt. 5:9), the son being one who
follows in his father’s footsteps. We must love our enemies, so
that we may be “children of (our) Father in heaven”
(Matt. 5:44–45). We must “be perfect,” as he is
perfect (Matt. 5:48). Jesus commands his disciples to wash one
another’s feet, after his own example (John 13:14–15).
They must love each other as he has loved them (John 15:12). The new
commandment to love one another, following the Lord’s example,
puts on display his character and their own relationship to him
(13:34–35). Jesus prays that his disciples will be “one,”
just as the Father and the Son are one (17:22). Paul’s hymn in
Phil. 2:5–11 serves this purpose: we must imitate the humility
that surrendered all, even to the point of crucifixion. Hebrews
12:1–2 holds up Christ as one who “for the joy set before
him endured the cross, scorning its shame,” resulting in his
glory.
Living
out our unique identity.
Scripture defines the moral ideal for all persons, whoever they are,
because its perspective is not relativistic. Murder, idolatry, and
lying are not wrong for some and right for others. Nevertheless, most
of the Bible’s moral teaching has a target audience, so that it
often contains inferences to this effect: “You shall do X (or
doing X is urgent for you), either (a) because you belong to God
in a special way or (b) because he has done this special thing
for you.” In the OT, the target audience is Israel; in the NT,
the corresponding group is the church. In both Testaments, however,
the same ethical particularism operates, thereby giving the moral
exhortations of Paul and Peter, to cite two clear examples, a
recognizably “Jewish” structure or theme.
The
linkage between gift and task, or supernatural identity and behavior,
is the basic structure of the Sinai covenant itself. The text moves
from prologue, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of
Egypt,” to moral exhortation, beginning with, “You shall
have no other gods before me” (Exod. 20:1–3; Deut.
5:6–7). Echoes of this prologue also occur frequently in the OT
as motive clauses. God will say, in effect, “You shall do X,
for I am the Lord your God,” or “You shall not do Y, for
I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt.” In some
cases, the motive clause identifies the people themselves, as in,
“For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your
God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to
be his people, his treasured possession” (Deut. 7:6). Or again,
“You are the children of the Lord your God. Do not cut
yourselves or shave the front of your heads for the dead, for you are
a people holy to the Lord your God. Out of all the peoples on the
face of the earth, the Lord has chosen you to be his treasured
possession” (Deut. 14:1–2). In some cases, God refers to
the people’s unique condition to shame them, as in, “When
Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.
But the more they were called, the more they went away from me”
(Hos. 11:1–2). Loyalty was especially urgent, given Israel’s
experience of God’s particular love.
In
the NT, the mandate to live out one’s special identity appears
often, especially (though not exclusively) in the writings of Paul
and Peter. In Rom. 6 those who have been emancipated from sin must
resist its waning influence. In Rom. 8 those who are under the Holy
Spirit’s new management must walk in accordance with him and
shun the mind-set of the flesh. The Corinthians have become an
unleavened batch of dough; therefore, they must “Get rid of the
old yeast,” which tolerates extraordinary sin (1 Cor. 5).
The members of Christ’s one body are to function as one new
humanity (1 Cor. 12:12–31). If the Galatians live by the
Spirit, they must also walk by the Spirit (Gal. 5:25). Peter tells
his readers to love one another because they have been “born
again” of “imperishable seed” (1 Pet.
1:22–23). They are a “chosen race,” a “royal
priesthood,” and a “holy nation”; therefore, they
must proclaim his excellence and abstain from carnal passions (1 Pet.
2:9–11). Jesus himself says that because he is the vine and we
are the branches, we must abide in him (John 15:1–11). In all
these cases, the target audience has a special relationship to God
that imposes on them corresponding duties or priorities, so that they
reflect his holiness, value what he values, and attain the goals that
he has set before them.
Living
in unity with one another.
The first sin separated God from humankind and damaged all other
relationships (Gen. 3). From that point onward, Adam and Eve would
live in tension (Gen. 3:16), and their son Cain kills his brother
Abel (Gen. 4:8). Disunity results from sin; and in some cases, God
scatters sinners as judgment on their wickedness (e.g., Gen. 11:1–9;
1 Kings 11). It is “good and pleasant” when “God’s
people live together in unity” (Ps. 133:1), and obedience to OT
teaching would make them do so. Nevertheless, sin stands between
Yahweh and his people, and it stands between one Israelite and
another. Disunity, in all these dimensions, is the unfinished
business of the OT story.
The
NT presents unity as both an effect and a duty (or a gift and a task)
of the new life in Christ. We are one in Christ, and we must live in
unity of fellowship with one another. Jews and Gentiles—indeed,
people from all walks of life—become one body, a new kind of
people, defined by relationships that are “thicker than blood,”
so to speak, as blood is thicker than water. Paul, as the apostle to
the Gentiles, enforces this theme throughout his letters, so that his
exhortations concentrate on the church, in the first instance, rather
than the individual. Christians must display the social virtues of
love and humility, resisting selfish ambition and pride, both of
which separate believer from believer and each from the head of the
church, who is Christ. Romans and Ephesians make a positive case for
Christian unity among Jews and Gentiles, while Philippians (perhaps,
in a broader sense, also Galatians and Colossians) confronts a
divisive tendency. The essential vice denounced in 1–2 Corinthians
is arrogant grandstanding, which rejects Paul’s “message
of the cross” (1 Cor. 1:18) and subdivides the church into
cults of personality. Worldly forces are centrifugal, leading us away
from one another and into competition for influence, wealth, and
public honor. In contrast, the Holy Spirit’s force is
centripetal, creating unity where no one would expect it and leading
each person to self-sacrifice so that others in the body of Christ
might be built up in him.
