Introduction -- What Are Ethics?

 

It’s a valid question, in a world that seems to want what it wants above all else. My choices matter, from as small a thing as what I want on my Subway sandwich, all the way up to who I want as my president. That’s the extent of the secular parameters for our choices, and should any of our choices or “rights” be violated, that’s when right versus wrong seems to enter the picture. Someone exercising an extreme position might try to argue that ethics are only situationally determined, until they are hit by a red-light runner, or their stuff from Amazon is swiped off of their doorstep. Evidently, all of us -- even the scoffers, when the rubber meets the road – think there should be an adherence to ethics in secular life. But, where do they come from, and are they not rooted in the spiritual mores? Jesus said clearly, when asked, that two commandments stand out above all the others: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ³⁸ This is the great and first commandment. ³⁹ And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. ⁴⁰ On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40) Jesus was not avoiding the law, but was summing it up for this fellow. Jesus must have suspected that this questioner, who was a Pharisee and a lawyer, had another motive, for by this time they had seen enough and wanted rid of this revolutionary Jesus. Just imagine that. These scholars and learned men, schooled in the ethics of God’s law, would eventually have Jesus executed, using some underhanded techniques. Enter Judas Iscariot, and the picture did indeed get pretty ugly, while the people who supposedly loved God and His law did some mighty suspect things to carry out this killing. Had they forgotten the Sixth of the Ten Commandments? (See them pictured here in a 17^th Century masterpiece, Moses with the Ten Commandments, by Philippe de Champaigne.) Or, were they in fact of a mindset not too unlike what Pilate would soon say – What is truth? -- when talking about truth with Jesus? Did truth and ethics matter then? Do they today, especially in the area of politics, and most especially in the crucible of an election cycle?

 

Here we go, on a journey to retrace our faith’s roots in ethics, with a goal of making all of life matter as disciples seeking what is ethical in our lives, and furthermore in the life of our world and its most public figures, who are supposed to be representing us and our values. Jesus has given us His answer as to ethical roots, which traces all the way back to those given by His Father to Moses on a set of stone tablets, some 3,400 years ago. ‘Loving God with all your heart, soul, and mind’, can be expanded to looking at each of the first four of those Ten Commandments; while, ‘loving your neighbor as yourself’ can be understood as abiding by the fifth thru tenth commandments. That will be the bedrock (at least the initial one) of how we reestablish for ourselves what it means to exercise ethics today in the 21^st Century, 34 centuries after God carved them in stone for Moses to give to His people. We’ll also see how New Testament writers, particularly the Apostle Paul, thought about ethics in light of living with the Holy Spirit inside each Christian believer. We’ll see how he addressed various groups and individuals about holy living and how leaders should conduct themselves. Finally, we’ll use some examples of OT and NT episodes, juxtaposed to some contemporary issues, to see how ethics, leadership, and holy living relate to one another.  

 

Here's a good resource that might help you -- in addition to reading from God’s word in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 – to understand the import of each of the Ten Commandments:

Written in Stone: Ethics for the Heart, by Dr. Rubel Shelly, Howard Publishing Company, West Monroe, Louisiana, 1994.

 

See information on the picture of Moses with the Ten Commandments here: File:Philippe de Champaigne - Moses with the Ten Commandments - WGA04717.jpg - Wikimedia Commons …. The author died in 1674, so this work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1929.