A Basis for Christian Ethics

How can a Christian keep a good testimony amidst the popularity of situation ethics? Are traditional ethics even relevant in today’s society?

The Sunday school teacher was in a voluble, good humor. He chatted with the class before beginning his lesson. "We’re really enjoying the new bedroom we built on last month." He chuckled a bit and continued. "Now, when the building inspector dropped by, of course, we called it a storage room. Do you know what we would have had to pay in taxes for a new bedroom?"

Marla had trouble concentrating on the lesson that day. A nagging little voice inside suggested that something was radically wrong with the anecdote the teacher related. Yet, the class members had appeared to sympathize—they laughed with him.

It seemed like, well, lying, to Marla. But this was a spiritual leader, and these were Christian people. She tried not to think about it.

Marla recognized a problem that is widespread among Christians today—poor ethics. The seemingly insignificant dishonesty she saw was only a symptom of a larger, very significant problem.

Ethics can be complicated and confusing, or it can be as simple as "Thou shalt," and "Thou shalt not." Briefly stated, ethics is the study of what is right and wrong. The carnal mind prefers to decide ethical questions on the basis of reason, or, more commonly, expediency—"it all depends on the situation." Christians, however, employ the Bible as their ethics manual and the Holy Spirit as their indwelling Guide. Their problem should be not so much how to decide what is right, but how to do it.

Certainly there are many times when the good and the bad do not bear clear labels. In fact, labeling is the very practice that carnal thinkers would have us eliminate, and, to our shame, they have succeeded to a disturbing degree.

Many questions of personal ethics may be settled by the application of general New Testament principles of separation from the world, separation unto Christ, and our responsibility to be lights in a dark world.

Separation from the world involves our purity from carnality, whether that be the influence of radio or television, our associations, our habits, our pastimes, our appearance, etc. We are not to touch the unclean thing or to set it before our eyes. But not only are we to keep sin from us, we are to engage in good works—the positive aspect of ethics. We are to cultivate the fruit of the Spirit found in Galatians 5:22: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, and faith.

Good works serve to point men to Christ. Matthew 5:16 says, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

Ethics does not need to be theory shrouded by mystery. Ethics should be removed from the realm of theory and placed in the concrete world of practice. To the situation ethicist who would have us debate "Yes, but what if . . . ?" we can reply that the situation never determines the ethics. With the Holy Spirit within us, we have the best possible resource for decision-making. Our ethics are vital as part of our testimony. Paul encouraged the Philippians to "work out [their] . . . salvation [that is, to let the inward change be outwardly visible] . . . That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world" (Phil. 2:12, 15).