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155 pages

English

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Description

After examining what Scripture teaches about the goal and motive of the Christian life, the author addresses moral dilemmas, human-life issues, sexuality, economic justice, and truthfulness.

Sujets

Philosophie et théologie

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Publié par	Baker Publishing Group
Date de parution	01 juin 1994
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781441206565
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0691€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

© 1994 by David Clyde Jones
Published by Baker Academic a division of Baker Publishing Group P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287 www.bakeracademic.com
Ebook edition created 2013
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4412-0656-5
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture is taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Preface
Abbreviations

1. The Questions of Ethics
2. The Goal of the Christian Life
The Glory of God
The Image of Christ
The Kingdom of God
Eternal Life
Practical Implications
3. The Motive of the Christian Life
The Human Heart
Christian Freedom
Love of God
Love of Neighbor
Self-Love
4. The Direction of the Christian Life
The Word of God
The Example of Christ
The Ministry of the Holy Spirit
The Role of Conscience
5. The Primary Forms of Love
Justice
Mercy
Faithfulness
The Cardinal Personal Virtues
6. The Universal Norms of Love
The Ten Commandments
The Law of Moses
The Ground of the Moral Law
The Use of the Moral Law
Varieties of Legalism
7. The Resolution of Moral Conflicts
Consequentialism
Tragic Morality
Hierarchicalism
Prima Facie Duties
Case Analysis
Excursus on Truthfulness
8. Marriage and the Family
The Structure of the Family
The Marriage Covenant
The Marriage Vocation
The Married Estate
Parental Responsibility
The Family and Public Policy
9. Divorce and Remarriage
The Scope of the Problem
The Teaching of the Churches
The Marriage Covenant and Divorce
The Analogy of Faith
Summary of Biblical Principles

Appendix
Index of Subjects
Index of Scripture
Notes
Back Cover
Preface
M y father, who grew up on a small red-clay farm in the South Carolina Piedmont before he turned to dry-goods for a living, used to love to tell the story about the county farm bureau agent who took a bunch of brochures on contour plowing, crop rotation, and the like to a farmer in his district, handed them to him, and said, “Here, read these; they’ll improve your farming.” The farmer took them, looked them over, handed them back, and said, “Shucks, I ain’t farming now as good as I know how.”
A book on Christian ethics is supposed to help us improve our living, but if the truth were confessed, we’re not living now as well as we know how. Our crucial lack is not information. Unless the Holy Spirit breathes life into our bones, we will remain on the valley floor, disjointed and very dry. Still, the Spirit works by and with the Word, and a fuller vision of what God is calling us to be and to do may be instrumental in motivating us to seek improvement in the Christian life. In that hope I offer my brochures, such as they are.
The title Biblical Christian Ethics is intended to underscore the unity of theology and ethics. Given the evangelical assumption that the holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the only infallible rule of faith and practice, the Bible is the source and norm of Christian ethics as well as Christian doctrine. On this view ethics and dogmatics are not properly separate disciplines but integral parts of the whole study of God’s revelation of himself and his will for humankind. [1] Christian ethics is properly a subdivision of systematic theology; it could be called the doctrine of the Christian life.
When I first started teaching theological ethics some twenty years ago, the organizer of a conference on Christianity and politics asked me in casual conversation who had been the most formative influence on my ethics. Taken off guard I facetiously replied, “Moses.” The truth is I was embarrassed to admit I hadn’t read that widely in the field and furthermore couldn’t tell how I had been influenced by what I had read. Now I would say that I follow the Reformed tradition in ethics, especially Augustine on the goal of the Christian life, Calvin on its norms, and Jonathan Edwards on its motive. In addition, I have sought to listen carefully to evangelical Lutherans on the proper distinction between law and gospel, and I admit to an admiration for the structural analysis of Thomas Aquinas, though I make no claim to being more than a “peeping Thomist,” as the saying goes.
Confessionally I am committed to that remarkable committee report published in 1647 as The Humble Advice of the Assembly of Divines, Now by Authority of Parliament Sitting at Westminster, Concerning a Confession of Faith , known since as the Westminster Confession of Faith. According to its own principles it is “not to be made the rule of faith, or practice; but to be used as a help in both” (31.4). [2] Citations from the Confession and its companion catechisms are made in that light.
Special thanks to the board of trustees of Covenant Theological Seminary for their generous sabbatical policy, which enabled me to write this book. Also to John W. Sanderson, Jr., my teacher, colleague, and friend (who got me into ethics in the first place when he was chairman of the systematics department at Covenant) for reading the first seven chapters on foundations and making numerous valuable suggestions. And to Sue Ellen Bilderback Jones, my intimate life companion and committed partner in ministry, who shares my hopes, calms my fears, encourages my writing, and—as an English teacher and more—generally improves my style. But though she tells me I can’t use a double modal, I still say I might could.
Abbreviations ASV American Standard Version GNB Good News Bible JB Jerusalem Bible KJV King James Version LXX Septuagint NAB New American Bible NASB New American Standard Bible NEB New English Bible NIV New International Version NRSV New Revised Standard Version RSV Revised Standard Version TEV Today’s English Version
1
The Questions of Ethics
W hat goals ought we to pursue in life? What sort of persons ought we to be? What practices ought we to follow? These are the great questions the discipline of ethics seeks to answer.
The questions imply that human conduct is subject to a threefold evaluation from a moral point of view. First, the end the agent seeks to realize must be good, intrinsically worthy of human pursuit. Second, the motive of the agent must also be good, so that the end is sought because it is worthwhile, the mark of a good character. Third, the means to the end must be good, conforming to the standard of what is right, since neither a good end nor a good motive is compatible with a bad means. For conduct to be morally praiseworthy it must be good in all three respects, not least because end, motive, and means are not finally separable.
Moral evaluation, of course, implies standards of judgment. Ends are judged good or evil by criteria of intrinsic value; agents are judged good or bad by criteria of moral virtue; actions (including mental acts or attitudes) are judged right or wrong by criteria of moral obligation. What are these criteria, and how do we know them? This is the most pressing question of ethics; no particular instance of ethical choice can be resolved without presupposing an answer to it. The answer is necessarily dependent upon some broader philosophical perspective, some view of human beings and their place in the universe.
From a biblical point of view, the question of criteria for goals, persons, and practices comes down to this: What is God calling us to be and to do? Since God’s salvific call is not a bare invitation but a manifestation of his sovereignty and power, the question is more fully: What is God summoning and enabling us, his redeemed people, to be and to do? [1]
Effectual calling has been helpfully defined by Anthony Hoekema as “that sovereign action of God through his Holy Spirit whereby he enables the hearer of the gospel call to respond to his summons with repentance, faith, and obedience.” [2] By including obedience within the definition, Hoekema draws our attention to the goal-directed aspect of effectual calling that often emerges in the New Testament. We are called to salvation by the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit and belief of the truth so that we may share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thess. 2:13–14). The ultimate goal of our calling is eternal life (1 Tim. 6:12), the heavenly prize (Phil. 3:14), God’s kingdom and glory (1 Thess. 2:12). We are called to belong to Christ (Rom. 1:6), and since our calling brings us into fellowship with him (1 Cor. 1:9), we are called to live a holy life (1 Thess. 4:7) and to follow his example of suffering for righteousness’ sake (1 Pet. 2:21).
In effectual calling we are united to Christ and consequently called to a distinctive way of life in him, a way of life made possible by divine grace. The classic text is Romans 12:1–2, which in the unsurpassed cadence of the King James Version reads:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, [3] by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
The chief interest of this text for ethics lies in its climactic description of the will of God as the standard of the Christian life. But the truths about human nature presupposed in the terms of Paul’s appeal ought not to be overlooked.
“By the mercies of God” (the plural represents the Hebrew raḥamim , translated “tender mercies” i