In my previous articles “Shades of Grey” 1 and 2, I looked at the idea of how morality is viewed by a lot of people in our society. They see it as: situational, relative and even circumstantial. People who think this way often see the converse way of thinking as impossible and unrealistic.
The reality is that we all feel the demands of morality. We all feel the strong call to be moral in this world, because we live in a community, where our actions can affect others. Now in light of the difficulty some may view it as necessary to “relax” the public standard. As Peter Singer expressed in his debate with John Hare “...We might have lower public standards. So I think yes, at least at the level of public morality, we ought to have standards that are realistic. There’s some discomfort in that idea, that we have to accept a different and lower, public standard than we really think to be right...” Now as I said, I can see why one would hold to such a view, because it is hard to be moral, it is hard to do right, it does take effort to do good.
We are drawn to a “relaxation” or change in the standards of morality because the alternative prompts the question ‘can people really live this way’? Can we live the way Christians-and even other religious persons-call on the world to live: morally upright?
I will go a step further. Christians do agree with Peter Singer on the difficulty (suggestion to complete this thought: that moral uprightness presents). This agreement is reflected in the following statement by John Hare “...if it’s just a model (the life of Jesus), and this is Kierkegard’s point, it produces despair, because I don’t seem to be able to live that way by my own resources…” The sermon on the mount of the Bible where Jesus gives his disciples a series of teachings on the law also amplifies this point. Jesus says to those before him “you have heard it said'' to outline what they heard by oral tradition from the Pharisees who altered and amended the law to only examine actions. Jesus then continued “But I say to you” which actually changed what was said to them by tradition to something that was harder and showed up where everyone-including the Pharisees- fell short. Let me illustrate using this verse from the passage for example “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery. But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5 verses 27-28 ESV). Essentially the reality painted by John Hare and the Sermon on the Mount are meant to drive home a central point that the Christian worldview seeks to establish. Our inability to be moral, but the need to be moral, is answered by John Hare when he says “...so it’s important to me that with the model comes the power to live that way. God actually helps us to live the way God asks us to live.” Effectively we are able to live the way God wants us to live - morally - because God has made this so. He speaks about this from the level of desire in Jeremiah when He says “...I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart” (Jeremiah 24 verse 7 ESV). Through Jesus, our whole being and capacity were transformed by his death on the cross. As is explained in Paul’s letter to the Corinthian Church “...and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised (2 Corinthians 15 verse 5 ESV). Both Passages highlight and drive home the central idea of the Biblical worldview. God makes us able to live for him in this world, and as we live for him, the Biblical principles do prove to be a good model for how we live in this world as man. I want to therefore share what this living looks like in three senses.
Firstly we live as new men. I use the phrase “new” because we are simply not who we used to be. The scriptures are replete with referring to Christians as for example: “new creation” and or “such were some of you”. These terminologies convey newness. Even in Paul's second letter to the Church in Corinth he makes the following point to them “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, He is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthian 5 verse 17 ESV). In other words, something happened and they have now become “new”. This newness flows over into what passes away-old way of doing things and treating persons, and leads to what has come, a new way of living. Now for some they can think well the Christian can’t relate because he is cut off from ‘our’ world and presents a picture of having it all figured out. The truth is no Christian ought to see themselves that way. Living as new men makes us sympathetic even though we seek to live holy and upright lives. As the passage above indicated “old has passed away” and even in Paul’s letter to the Corinthian church “such were some of you” and Paul to the Church in Ephesus “sins in which you once walked”. Paul reminded the church about what to look to, but also reminded them- and us- about who we were. This gives us the ability to have compassion for those who are not Christians, and is a reminder of why persons may not live the way Christians do, the old has not passed away.
We also live relationally as men. So not only are we transformed and so able to please God. We are able to live with each other rightly. Consider the statement made by Kathy Neilson in her book ‘Women and God’, “As God calls himself “us”, implying an internally relational nature, so we humans as male and female show the image of God in us as we relate both to him and to one another in all kinds of ways, in the process of ruling together over creation”. Though the quote speaks to the truth about how men and women relate, it also highlights another aspect of that truth that is helpful for us here. It speaks to the ‘relational’ aspect of being made in God’s image and likeness. We all are relational beings, but have we reflected this aspect of our nature adequately? No! We find broken relationships and divorces and broken families, all attributed to the fall. Because man is fallen it has affected who we are and also how we interact with others. In Genesis the sin of murder is committed along with another sin that follows surely, where Cain says of his brother Abel, after concealing the fact that he murders him, “am I my brothers keeper?” The relational aspect of his nature that ought to have been reflected was distorted and led to not just murder but a dismissal of his social responsibility and the care that he ought to have shown to his brother. Thankfully because of what Christ has done, we are able to love one another rightly. Consider Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus, where he says “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility” (Ephesians 2 verses 13-14 ESV). Paul makes the statement to “Gentiles in the flesh” letting them know that Christ has put an end to the hostility they presumably had with the Jews, by his death and has now enabled peace to exist. Where the fall distorted us relationally, Christ through his transforming work has enabled us to live with each other as new men.
Lastly, we live as men before God. This is important for a number of reasons. It cements the idea of how we are able to live in a fallen world that has a culture very counter to that of the bible. In his book ‘Mere Christianity’, Lewis makes the point Does it not make a great difference whether I am, so to speak, the landlord of my own mind and body, or only a tenant, responsible to the real landlord? If somebody else made me, for his own purposes, then I shall have a lot of duties which I should not have if I simply belonged to myself.” In other words God created us for himself and we ought to consider what He thinks about how we live. It also speaks to the newness of man that takes place. It is not a new heart for its own sake as we said earlier, but a heart that is bent towards pleasing God. Paul drives the point home when he tells us why Jesus died “... he died for all so that those who live, should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and rose again”. When God comes into the picture, He becomes a reference point on how we “live move and have our being” as it were. When David, for example, says to God “against you only have I sinned”, when he killed Uriah, he was not stating that all others ought to mind their own affairs, but simply stating that when I offend my brother my offence is against God firstly. As Jesus said in Matthew 25 verse 45 “when you did not do to the least of these, you did not do it to me”. Essentially when God comes into the picture, there is a foundation/ reason for doing what we do and implications for not doing what we should. We now have a source beyond ourselves in which to live, and in which to have any meaningful ethic or morality.