The Bible in Ethical Discernment

The Bible rightfully enjoys a place of honor in doing Christian ethics, not only for its moral teachings, but also for providing an appreciation of the communal life of early Christians,  their theological explorations, and their lively sense of the power and presence of Jesus Christ. How could one do Christian ethics without the Ten Commandments, the eighth century B.C.E. cry of the prophets for justice, the “Sermon” on the “Mount,” the Great Commandment, and the pastoral Paul, sometimes hurling thunderbolts of condemnation, but also pleading the way of love and consideration for the weak of conscience.

Unanswered Questions  Yet it has never been easy to apply biblical teaching to the circumstances in which believers find themselves. Consider the problem faced by Clement of Alexandria in the third century: if Jesus had advised the rich young ruler to sell all he had and give it to the poor, how was this hard advice to be accommodated to Clement’s comfortably situated clientele? Likewise, from the episode of Jesus’ telling Peter to put his sword back in its sheath (John 18:10-11), Tertullian (circa 200) argued that in ungirding Peter of his sword Jesus was ungirding every Christian. Was this pacifist teaching well founded? Does it make a claim on our consciences today? There are no simple answers.

Varieties of Biblical Ethics We discover a wide range of moral teaching and behavior in the Bible, ranging from the sublime rigor of the “Sermon” on the “Mount” to remnants of ancient Israelite folkways.  The Pentateuch.   We begin with the well-known Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17). These commandments prohibit the worship of other gods than Yahweh, the God of Israel; prohibit the making and worship of images; prohibit the unworthy use of the divine name, Yahweh; specify the Sabbath (the seventh day of the week, not to be confused with the Christian Sunday, the first day of the week) as a day of rest; require respect of parents; prohibit killing (usually understood as murder); prohibit adultery; prohibit stealing; prohibit perjured testimony; and prohibit covetous attitudes (which might prompt theft or adultery). We note also the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself (Leviticus 19:18), not to mention the less well known commandment to love the stranger in your land as yourself. Leviticus 19:34  The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

The Prophets.   The prophets of the eighth and seventh centuries B.C.E. build upon earlier covenant ideas, and make a number of significant advances, as is evident from the following sampling. • Concern for the poor, and their oppression by the rich (Amos 2:6-8; 4:1; 5:10-11; 6:1-7; Isaiah 3:14-15) • Condemnation of unethical business practices (Amos 8:4-6), and bribery (Amos 5:12; Isaiah 1:23; Micah 3:11) • Protesting against religious formalism, which performs the required rituals, but neglects social justice:

The Jesus Tradition For a sampling of moral teachings in the Jesus tradition, we can do no better than to turn to the “Sermon” on the “Mount,” a well organized collection of the sayings of Jesus as they came to the author from his written and oral sources. Especially illuminating are the six contrasts in Matthew 5:21-47

• A warning against anger and hatred (Matthew 5:21-24) • A warning against lust (Matthew 5:27-28) • The permanence of marriage (Matthew 5:31-32) • The avoidance of oath taking (Matthew 5:33-37) • The rejection of retaliation (lex talionis) in favor of reconciliation (Matthew 5:38-42) • Loving your enemy (Matthew 5:43-47) • Avoiding preoccupation with treasures (Matthew 6:19-21; compare Luke 12:33, “Sell your possessions, and give alms;” with which compare the episode of the Rich Ruler, Mark 10:17-31)  • The Golden Rule (Matthew 7:12)Our sampling includes other teachings, as follows: • Defilement is to be understood not as what goes in [food] but what comes out of a person [fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly] (Mark 7:14-23). • Jesus refuses to settle a dispute over inheritance (Luke 12:13-14). • The Great Commandment is affirmed: loving God and neighbor (Mark 12:28-34). • Jesus provides a functional definition of agapê in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29-37). • The payment of tribute to Caesar? Jesus seems to say: Figure out for yourself what belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God (Mark 12:13-17)! • Though the Jesus tradition provides little basis for supposing that he was committed to social change, it is also true that the tradition generally portrays him as anti-establishment (Mark 11:15-19; 12:38-40; Luke 13:31-34).