Without love we have nothing. We often get caught up in the details of faith and pass over the most basic teachings of scripture.
Any discussion of Christian ethics or Christian living must be concerned with love. If we have right teaching but lack love we have nothing.
If we truly love God and love others all else will fall into place.
Showing posts with label ethics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ethics. Show all posts
Saturday, May 7, 2016
Tuesday, January 5, 2016
The Gospel above Issues
Often there are many in the church who have political issues they feel strongly about which are placed at a higher priority than the gospel. They are always concerned about this or that cause, but never about the gospel.
We as Christians can never rightly concerned about causes without having concern for the gospel.
It is as if many Christians are like Lewis's character in the Screwtape Letters. While we may not have been pushed into completely meaningless thought we have been totally diverted to secondary matters.
We seem to have gotten the notion that getting non-Christians to live out Christian ethics is more important than their eternal status with God. We should have great concern for their status with God as our first priority.
The gospel saves people not legislating morality. We need to preach the gospel of reconciliation through Jesus.
If we have not worked to further the kingdom of God through the furthering the spreading of the gospel we have not yet sufficiently lived out our Christian faith.
We as Christians can never rightly concerned about causes without having concern for the gospel.
It is as if many Christians are like Lewis's character in the Screwtape Letters. While we may not have been pushed into completely meaningless thought we have been totally diverted to secondary matters.
We seem to have gotten the notion that getting non-Christians to live out Christian ethics is more important than their eternal status with God. We should have great concern for their status with God as our first priority.
The gospel saves people not legislating morality. We need to preach the gospel of reconciliation through Jesus.
If we have not worked to further the kingdom of God through the furthering the spreading of the gospel we have not yet sufficiently lived out our Christian faith.
Saturday, April 18, 2015
Keeping the Focus on Christ
We need to keep the focus on Christ as Christians. The gospel of the forgiveness of sins for all who come to Jesus is the center of Christianity.
Too often we and the church get caught up on small matters. The matters seem important or may be important but the gospel gets pushed to the side.
The gospel can never be pushed to the side in the church. Often the church wants to improve the behavior of its members by ethical teaching.
And while ethics and teaching on Christian living are of great use, the ethics and Christian living are always rooted in the cross. If we focus too much on ethics and forget the root of ethics we loose the power of the gospel.
The gospel has the power to change the world. That is why the gospel must always be kept at the center of the church.
If you want to save souls you need to the gospel. If you need to have people become better they need the gospel. If you need people who profess to be Christians, but live poorly, you need to get them to really understand the gospel.
The gospel is the power with which the world is overcome. The world will not be improved much by ethics, but it will be improved by truly grasping the glory of the risen Jesus. Let us keep our eyes on the author and perfecter of our faith.
Too often we and the church get caught up on small matters. The matters seem important or may be important but the gospel gets pushed to the side.
The gospel can never be pushed to the side in the church. Often the church wants to improve the behavior of its members by ethical teaching.
And while ethics and teaching on Christian living are of great use, the ethics and Christian living are always rooted in the cross. If we focus too much on ethics and forget the root of ethics we loose the power of the gospel.
The gospel has the power to change the world. That is why the gospel must always be kept at the center of the church.
If you want to save souls you need to the gospel. If you need to have people become better they need the gospel. If you need people who profess to be Christians, but live poorly, you need to get them to really understand the gospel.
The gospel is the power with which the world is overcome. The world will not be improved much by ethics, but it will be improved by truly grasping the glory of the risen Jesus. Let us keep our eyes on the author and perfecter of our faith.
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Two Commands
Often in life the commandments of God seem to rub against each other a bit. It is often hard to know what to do at times in life. It is why the bible always calls us to wisdom. Wisdom will show us the way when life becomes difficult.
For example sometimes tensions arise between keeping confidences of things others have said to us and keeping relationships with nosy people. You know you cannot break confidence and yet you cannot confront the nosy people asking inappropriate questions because they will not understand.
There is a delicate balance at times maintaining a balanced view of the law in certain situations. Much wisdom, thought, and prayer is required.
In a biblical example David, when he was on the run, ate bread that was only permitted to be eaten by the priests. He ate what he should not eat in general and did what was right.
Is the law in conflict? No. The bible is quite helpful in that it gives us levels of wisdom. You see there is much specific guidance and some of the specifics can come into tension in situations in life. That is why the bible gives overarching principles.
The overarching principles are that we are to love God with our whole heart and love our neighbor as ourselves. You see the bible summarizes our direction easily for us when life becomes difficult.
The bible spells out the details to aid us to learn. But when we need wisdom because of the stickiness of life we should first pray, but also fall back to the overarching principle of biblical ethics of love. If we truthfully act in love after prayer and careful thought we will not be far off.
For example sometimes tensions arise between keeping confidences of things others have said to us and keeping relationships with nosy people. You know you cannot break confidence and yet you cannot confront the nosy people asking inappropriate questions because they will not understand.
There is a delicate balance at times maintaining a balanced view of the law in certain situations. Much wisdom, thought, and prayer is required.
In a biblical example David, when he was on the run, ate bread that was only permitted to be eaten by the priests. He ate what he should not eat in general and did what was right.
Is the law in conflict? No. The bible is quite helpful in that it gives us levels of wisdom. You see there is much specific guidance and some of the specifics can come into tension in situations in life. That is why the bible gives overarching principles.
The overarching principles are that we are to love God with our whole heart and love our neighbor as ourselves. You see the bible summarizes our direction easily for us when life becomes difficult.
The bible spells out the details to aid us to learn. But when we need wisdom because of the stickiness of life we should first pray, but also fall back to the overarching principle of biblical ethics of love. If we truthfully act in love after prayer and careful thought we will not be far off.
Thursday, October 2, 2014
Method and Motive
A common saying is "all is well that ends well." There is some truth to it. We cannot and should not obsess about what could have happened or might have happened.
But in life, motive and methods are key to Christian ethics. You see the bible does not judge human action by external actions only.
Often we will see in life a person with many awards for philanthropy or designations for this or that cause reveal their true character. You see men judge by what could be seen outward actions. But the real truth lied within the heart.
It is ultimately motive and truly seeking the right methods which pleases God. Of course a heart motivated and filled with truth will act.
A heart right before God is a heart which wishes to act. But often there are many outward movements which have the form of a heart right before God, but motive is not there.
We cannot know the heart of others in life, but it is the reason so many people are found out to not be the people we thought they were. They were following external forms for this or that reason with internal reality.
You see the bible is summed in two principles, "love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, so and strength," and "love your neighbor as yourself." You see the world cannot keep the law of God because only what is done out of love for God is truly good.
The world often approximates the good and many non-believers do immense amounts of good works in the world. But it falls short of the ultimate reality of living all of life unto God.
But in life, motive and methods are key to Christian ethics. You see the bible does not judge human action by external actions only.
Often we will see in life a person with many awards for philanthropy or designations for this or that cause reveal their true character. You see men judge by what could be seen outward actions. But the real truth lied within the heart.
It is ultimately motive and truly seeking the right methods which pleases God. Of course a heart motivated and filled with truth will act.
A heart right before God is a heart which wishes to act. But often there are many outward movements which have the form of a heart right before God, but motive is not there.
We cannot know the heart of others in life, but it is the reason so many people are found out to not be the people we thought they were. They were following external forms for this or that reason with internal reality.
You see the bible is summed in two principles, "love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, so and strength," and "love your neighbor as yourself." You see the world cannot keep the law of God because only what is done out of love for God is truly good.
The world often approximates the good and many non-believers do immense amounts of good works in the world. But it falls short of the ultimate reality of living all of life unto God.
Friday, September 26, 2014
To Not Take Credit
The bible tells us to seek what is good and noble. Often it is important to seek these things for their own worth. If is easy to seek these things for the wrong reasons.
It is easy to do good things if they are for our benefit. It is good press to be seen doing good things in public or mention in public all the good we have done.
It is not that it is important that others never see us do good works. The reality is that often good works will be seen. What is important is our spirit. Do we do the good works because we seek to please God or do we do them because we want to impress people.
I suppose a simple test is if our first reaction when we do something good that few people know about is to go and tell others. You see often it is the case that the people who do the least good spend the most time telling others about the few good things they have done.
Motive is always important in theological ethics. God looks at the heart and judges actions in part by motive.
This is why the bible often tells us to do good in secret and not before men. It is not that our good works should never be seen, but that we should desire to do good works unto God and not before people.
In the end we should care what God thinks and not what people think. If the whole world views us as foolish but God sees us as righteous than what does the world's view matter. You see this repeated in the bible. The world thought Noah was foolish, but not God, and at times the whole world doubted Moses.
You see in the end only one opinion matters and that is of the Lord of Heaven and earth. All other opinions matter only in relation to that one opinion. Of course that is not a call to a standoffish attitude. But rather a call to realize that we may at times be doing what is right and everyone may see us as foolish.
It is easy to do good things if they are for our benefit. It is good press to be seen doing good things in public or mention in public all the good we have done.
It is not that it is important that others never see us do good works. The reality is that often good works will be seen. What is important is our spirit. Do we do the good works because we seek to please God or do we do them because we want to impress people.
I suppose a simple test is if our first reaction when we do something good that few people know about is to go and tell others. You see often it is the case that the people who do the least good spend the most time telling others about the few good things they have done.
Motive is always important in theological ethics. God looks at the heart and judges actions in part by motive.
This is why the bible often tells us to do good in secret and not before men. It is not that our good works should never be seen, but that we should desire to do good works unto God and not before people.
In the end we should care what God thinks and not what people think. If the whole world views us as foolish but God sees us as righteous than what does the world's view matter. You see this repeated in the bible. The world thought Noah was foolish, but not God, and at times the whole world doubted Moses.
You see in the end only one opinion matters and that is of the Lord of Heaven and earth. All other opinions matter only in relation to that one opinion. Of course that is not a call to a standoffish attitude. But rather a call to realize that we may at times be doing what is right and everyone may see us as foolish.
Thursday, August 21, 2014
The Creator and Ethics
It is at times charged by some thinkers that if God exists (even the Christian God) then God is unjust. Usually the objection is based upon the problem of evil or some sense of anger against heaven and hell.
All the objections usually miss multiple facts. First and primarily we are a creation of the living God. We exist only because of God. It is not as if God imposes his will on man who exists independent of God.
No man is completely independent of God. Without God man never would have existed and the teaching of scripture is that at each and every moment the world is upheld by the power of God's will. You see the world exists at each and every moment only because God wills that it exist.
It is the great folly of man to think he can stand against God or judge God. God created man and upholds his existence at every moment.
For the objections against the character of God, man in each case often denies the fact that man has brought these troubles upon himself. Man also rejects the fact that God has and continues to attempt to draw men to himself.
God actively pursues man in his fallen state. God constantly wishes to draw man to himself. You see man frequently pushes God away. Man does not want to be helped because he is proud enough to think he does not need help.
In the church you often find many people who are aware of their issues and don't seem to have things together. The reason they are in the church of course is that they are aware of their issues.
A great many people who seem to have their lives together really have their lives in shambles. Ultimately man is not nearly as good or put together as man thinks.
It is a lack of understanding of man's nature that leads to the power of the objections against God. If man is who the bible says he is, a creature created and sustained by God who rebelled and willfully rejects God's help, then any objections against God are hard to accept.
All the objections usually miss multiple facts. First and primarily we are a creation of the living God. We exist only because of God. It is not as if God imposes his will on man who exists independent of God.
No man is completely independent of God. Without God man never would have existed and the teaching of scripture is that at each and every moment the world is upheld by the power of God's will. You see the world exists at each and every moment only because God wills that it exist.
It is the great folly of man to think he can stand against God or judge God. God created man and upholds his existence at every moment.
For the objections against the character of God, man in each case often denies the fact that man has brought these troubles upon himself. Man also rejects the fact that God has and continues to attempt to draw men to himself.
God actively pursues man in his fallen state. God constantly wishes to draw man to himself. You see man frequently pushes God away. Man does not want to be helped because he is proud enough to think he does not need help.
In the church you often find many people who are aware of their issues and don't seem to have things together. The reason they are in the church of course is that they are aware of their issues.
A great many people who seem to have their lives together really have their lives in shambles. Ultimately man is not nearly as good or put together as man thinks.
It is a lack of understanding of man's nature that leads to the power of the objections against God. If man is who the bible says he is, a creature created and sustained by God who rebelled and willfully rejects God's help, then any objections against God are hard to accept.
Monday, May 26, 2014
Faith as a Way of Life
The church often views faith as something which has happened. When did you come to faith in Jesus?
It is true that faith has a beginning but you see it continues. It has an end listed in the bible when we meet God face to face in heaven.
You see we live life day by day by faith. What does living by faith mean?
You see it is trusting in things we do not see and always clinging the promises of God.
Why is living by faith relevant? Primarily because it makes us humble and open to opportunities. You see we do not know as much as we think.
The tendency of mankind is to always see oneself as someone who knows things and has capabilities. This hinders our mission because we rely on our own strength not on God.
To realize that we do not know and we do not see God but through a glass dimly allows true ministry and a more faithful following of God.
You see we are all pilgrims on a journey and we are all lost and needing direction at times. Some pilgrims on the path of faith are more lost than others and some are mainly on the right path and some very far astray, but we all are on a path and there is murkiness to it and we are not always sure what is right or wrong.
Often ethics and the Christian life is made very simple. You see in the bible that ethics and the Christian life is very difficult.
Usually the disconnect is that we have simplified faith to make it easy to fulfill. We like things that are achievable.
Christianity is inconvenient in that it demands the unachievable, to be sinless, and then simply says look you cannot achieve this. Go have faith in Jesus – he has achieved what you cannot.
The great achievement of the Christian, faith, rests outside of himself. And as he lives out faith the works flow from his connection to Jesus.
The bible has an ethical sense which is terribly difficult. It is impossible to fulfill. But God knows our frame and says have faith I have already fulfilled the whole law for you and go and live in faith.
And as we live in faith we fail but by God’s grace it has no effect on our standing since the cross is final. It is finished. Salvation is won or lost at the cross.
We are free to live out obedience to God while resting in the fact that victory is won. You see the path we journey on is fully under the shadow of the cross where all of our sin has been blotted out and we are already clothed in Jesus’ righteousness.
We can have the freedom to fail because the battle is won and the freedom is liberating because we are asked to live in faith and what is requested is that we live in faith and not that we have any success.
You see success in many aspects of life is given by God. It is not a result of the quality of faith. That we fail often has no relation to the quality of our faith or efforts and more on God’s will.
And you can see that there is often no relation between the success God gives and how he views his children. He may give one child great success and another very little, but it often has no bearing on his view of them.
Many wicked man have been given by God a short ephemeral success and many children a long and hard path, but you see we need to look by faith at things and not judge as the world judges.
It is true that faith has a beginning but you see it continues. It has an end listed in the bible when we meet God face to face in heaven.
You see we live life day by day by faith. What does living by faith mean?
You see it is trusting in things we do not see and always clinging the promises of God.
Why is living by faith relevant? Primarily because it makes us humble and open to opportunities. You see we do not know as much as we think.
The tendency of mankind is to always see oneself as someone who knows things and has capabilities. This hinders our mission because we rely on our own strength not on God.
To realize that we do not know and we do not see God but through a glass dimly allows true ministry and a more faithful following of God.
You see we are all pilgrims on a journey and we are all lost and needing direction at times. Some pilgrims on the path of faith are more lost than others and some are mainly on the right path and some very far astray, but we all are on a path and there is murkiness to it and we are not always sure what is right or wrong.
Often ethics and the Christian life is made very simple. You see in the bible that ethics and the Christian life is very difficult.
Usually the disconnect is that we have simplified faith to make it easy to fulfill. We like things that are achievable.
Christianity is inconvenient in that it demands the unachievable, to be sinless, and then simply says look you cannot achieve this. Go have faith in Jesus – he has achieved what you cannot.
The great achievement of the Christian, faith, rests outside of himself. And as he lives out faith the works flow from his connection to Jesus.
The bible has an ethical sense which is terribly difficult. It is impossible to fulfill. But God knows our frame and says have faith I have already fulfilled the whole law for you and go and live in faith.
And as we live in faith we fail but by God’s grace it has no effect on our standing since the cross is final. It is finished. Salvation is won or lost at the cross.
We are free to live out obedience to God while resting in the fact that victory is won. You see the path we journey on is fully under the shadow of the cross where all of our sin has been blotted out and we are already clothed in Jesus’ righteousness.
We can have the freedom to fail because the battle is won and the freedom is liberating because we are asked to live in faith and what is requested is that we live in faith and not that we have any success.
You see success in many aspects of life is given by God. It is not a result of the quality of faith. That we fail often has no relation to the quality of our faith or efforts and more on God’s will.
And you can see that there is often no relation between the success God gives and how he views his children. He may give one child great success and another very little, but it often has no bearing on his view of them.
Many wicked man have been given by God a short ephemeral success and many children a long and hard path, but you see we need to look by faith at things and not judge as the world judges.
Friday, March 14, 2014
Fellowship and Adiaphora
An understanding of Adiaphora and acceptance of it is key to fellowship. Adiaphora are things which are indifferent or areas where there is truth but not of a significance to divide over.
You see Paul using the concept in several cases where he gives his opinion but says that unity is more important than everyone accepting the truth on the issue.
The existence of Adiaphora indicates that some things are worth fighting over. You see Paul for example confronts certain apostles because they were clearly in the wrong on an issue. And some things are of small importance and unity is more important than this or that tiny detail.
We always need wisdom as we approach scripture. God thinks differently than we do many times. We tend to think as people in either of two ways: in completely black and white terms or completely in shades of gray.
God's thought does not fit neatly into this mold. At some points God's thought as recorded in scripture is completely black and white. In some areas he thinks in shades of gray.
You see God looks at the big picture and that is what wisdom is. It is a call to apply the truth of scripture uniquely to each situation.
There are absolutes but also there are many unique situations with great complexity. There is black and white and there is gray all in life and ethics.
You see Paul using the concept in several cases where he gives his opinion but says that unity is more important than everyone accepting the truth on the issue.
The existence of Adiaphora indicates that some things are worth fighting over. You see Paul for example confronts certain apostles because they were clearly in the wrong on an issue. And some things are of small importance and unity is more important than this or that tiny detail.
We always need wisdom as we approach scripture. God thinks differently than we do many times. We tend to think as people in either of two ways: in completely black and white terms or completely in shades of gray.
God's thought does not fit neatly into this mold. At some points God's thought as recorded in scripture is completely black and white. In some areas he thinks in shades of gray.
You see God looks at the big picture and that is what wisdom is. It is a call to apply the truth of scripture uniquely to each situation.
There are absolutes but also there are many unique situations with great complexity. There is black and white and there is gray all in life and ethics.
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Joy based Ethics
The highest form of ethics is based on joy. Joy in God which overflows into the lives of others.
There are many forms of philosophical, religious, and even Christian ethics which fall short of the highest ethic.
"For the joy set before him he endured..." (Hebrews 12:2)
You see Jesus overflowed with joy in his fellowship with the God head. His ethics flowed from joy.
You see many ethical forms try to teach us to do good because of fear. Fear is one of the lowest ethical forms. It has effect but it is really not an ethic at all but a self preservation.
Other forms try to appeal to our sense of right and justice and how do we feel. The bible does teach that there is validity this form and approves of this form. But you see it is not the highest.
Joy in God and the fruit of joy in God is the highest ethic. You once we have studied the whole bible and it's vast teaching we then can some the whole of the law into the word "love." To obey the law is to love God and man.
Why the bible has to spend so much time on specifics is that man does not understand what love is. He thinks all sorts of things are good which are not in God's eyes.
Man often finds these things are not as good as he thought when he gets burned doing them but he rarely realizes that God was in fact right and if he had listened to what God said love was than his life would be better.
We are saved by grace which came joy. We are at our best when we live day by day in the joy of God.
There are many forms of philosophical, religious, and even Christian ethics which fall short of the highest ethic.
"For the joy set before him he endured..." (Hebrews 12:2)
You see Jesus overflowed with joy in his fellowship with the God head. His ethics flowed from joy.
You see many ethical forms try to teach us to do good because of fear. Fear is one of the lowest ethical forms. It has effect but it is really not an ethic at all but a self preservation.
Other forms try to appeal to our sense of right and justice and how do we feel. The bible does teach that there is validity this form and approves of this form. But you see it is not the highest.
Joy in God and the fruit of joy in God is the highest ethic. You once we have studied the whole bible and it's vast teaching we then can some the whole of the law into the word "love." To obey the law is to love God and man.
Why the bible has to spend so much time on specifics is that man does not understand what love is. He thinks all sorts of things are good which are not in God's eyes.
Man often finds these things are not as good as he thought when he gets burned doing them but he rarely realizes that God was in fact right and if he had listened to what God said love was than his life would be better.
We are saved by grace which came joy. We are at our best when we live day by day in the joy of God.
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Specificity vs. Generality
A seemingly frustrating aspect of the bible at times is that the bible prefers to lay down general principles rather than specific guidance. The bible always turns to wisdom to decide between priorities of principles rather than delve into specifics.
Why is this? Does God not know the proper answer to tell us?
The reality if we think very clearly is that each situation in life is too specific for a hard and fast complete rule book. We often see this in human governments where laws to protect people seem to harm some people.
A sort of rigidness to rules is the difficulty. Ethics carries a certain degree of situational to itself. The bible is wise to not overextend itself on guidance to people.
An over extended set of rules produces wrong outcomes at times. This is why the bible always expounds wisdom.
A lot of philosophers have noticed the situationality of ethics and wished to move away from absolutes. The basis of postmodernity is an understanding that there is a grayness to the world and how we should live that the modernism has missed.
I believe that absolutes are important. We can have absolutes, but also realize that while there are many absolutes in the world there are also many situations where ethics are situational.
We can clearly see that many things are always wrong. But there are things which are sometimes right, sometimes neutral, and sometimes wrong.
The parable of the good Samaritan is a good example. The many people on the road would often be right to hurry to their important business, but in this case they were wrong.
Ethics has both absolutes and grayness where discernment is needed. The bible has already seen this. This is why the bible is neither a friend of modernity or postmodernity in an absolute sense.
Why is this? Does God not know the proper answer to tell us?
The reality if we think very clearly is that each situation in life is too specific for a hard and fast complete rule book. We often see this in human governments where laws to protect people seem to harm some people.
A sort of rigidness to rules is the difficulty. Ethics carries a certain degree of situational to itself. The bible is wise to not overextend itself on guidance to people.
An over extended set of rules produces wrong outcomes at times. This is why the bible always expounds wisdom.
A lot of philosophers have noticed the situationality of ethics and wished to move away from absolutes. The basis of postmodernity is an understanding that there is a grayness to the world and how we should live that the modernism has missed.
I believe that absolutes are important. We can have absolutes, but also realize that while there are many absolutes in the world there are also many situations where ethics are situational.
We can clearly see that many things are always wrong. But there are things which are sometimes right, sometimes neutral, and sometimes wrong.
The parable of the good Samaritan is a good example. The many people on the road would often be right to hurry to their important business, but in this case they were wrong.
Ethics has both absolutes and grayness where discernment is needed. The bible has already seen this. This is why the bible is neither a friend of modernity or postmodernity in an absolute sense.
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Christian Ethics
There are many ethical viewpoints for life. A few of them have serious flaws from a Christian perspective.
Consequentialism is a view that there is some common good which should be values. What is ethical is maximizing this common good.
A major flaw of the system of consequentialism is that it can be just or ethical to run over or mistreat others to obtain a result. This end justifies the means worldview has serious concerns from a Christian perspective.
You cannot condemn consequentialism absolutely but it is concerning especially when it is oneself who determines what will cause the perceived good. Since the heart is evil and crooked a system where ends justifies means is very suspect to cause unethical behavior.
Another system of thought is that which is described as everyone is permitted to do anything the please so long as it does not affect oneself negatively. The flaw of this view is that what negatively affects oneself is subjective.
One will often find this as a critique of religion as religion is a nuisance to oneself. Often ironically the same people holding the critique are also a nuisance to religion...
Ethics as all is permitted except what bothers oneself is actually a fairly incoherent system since what bothers everyone is different. If we all agree on this ethic there is no use to it since we will all disagree on what is bothersome.
There are too many ethics to really discuss, but Christian ethics has a distinctly pleasant element - simplicity. Really Christian ethics can be boiled down into loving God and loving our neighbor and correctly understood our neighbor includes everyone.
The bible gives a lot of help on this principle of what love is since people have by nature fallen views of this concept. But the reality is the biblical framework is simply on the basis of love and the ethical teaching is simply to set fallen minds set correctly on what is or is not loving.
Consequentialism is a view that there is some common good which should be values. What is ethical is maximizing this common good.
A major flaw of the system of consequentialism is that it can be just or ethical to run over or mistreat others to obtain a result. This end justifies the means worldview has serious concerns from a Christian perspective.
You cannot condemn consequentialism absolutely but it is concerning especially when it is oneself who determines what will cause the perceived good. Since the heart is evil and crooked a system where ends justifies means is very suspect to cause unethical behavior.
Another system of thought is that which is described as everyone is permitted to do anything the please so long as it does not affect oneself negatively. The flaw of this view is that what negatively affects oneself is subjective.
One will often find this as a critique of religion as religion is a nuisance to oneself. Often ironically the same people holding the critique are also a nuisance to religion...
Ethics as all is permitted except what bothers oneself is actually a fairly incoherent system since what bothers everyone is different. If we all agree on this ethic there is no use to it since we will all disagree on what is bothersome.
There are too many ethics to really discuss, but Christian ethics has a distinctly pleasant element - simplicity. Really Christian ethics can be boiled down into loving God and loving our neighbor and correctly understood our neighbor includes everyone.
The bible gives a lot of help on this principle of what love is since people have by nature fallen views of this concept. But the reality is the biblical framework is simply on the basis of love and the ethical teaching is simply to set fallen minds set correctly on what is or is not loving.
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Ethics as a result of Faith
The flow of biblical teaching today has moved more and more from teaching about salvation to teaching about morality.
The flow of life has of course gone from more moral to less and less moral.
Why? Why is the teaching of morality not preventing the collapse of right living?
The reality is that ethics is not something that can be taught it is something which flows from the power of God living in man.
If you want to make a man good you cannot do so by telling him what it means to be good. He will only become good when he meets the living God.
The reality is the more morality is proclaimed by the church the less grace is. And morality is always dependent on grace.
The flow of life has of course gone from more moral to less and less moral.
Why? Why is the teaching of morality not preventing the collapse of right living?
The reality is that ethics is not something that can be taught it is something which flows from the power of God living in man.
If you want to make a man good you cannot do so by telling him what it means to be good. He will only become good when he meets the living God.
The reality is the more morality is proclaimed by the church the less grace is. And morality is always dependent on grace.
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Theology shaped by Ethics
A lot of time you meet people and discuss theology with them. You start to wonder why their theology looks so strange and bizarre.
It seems inexplicable at times the vantage points that people hold together. Often times after a while it starts to make sense.
The reality is that a lot of people simply wish to hold on to something. Or they do not wish to comes to terms with some great mistake in the past.
Now they shape their theology around their life choices. The bible would clearly point out their error, but to listen is painful.
The easy path is simply to do some logical hoops and to adjust their theology around their life rather than adjust their life to the teaching of God.
The bible meets us where we are. This is said a lot and it is true. But the flip side is that God now wants to take us on a journey to become a new person.
It seems frightful in a way at first how much God wants to mess with our lives. But the reality is that God actually knows who we are and who we were intended to be.
People spend a lot of time a psychologists many of these people offer great advice. But the reality is the truly great psycologist who can heal the souls of men is God if we will have faith in the life and work of his son Jesus.
It seems inexplicable at times the vantage points that people hold together. Often times after a while it starts to make sense.
The reality is that a lot of people simply wish to hold on to something. Or they do not wish to comes to terms with some great mistake in the past.
Now they shape their theology around their life choices. The bible would clearly point out their error, but to listen is painful.
The easy path is simply to do some logical hoops and to adjust their theology around their life rather than adjust their life to the teaching of God.
The bible meets us where we are. This is said a lot and it is true. But the flip side is that God now wants to take us on a journey to become a new person.
It seems frightful in a way at first how much God wants to mess with our lives. But the reality is that God actually knows who we are and who we were intended to be.
People spend a lot of time a psychologists many of these people offer great advice. But the reality is the truly great psycologist who can heal the souls of men is God if we will have faith in the life and work of his son Jesus.
Friday, May 31, 2013
Motive in Ethics is Key
It seems common sense that motive is an important part of ethics. It almost seems to go without saying that why we do something is often very important in understanding whether an action is good or bad.
Interestingly the idea that motive matters in ethics is under attack by many of today's philosophies. They seem to equate that the result rather than the motive is what is important.
There does seem to be a certain value in placing result as the primary evaluation of ethics rather than motive, since a lot of people seem pretty confused about what it means to be a good person. The Bible clearly shows that ethics consists of many elements one of which is motive.
The practical applications are many of motive as a part of ethics. The bible frequently talks about not pushing forward ones good works. Why? The motive of pride spoils most of the ethical nature of works.
A phrase which is fairly common, but holds a lot of value is "speaking the truth in love." It is easy to think that simply speaking the truth is loving, but the reality is that there is a huge amount of discernment needed in when to speak the truth and when to wait for a better moment or when to say nothing at all.
Interestingly the idea that motive matters in ethics is under attack by many of today's philosophies. They seem to equate that the result rather than the motive is what is important.
There does seem to be a certain value in placing result as the primary evaluation of ethics rather than motive, since a lot of people seem pretty confused about what it means to be a good person. The Bible clearly shows that ethics consists of many elements one of which is motive.
The practical applications are many of motive as a part of ethics. The bible frequently talks about not pushing forward ones good works. Why? The motive of pride spoils most of the ethical nature of works.
A phrase which is fairly common, but holds a lot of value is "speaking the truth in love." It is easy to think that simply speaking the truth is loving, but the reality is that there is a huge amount of discernment needed in when to speak the truth and when to wait for a better moment or when to say nothing at all.
Sunday, July 24, 2005
Irrelevant Answer to an Ethical Question
"Well, to every man his own."
I can’t find any less irrelevant answer to an ethical question than this. Either you or I am I wrong. I can see no point in applying relativity to an ethical question. You are doubly Gods. First in that you are his creation and second that you are bought at a price. We should be debating the issue off of scripture not such appeals to relativity.
I can’t find any less irrelevant answer to an ethical question than this. Either you or I am I wrong. I can see no point in applying relativity to an ethical question. You are doubly Gods. First in that you are his creation and second that you are bought at a price. We should be debating the issue off of scripture not such appeals to relativity.
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