Rae, Moral Choices: Ch2 - Christian ethics - Part B

Obedience as personal
loyalty to God
Obedience to the law was not seen as
an end in itself - instead the main
emphasis of the Law was loyalty to a
person (God) - we see this further as
Jesus stands against Pharisaic
legalism in the NT - we obey a person
not a command. Ex20:2-3 shows the
basis for Israel obeying the 10C was
that he had delivered them from
Egypt, this was the motive for their
response to God’s kindness and
faithfulness
Wednesday 16 May 2012

In Ex 1-18 and Deut 1-4 we see
God’s provision for his people
preceding giving of precepts and
the call to obey him. Both of
these sections are historical
prologues which show God’s
provision and his devotion to his
people.
Deut overall structure is of a
suzerain treaty between a king
and his subjects - such a treaty
lays out the commitment of a
king to his people, the stipulates
what is required of the people.

Rae suggests this structure was
used to emphasise the link
between obedience to God’s
commands and loyalty to the
person of God. The prophets
emphasise this when they talk of
Israels idolatry as spiritual
adultery - ultimate the grief was
of God losing relationship with
his people.


Holiness as the unifying
theme of OT ethics

OT ethics is uniﬁed in the
concept of holiness - from a
Hebrew word, qadosh, meaning
“set apart” - NT, sanctiﬁcation.
The commands of God set his
people apart from their pagan
neighbours on the basis of the
character of a holy God - “be
holy as I am holy”.


Holiness as the unifying
theme of OT ethics
Dt 17:16-17 lists qualiﬁcations of
a person who could be king -
limitations here refer to actions
which would prevent
dependence upon God - his
sovereignty was limited and he
was to bow down before God as
servant of God.
Dt 21:10-14 women caught in
warfare were to be treated
humanely and with respect -
unlike in other countries

Treatment of slaves was far more
humane than in other cultures -
the worship rituals of other
groups could not be followed -
pagan rituals of any sort could
not be allowed (some suggest
when Aaron’s sons were killed
the strange ﬁre they offered was
some form of pagan ritual Lev
10:1ff) - ﬁnally the idea that israel
could not have a king like other
nations.
All (and many more) show how
God had called his people to be a
holy nation, a kingdom of priests

The overlap of personal
and social ethics
Modern ethicists usually divide ethics
into personal (individual) and social
(broader groups, society) - this social
idea mandates morality for all people,
or restricts the position of personal
moral positions within society at large.
The issue of abortion (adultery and
homosexuality too) is an example
here. Many pro-choice advocates say it
is ok to be personally opposed to
abortion but you cannot mandate that
on society as a whole.

The overlap of personal
and social ethics
In the issue of murder all agree it is
wrong and should be wrong for all in
society - here we see the overlap of
personal and social ethics.
In the OT this overlap was greater ,
usually what was moral for the
individual was moral for society.
In the wisdom literature there is more
emphasis on personal morality - it
was written for a more international
audience.

The social dimension of
OT ethics
God’s design was for Israel to be an
ideal society. Their relationship with
God was the basis for structure of
society which was mandated by the
Law. The Law here was civil law and
affected individuals and society -
governing social relationships and
establishing institutions to give order
and maintain justice in society - it
included economic and property
issues as a major part of life in the PL.

The prophets also look at social
ethics - often accusing Israel of
disobeying social aspects of the law
by exploitation, injustice etc. In
looking forward the prophets see
the future KOG as one where such
social ills are not present, society is
rightly ordered and focussed
around worshipping God.
Lev 25 shows how civil law
governing property was laid out. It
includes a sabbatical year where no
crops are grown. A jubilee year
where land was returned to original
owners and slaves released.

This ensured land was redistributed
and never ended up with one
person owning an inordinate
amount - all land belonged to God.
The law of redemption was a more
regular and less radical version of
jubilee. If a person fell on hard
times and sold themselves then a
close relative was legally obliged to
buy the land/person and thus
avoid slavery and work
independently. If things then went
well the person could buy back
land/himself. This is shown in
Ruth.

Gleaning - where the edge of a ﬁeld is
left unharvested and harvesters only
once went through the ﬁeld - left food
for the poor to take, but also required
some initiative and effort on their
part.
Usury, prohibition of moving
boundary stones, showing bias in
court, bribes - and more were
prohibited.
All these individual and societal
aspects of the law helped show a
covenant relationship with God and
demonstrated the presence of God in
the midst of the community.

The pursuit of justice

As God is a god of justice throughout
the OT his people were called to stand
against injustice - the poor and
vulnerable were not to be victimised.
The great example of such activity was
the exodus and as God rescued them
so Israel was to understand how to
treat the alien, vulnerable etc. amongst
them. The Mosaic law had structures to
protect the poor and vulnerable - as we
have seen earlier.

An evangelical
manifesto
http://anevangelicalmanifesto.com/
...An Evangelical Manifesto is an open
declaration of who Evangelicals are and what
they stand for. It has been drafted and
published by a representative group of
Evangelical leaders who do not claim to speak
for all Evangelicals, but who invite all other
Evangelicals to stand with them and help
clarify what Evangelical means in light of
“confusions within and the consternation
without” the movement. As the Manifesto
states, the signers are not out to attack or
exclude anyone, but to rally and to call for
reform.

New testament ethics

The NT looks more at morality in
the church rather than institutional
morality and social ethics. With the
coming of Christ we are no longer
under the Law - the result is that
the way a person relates to God and
the way God views the mission of
his people has changed, though a
broad overview of bringing glory to
God by bearing witness to him is
much the same in OT and NT.

Israel was one nation under God
- the church is multiethinic. The
church bears witness to God -
but NT commands do not
provide the same type of
institutional framework found in
OT Law - structure and
institutions are not found in the
same way as in the OT.
However the church should still
look to affect change in society -
the KOG (OT or NT) has a social
and individual dimension which
is to be worked out.

So the NT church did not engage in
institutional change but the gospel
message caused following generations
of Christians to start hospitals, schools,
orphanage etc. The early church did not
have the opportunity to do these things
(they were being persecuted) - now we
have the chance. Rae suggests, in
response to people who suggest not
doing these things due to deterioration
before the end of the age, that by
following the Gt Comm we should do
these things and leave the long term up
to God - as we do in evangelism etc.

Rae suggests that Jesus did
not teach systematically on
ethics and so it’s hard to
formulate a NT ethic. Added
to this Paul and other NT
writers addressed speciﬁc
questions and issues so what
is said might not be universal
or binding.
The following are some
emphases of NT ethics:


Rae, Moral Choices: Ch2 - Christian ethics - Part B

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Rae, Moral Choices: Ch2 - Christian ethics - Part B