INTRODUCTION
Christian ethics as a branch of theology
studies morality, the guidelines expected that man should follow, in the light
of Christian faith and reason. Christianity as a religion is presented as the
new covenant by the New Testament. The New Testament itself is a history of the
fulfillment of the promises and the hopes given to Israel in the Old Testament.
With the person of Christ at the center of the new testament events, the
manifestation of God’s glory and salvation plan for the humanity that have
erred was obvious. The Old Testament precedes the new testament, during the
period of the Old Testament, the laws and the prophecies where obvious basis for
the covenant and thus was an inevitable source or reference for Israel’s moral
code. In the New Testament, the covenant, remaining one and the same, took a
new dimension, and this covenant was consummated in the person of Christ, thus
Christ is the fulfillment of the laws and prophecies, this is obviously seen in
the account of the transfiguration given by the gospels in the appearance of Moses
(law) and Elijah (prophet). Jesus is a continuity of the Torah.
The above bears witness to the continuance
and renewal of the Old Testament by the New Testament. However the New Testament
adopted covenant as a means to describe the link between religion and morality.[1]
Above all, it implies a permanent inspiration by the ideas, values and concerns
of Jesus Christ. Thus, life in Christ is a fundamental for Christian ethics. A
Christian moral identity is culminated in the person of Christ. Christianity is
a religion of love and the fundamental ethics thought by Jesus is summed up in
love; love for God and love for neighbor.
In order to avoid ambiguity of any form
regarding the understanding of terms as they apply to this work, it is
necessary that I make a conceptual clarification of some basic terms as they
imply and are to be understood in this work.
WHAT
IS CHRISTIAN ETHICS?
Morality is ultimately a response to
God’s calling and making sure it is in line with God’s will. Christian ethics
is an offshoot of theology that studies morality with special reference to the
Christian faith. It studies in the light of faith and of reason the guidelines
man must follow to attain his final goal. This implies that the ideals and
norms presented are inspired by the sacred books of the Old and New Testament
and is directly related to the Christian belief about God, the world and Man.
Above all it connotes a permanent inspiration by the ideas, values and concerns
of Jesus Christ.[2]
Ethics deals with the moral standards of man’s conduct from the perspective of
achieving the highest good of human life. In Christianity, the highest good of
man is solely placed on the achievement (by grace) of membership to the Kingdom
of God. Christian ethics therefore, is concerned with the principles that deal
with the moral standard (rightness or wrongness) of the action of the
Christians leading to the Kingdom of God.
In one of her lectures on the subject, Sr.
Marian defines the Christian ethics as the branch of theology that studies the
final ends of man created in the image of God, the beatitudes and the way of
reaching it through the right conduct freely chosen with the help of God’s law
and grace. In the
Christian view a person is totally dependent upon God and cannot achieve
goodness by means of will or intelligence but only with the help of God’s
grace.[3]
This
implies that Christian morality is a responsibility; a deliberate response to
God’s freely given love and the gift of salvation offered through Jesus Christ.
WHO
IS CHRIST?
Christ is a word derived from the Greek
word Christos which means anointed
one, and a translation of the Hebrew mashiah.
This is a title added to our Lord’s name, Jesus[4]
Christ; the Son of God made man for us. Jesus as Christ reflects the early
Christian conviction that Jesus was the messianic figure. Christ is often used
to indicate Jesus’ divinity. [5] Christ
is the central character of the Gospels and the founder of the Christian
religion. A fundamental authority from where Christian ethics springs forth.
LIFE
IN CHRIST
Christian ethics is morality considered
and pursued in the context of what God has done in Jesus Christ. The highest
good is what God has made known and given us in Jesus Christ. Therefore, faith and
commitment to Jesus Christ determines the norms and objectives of Christian
ethics.
Life in Christ implies a life lived in
accordance to the model provided by Jesus with his life and his teachings. The
model provided by Christ is in His life and teachings as recorded by the
Gospel; this is summed up within the moral code as the commandment of love. The
commandments are a path involving a moral and spiritual journey towards
perfection, at the heart of which is love. Jesus always amplifies and deepens
the understanding of the particular commandments. Thus Jesus said “You must love the Lord your God
with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all
your mind, and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27). Morality as taught by
Jesus in the gospels rekindles the light of the commandments and aims to the
kingdom of heaven as the final end of man. Christian ethics is not
substantially different from the Jewish ethics. In fact, it is a continuation
and fulfillment of Jewish ethics. The pre-supposition ethics of the Old Testament
fulfilled itself in the New Testament. The New Testament does not stand by itself,
but it is a fulfillment of the Old one and all is summed up in the person of
Jesus. Thus Jesus said
“Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the law or the
prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete them. In truth I tell you,
till heaven and earth disappear, not one dot, not one little stroke, is to
disappear from the law until all its purpose is achieved. Therefore, anyone who
infringes even one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do
the same will be considered the least in the kingdom of Heaven; but the person
who keeps them and teaches them will be considered great in the kingdom of
Heaven”. (matt. 5:17-19)
This
simply implies that the old is not abolished with the coming of the new, but
rather it is renewed and kindled. In Christ everything is created anew.
·
The
newness of man in Christ: In the second letter to the
Corinthians (5:17), St Paul says if any man be in Christ he is a new creation. Moral
imperatives are resulting consequences of new life in Christ. The humanity that
erred are reconcile to God through Christ, born into a new life as members of
Christ’s body and sanctified by the spirit. This newness of life serves as the
foundational basis for Christian morality. Humanity being created anew, strives
to live this new life in righteousness, shedding off the old and putting on the
new in Christ. The life of Christ and his teachings as a fundamental basis and
yardstick for Christian morality is summed up in the words of St. Paul, “until
Christ is formed in you” (Gal 4:19)
Morality is contained integrally in all
Christian writings dating from the earliest centuries. Christianity as founded
by Christ is presented as an ethical religion, directly relating ethics to
certain convictions about God, man and the world. Reconciled to God through
Christ, Christians are born to a new life, members of his body, sanctified by
the spirit and children of God. This new life in Christ is the foundation of
Christian ethics.[6] However, life in Christ would simply imply an
imitation of Christ
·
Imitation
of Christ: Christ is presented as an example.
Himself said he has given us an example, that we should do as he has done (John
13:15). Saint Paul repeats this admonition too that we should be imitators of
Christ. This call to imitate Christ is very obvious in the commandment of love,
“I give you a new commandment: love one another; you must love one another just
as I have loved you” (John 13:34). In the Biblical
Ethics, R.E.O. White says that the imitation of Christ is the heart of
Christian ethics. The moral life of Christians is more radically measured by
the person of Christ.[7]
The following of Christ is not merely an outward imitation since it touches us
at the very depts. Of our being.
THE
FUNDAMENTALS IN CHRIST
The man who is wounded by sin is called
to the beatitudes. He is in need of God’s salvation and God’s help comes to man
in Christ. Jesus is the living fulfillment of the law in as much as he fulfills
its authentic meaning by the total giving of himself. This may imply that prior
to the coming of Christ the law was not “fulfilled”. The primary and final
authority for Christian ethics is found in life, teachings, ministry and death
of Jesus Christ as the revelation of God. Moral laws are revealed to man by God
in Jesus who is His visible revelation. Ethics in Christianity is directly
related to sets of religious convictions about God, man and the world. It is
believed in Christianity that God is the moral law giver. There would be no
objective moral code if God does not exist. God is the ultimate and primary
custodian of morality. God as the ultimate custodian of morality made the
ultimate revelation of the moral law to man through Christ the messiah. It is
the duty of man to accept and practice this good way of life under the
guidelines provided by Jesus. Here I turn to the roots of Christian ethics in
the ministry of Jesus as made explicit in the gospels.
The locus of Jesus’ teaching concerns
the kingdom of God and he exemplifies it in his own life. Jesus reflected on
the traditions and the laws and interpreted them in a new and original way in
terms of his own mission. Jesus expressed his teachings less by doctrinal
affirmations and more by indirect means, parables and pithy sayings related to
everyday experiences but designed to startle the assumptions of his audience to
a new dimension. Jesus’ teaching is at the level of natural morality; an
example is the famous code, the golden rule, found in the gospel of Mathew
chapter 7:12 stating that we should treat others as we would like to be
treated. Some of the moral teachings of Jesus may be hard or unrealistic to the
common man, for example as seen in the gospel of Mathew 18:21, He taught that
there is to be no limit to forgiveness, not on the grounds that it will win
over the offender but because it corresponds to God’s forgiveness of us. Jesus
did not promote ethic reciprocity; instead he teaches that we should do good to
those who do us bad. Morality as seen in Jesus is not extreme or too
judgmental, this is clear from many passages of the gospel that He thought bad
people to not be nearly as bad as the ‘good’ thought them to be.[8]
The Gospels tell stories about
Jesus, containing within it a representation of Jesus as a moral teacher. In
his The moral vision of the New
Testament, Hays recognizes that the moral implications of the Gospels
cannot be limited to explicitly didactic passages. These stories form our
values and moral sensibilities in more indirect and complex ways, teaching us
how to see the world, what to fear, and what to hope for.[9] The
basis for morality is found in some fundamental convictions about man’s calling
by God and his sanctification by grace. These convictions furnish the criteria
for the formation and selection of moral norms. These criteria are basic for
Christian morality.[10]
Attractions to the person of Christ
should be a sufficient motive for Christian morality. There should be a
necessary attachment to Christ, simply because in the search for happiness, we
cannot conceive of finding fulfillment in any other way.[11] The
teachings of Christ are the locus within which our moral code is received in
its encompassing form. The first hand Jesus’ teachings were recorded and handed
down by the gospel writers. The gospel is the most direct source of Jesus’
moral teaching.[12]As
taught by Jesus, Christian morality transcends cultural limitations. In other
words, the teachings of Christ have no racial specification. Thus, the teaching
of Christ is a foundation for a moral code of a universal character, even
though within our contest, we limit it to Christianity because morality as
taught by Jesus is of central interest for Christianity.
Jesus proclaimed a divine act that
brought a new dimension to morality, thus inferring that the person of God gave
birth to the possibility of an objective morality; devoid of any contamination
or prejudice. However, within the teachings of Jesus, morality took a singular
nature. The morality of Christ is characterized by precepts which claim man’s
total, unconditional obedience and open up vistas towards a surpassing and even
inconceivable perfection[13]
and including love for God and his neighbor. Morality as taught by Jesus is
culminated in his sermon on the mount which gave birth to the beatitudes (Mt
5-7). However, Jesus did not try to give a detailed list of rules and
regulations. Rather, he taught guidelines which get at the basic attitudes his
followers should have. The beatitudes summarize the morality prescribed by Jesus
for his followers in response to both God and man; it introduces and capsulises
the essence of New Testament morality.[14] These
precepts of Christ expose the need for constant conversion.
FINDING
ETHICS IN THE STORY OF JESUS: THE GOSPEL
The ethics of the gospel is the ethics
of Christ, in forms of hyperbolical speeches to enable men clearly recognize
the radical demand of God, calling men to an ever greater perfection. The
invitation to a radical response to God is shown in certain themes and other
teachings of Christ. The gospel is a record of Jesus’ life on earth. Although
these stories were written and crafted by the evangelists to bear witness in
their own time, they are not explicitly addressed to any particular situation
or community. By adopting a narrative mode of presentation, the gospel clothes
their message in the form of a story about the past and thus allow their message
to address the whole church, wherever and whenever the church understands its
destiny to be shaped by Jesus’ life and death.[15]
The ethical vision of the Gospels should
be discerned by considering and understanding the shape of the story as a
whole. Mathew especially shaped his Gospel in a way that shows Jesus as a
teacher who brings forth the Torah in a new and authoritative way. In order to
grasp the moral vision of the evangelist, we must ask how Jesus’ life and
ministry are portrayed in the story and how his call to discipleship reshapes
the lives of the other character.[16]
Jesus taught in parables and stories
that declare the imminent bursting in of God’s kingdom, bringing grace and
mercy in unexpected ways in unexpected places. His parable of the coming
kingdom is taken closely with his warnings of apocalyptic judgment: he preached
that the kingdom of God will bring radical restoration of God’s justice. The
message of Jesus carried with it a fundamental transvaluation of values; an
exaltation of the humble and critique of the mighty.[17] Jesus
proclaimed an abrogation of the law. His critique was directed at those who
profess allegiance to the law while ignoring its weightier demands, its
fundamental thrust towards justice and mercy.[18]
However, ethics in the life of Jesus is
seen in many occasions, in his responses and teachings especially in the Sermon
on the Mount (Matthew 5-7): the ethics of Beatitude, the discussion on fulfilling
the Law and the Prophets, the teaching on being Salt and Light, the instruction
on avoiding religious hypocrisy, the requirement to forgive others, the
imperative on unjust censorious judgment, and the ethics of Golden Rule. But I
would like to consider only the beatitudes.
THE
BEATITUDES
At the very outset of Jesus’ Sermon on
the Mount is a list of nine blessings for right behaviour known as “the
Beatitudes”. They contain qualities or
characters which Jesus’ disciples should possess in order to be blessed with an
eternal life in heaven. These qualities represent the fundamental Christian
virtues of humility, simplicity, an active desire for righteousness, purity of
heart, mercy, peacemaking and willingness to suffer persecution for
righteousness.
These beatitudes speak to basic
attitudes and dispositions of life. They are not necessarily in lock step with
the commandments, but nevertheless they are very much in harmony with them. The
Pope, John Paul II in his Splendour of
Truth sees the beatitudes as a veritable self-portrait of Christ himself.
ETHICS
IN THE LIGHT OF MORAL DEMANDS
Here, Christian morality is thus
revealed as the complete fulfillment of the law. Genuine moral autonomy implies
that human freedom and God’s law meet and intersect with each other. Ethics in
the light of moral demands is seen in Jesus’ response to the rich young man in
the Gospel, concisely expressing the very heart and spirit of Christian
morality and bringing out the essential elements of the Old and New Testament
revelation with regards to moral action. This is firstly seen in the
subordination of human action to God who alone is good, secondly, since the
commandment of God which Jesus confirms and take up into the new law of love
are the path of life, it is seen in the close relationship between the moral
good of human action and the eternal life, and thirdly, the way of perfection
which consists in a readiness to leave everything in order to follow Jesus in
imitation of his own gift of self to God and to all mankind in the service of
love.
The rich young man was taken aback by
the response Jesus gave. This is because this truth transcends human aspiration
and abilities; even the apostles were astounded that they asked: “who then can
be saved?” but Jesus answered that with men it is impossible but with God all
things are possible. (Mt. 19:26)
THE
“JESUS PRINCIPLE” IN MORALITY
Jesus summarized the ten commandments to
one commandment, the commandment of love, which is behind every moral teachings
of Christianity and henceforth remains the outstanding characteristics of
Christian morality, this summary of Jesus is two dimensional with the first part
(you shall love your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all
your mind) regarding an attitude to God and the second part (you shall love
your neighbor as yourself) an attitude to neighbor. These two dimensions of
love works with each other, thus John said in his first letter “anyone who says
I love God and hate his neighbour is a liar” (1John 4:20). What Jesus proposed is the commandment of love.
Therefore, love in Christianity is taken as the highest moral value; the
expression of love makes man morally good.
Many people identify themselves as
Christians, accepting Jesus and trying to follow the moral prescriptions He demonstrated
with his own life. In the area of morality they practice what is known as the “Jesus
Principle”. The “Jesus principle” is to make decisions to act based on genuine
love for people. This love is unaffected by selfish gain or false interests. It
is concern, help, sympathy and genuine interest in the real welfare of others.
This principle is embodied in the expression “love of neighbor”, this kind of
love is the one ingredient that most reflects the ideal of what it means to be human.
It is the expression of human behavior that enables people, both those
expressing love and those receiving it, to be what they were created to be. It is
what makes them most like God.[19]
Both in the gospels and in the writings
of Paul and Peter, the rule of love is presented as the great commandment that
is above all others. The Christian virtues are bound together in perfect
harmony by love. The entire law is summed up by the law of love. The
commandment of love is most perfectly realized in Jesus’ own mission.
CONCLUSION
Ethics as taught by Jesus (the
commandment of love) hits at the core of man’s purpose as created in the image
and likeness of God: to know God, to love God, to serve God and to be with God
in this world and in the next. Love is the greatest commandment. Life in Christ
is a life of love and Christianity is a religion of love. We are bound to love
God and to love our neighbor as much as ourselves. Whatever we do to the least
of our brothers, we do unto God. When we love as taught by Jesus, then we are
not far from the final end which is happiness; the kingdom of God. The kingdom
of God as the end of man finds its principal source in the grace of Christ, who
is both son of God, perfect image of the Father and Son of Mary, truly human
like us. However this grace requires man’s collaboration above all through
faith, hope and charity.[20]
Life in Christ as a fundamental of
Christian ethics simply implies that the primary and the basic precepts of
ethics are ultimately grounded in Jesus Christ, who is always the same,
yesterday and today and forever. Jesus’ way of acting and his words, his deeds
and his precepts, constitute the moral rule of Christian life.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1.
R. J. WILKINS, Understanding Christian morality, C. Brown Company Publishers,
Iowa, 1981
2.
R. HAYS, The moral vision of the New Testament: A contemporary introduction to
New Testament ethics, Continuum, New York, 1997
3.
M. F. PENNOCK, This is our faith: A catholic Catechism for Adults, Ave Maria
Press, Notre Dame, 1989
4.
K.H. PESCHKE, Christian ethics: General Moral Theology in the Light of Vatican II,
volume 1, Theological publications, India, 1993
5.
M. RICHARDS, The Church 2001, St Paul Publications, London, 1982
6.
P. SINGER, A companion to ethics, oxford, Blackwell, 1991
7.
Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft
Corporation. All rights reserved
8.
D.
ATTWATER (Ed), A Catholic
Dictionary, Tan books and publishers, New York, 1997
9.
O. ESPIN and J. NICKOLOFF, An Introductory Dictionary of theology and
religious studies, Liturgical press, Collegeville, Minnesota, 2007
[1]
K.H. PESCHKE, Christian ethics: General Moral Theology in the Light of Vatican II, volume
1, Theological publications, India, 1993, 29.
[2] Ibidem, 3.
[5] O. ESPIN
and J. NICKOLOFF, An Introductory Dictionary of theology and religious studies,
Liturgical press, Collegeville, Minnesota, 2007, 231.
[6]
K.H. PESCHKE, Christian ethics: General Moral Theology in the Light of Vatican II, volume
1, Theological publications, India, 1993, 39
[7] Ibidem, 59
[9] R.
HAYS, The
moral vision of the New Testament: A contemporary introduction to New Testament
ethics, Continuum, New York, 1997, 73.
[10]
K.H. PESCHKE, Christian ethics: General Moral Theology in the Light of Vatican II, volume
1, Theological publications, India, 1993, 39.
[12]
K.H. PESCHKE, Christian ethics: General Moral Theology in the Light of Vatican II, volume
1, Theological publications, India, 1993, 30
[13] Ibidem, 34
[14] M. F. PENNOCK,
This is our faith: A catholic Catechism
for Adults, Ave Maria Press, Notre Dame, 1989, 109.
[15]
R. HAYS, The moral vision of the New Testament: A contemporary introduction to
New Testament ethics, Continuum, New York, 1997, 73.
[16] Ibidem, 74
[17] Ibidem, 163
[18] Ibidem, 164
[20] Lecture on chrsitian ethics by Sr. Marian
Anyanwu on the 6th of November 2018
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