ESV Global Study Bible :: Personal Ethics

Personal Ethics

Benyamin F. Intan | Indonesia

Personal ethics rests upon what the Bible describes in both the Old and New Testaments as wisdom. This wisdom finds its ultimate foundation in the triune God of Scripture. Properly formed ethical judgments must therefore be drawn deliberately from God's self-revelation in the Bible. A biblical ethic will thus gladly submit to the Bible's uniquely authoritative teaching. In this essay we will consider the basis, norm, and power for personal ethics, before turning to three specific case studies.

The Basis, Norm, and Power of Personal Ethics

We can consider personal ethics as taught in the Bible in terms of basis, norm, and power. The basis of personal ethics is God himself; the norm is God's law, ultimately fulfilled in Christ; and the power is God's Spirit.

The basis of personal ethics.

A Christian's moral life is grounded in the triune God. This means that our concept of moral rightness and goodness must be consciously set in relation to God himself, as he is revealed in Scripture. As the Creator and the ruler over all life, God is the final standard of good (Isa. 45:5-6, 18). Jesus indicates this when he says, "No one is good except God alone" (Luke 18:19; compare Ps. 34:8; 100:5; 106:1). Created in the image of a personal and relational God, man is likewise personal and relational (Gen. 1:26-27). The human race is created for covenantal relationship with the triune God as well as for relationship with one another (Gen. 2:15-18; Acts 17:26-27). This means that man's ethical life was designed to echo, or represent, God. As God rules in wise goodness over all, humans were created in his image to rule with wise goodness over the earth (Gen. 1:28).

The norm of personal ethics.

Besides being grounded in the triune God, personal ethics finds its ethical norm in the character of God as it is expressed in God's law, which is "holy and righteous and good" (Rom. 7:12). God's law reflects God's character and calls his people to be set apart from the world (1 Pet. 2:9-12). The law can only show us our sinfulness until we are born again and enabled to begin to respond to it in a healthy way (Rom. 5:20; Gal. 3:19). It then plays a positive role in salvation, though only as it is viewed within the framework of Christ as the fulfillment of the law (Rom. 10:4). Our righteousness—that is, our right relationship to God—comes from God's gracious gift in Christ, not from human effort to obey (Phil. 3:9).

The power for personal ethics.

As fallen, our ability to carry out this mandate from God has been severely impaired. All humans are born in sin and therefore are turned in on themselves, resulting in a severe bent toward living unethically. Personal ethics therefore requires a power that comes from beyond anything that can be humanly generated. This power is God's Spirit, who indwells all those who have been united to Christ (Rom. 8:9-11). The Spirit animates, guides, and renders effectual the believers' efforts to please our heavenly Father (Eph. 3:16; 1 Thess. 1:5). The Spirit accomplishes, from the inside, what the law never could (Jer. 31:31-34; 2 Cor. 3:6), generating virtues that are aspects of our new creation in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17). While the law can and must guide believers, it cannot empower them. Paul insists on this in Romans 7-8. After driving home the impotence of the law to empower obedience (Rom. 7:7-11), the apostle goes on to say that "the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death" (Rom. 8:2). Only through the Spirit can true Christ-like virtues be born (Gal. 5:22-23).

Personal Ethics: Case Studies

The implications of all this for wisdom in personal ethics are far-reaching. We will consider three concrete areas in which biblical ethics must be brought to bear on one's personal life: racial discrimination, financial stewardship, and lying and truth telling.

Racial discrimination.

The Bible teaches that all humans are descended from Adam and Eve (Gen. 1:26-28; 3:20; Acts 17:26). While the human race has developed into various ethnicities and cultures, this is a diversity against a broader backdrop of unity. When interacting with people of different ethnicities, therefore, we are interacting with people who are fundamentally like, not unlike, ourselves. The foundational reason for this is the creation of every human being in the image of God (Gen. 1:26-27; 9:6).

To discriminate against another people group, then, is deeply sinful and contrary to the Bible's teaching. One result of our fallenness is the way we are naturally welcoming to those like us and hostile toward those unlike us. The answer to such ethnic bias is not to flatten out ethnic differences as if they did not exist (note Rev. 7:9; 21:24-26). Rather, the gospel ignites an impulse of love for those who are different from us. For in the gospel, God came to earth in his Son, Jesus, and loved those who were different from him—indeed, those who were hostile toward him (John 3:16; Rom. 5:8). This is a model for us.

In Christ, "there is neither Jew nor Greek" (Gal. 3:28). No ethnic group has any inherent advantage over another in receiving the blessings of the gospel (Eph. 2:13-19; 3:6-10). Yet this is not to obliterate all racial distinction—indeed, in the new earth, racial distinction will be celebrated and will bring glory to God (Rev. 5:9-10; 7:9-10)

Financial stewardship.

Stewardship is rooted in the creation account, in which man is told to "fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over" it (Gen. 1:28). The subduing and dominion mentioned here refer to humanity's wise governance such that the earth is a beautiful and profitable place in which to live. This ruling echoes God's own ruling of all things; it is part of what it means to be created in God's image.

Stewardship as a concept can be applied to many aspects of human life. Anything that God has entrusted to us to "own" is something which we are called to steward. We are to exercise wisdom in stewarding the environment, our families, our bodies, and our God-given gifts. Let us focus specifically, however, on stewardship of our financial resources. Eight truths emerge from the pages of the Bible concerning how we steward our money.

First, there is nothing inherently evil about money. While different economic strategies around the world may be more or less wise, money itself is not problematic (Matt. 22:17-21). It is the fallen human heart, as it engages with money, that creates the sin, strife, and anxiety often associated with money. Second, we are called not to worry about tomorrow, for God will provide all we need as we need it (Matt. 6:25-33). Third, it is easy for money to be viewed as providing the security that only God can give, but we should store up treasure in heaven, treasure that is thus invincible (Matt. 6:19-20; 1 Tim. 6:18-19). Fourth, it is impossible to love money and love God at the same time, for our hearts are wired to have one master to whom we bow, and one master only (Matt. 6:24). Fifth, an unhealthy love of money breeds other sins; greed begets more miseries beyond greed (1 Tim. 6:6-10). Sixth, our greatest treasure is neither money nor anything that money can buy, but God, who gives himself freely to us in Christ (Matt. 6:19-21; 1 Tim. 6:17). Seventh, we are called to give to others and to the poor (Prov. 14:21; 1 John 3:17), and to do so cheerfully (2 Cor. 9:6-7), generously (Mark 12:42-44; 2 Cor. 8:2-3), and regularly (1 Cor. 16:1-2). Eighth, generous giving is motivated, fundamentally, by God's radically generous giving of his Son for us (2 Cor. 8:9).

Lying and truth telling.

God is a God of truth (Isa. 65:16; John 14:6; Titus 1:2; Heb. 6:18). As people created in his image, we too are called to speak truthfully (Eph. 4:25; Col. 3:9). When we lie, we align ourselves with Satan rather than God; Satan is "a liar and the father of lies" (John 8:44). Truth telling, then, lies close to the heart of what it means to be a Christian (Eph. 4:15, 29; 2 John 4).

Things quickly become complicated, however, in spelling out whether lying is absolutely wrong and never ethically legitimate. If we define a lie as a statement that is meant to knowingly deceive another, is such a statement ever morally permissible? Indeed, are there any situations in which it would be morally wrong not to lie? In more than one place in the Bible, lying appears to be condoned implicitly. One is the case of the Hebrew midwives, who apparently lied to Pharaoh to save baby Hebrew boys (Ex. 1:15-22). The narrator's comments about the midwives' fearing God (vv. 17, 21) and God dealing well with the midwives (v. 20) seem to be a stamp of approval on their deception. A second example is Rahab, who lied to the men of Jericho about her knowledge of the location of the two spies from Joshua (Josh. 2:1-7). Yet Rahab is remembered for her great faith (Heb. 11:31).

Many Christian ethicists agree, then, that in a fallen world one may be confronted with a situation in which one must lie in order to avoid a worse tragedy. Consider, for example, the civilian who is hiding fellow civilians from corrupt soldiers who knock on the door with unambiguous intent to kill. What is the way of wisdom here? In such a dilemma, many Christian ethicists would argue that it is morally permissible for the person who answers the door to lie, saying that no one is inside; some ethicists would even say that it is morally incumbent on the civilian to lie in this way, according to the principle that when forced to choose between evils one should always choose the least. Still, it will be difficult at times to discern which of two options is "least" evil. And given the fallen bent of our hearts, we must be ever watchful that we do not lie merely to protect our own name while justifying such deception as necessary. Also, the occasions in which it is morally permissible to lie will be extremely rare.

There is much room for wisdom here. We must "[speak] the truth in love," neglecting neither "truth" nor "love" (Eph. 4:15). As we soak in God's Word and are transformed by the renewing of our minds, we may be confident that God will lead us in his own way to discern what is best in each situation of life (Rom. 12:1-2).

Conclusion

In a word, the Bible calls God's people to be wise in the area of personal ethics. Wisdom is skill in the art of godly living on a practical, day-by-day basis. As those who have been rescued by God in the gospel, united to Christ, and indwelt by the Spirit, believers are capable of living the wise life. There will be many occasions in which we act unwisely, for which we must ask forgiveness because of the work of Christ. The high call of Christians, however, is to conduct themselves with such integrity and uprightness in the area of personal ethics that a watching world looks on, wonders at our integrity (1 Pet. 3:15), and glorifies God (Matt. 5:16).