[First lecture for Module 3] Ethics in Scripture CS601
1. Scripture and Moral Theology
HOW DOES SCRIPTURE INFORM OUR MORAL REASONING?
WHAT AM I LEARNING ABOUT HOW THE BIBLE SHAPES US MORALLY?
2. • The theme? “All is created, and all is good.”
• God created, order from chaos, from the “formless void.”
• God took his time – why?
• Tov – “good” (v. 4, 10, 12 18, 21, 25)
• Tov meod – “very good” (v.31)
Genesis 1
3. • God’s commission to ha-adam
• Be fruitful and multiply
• Fill the earth
• Subdue the earth
• ‘Have dominion”
• These show humanity’s special relationship to both creation
and Creator
• How do we read these, as ongoing commands or as now
fulfilled?
Genesis 1
5. • God rested – rest is good, blessed, hallowed.
• We are created with a vocation; God did not bring forth the garden
until man was there to till it (v.5).
• “flesh of my flesh, bone of my bone” – Adam has a recognition of the
sameness of Eve (v.23).
• “One flesh – naked and unashamed (v.24-25).
• Gen 2:18, ezer kenegdo – “help-meet corresponding to”, a “help
befitting and completing”
• Psalm 121:1-2 “From where comes my help? My help comes from
the Lord…”
Genesis 2
6. • Verse 22 echoes verse 5, “Man has become like us, knowing
Good and Evil”.
• “We now try to decide for ourselves what is good and evil”
(Richard Rohr).
Genesis 3
7. • Creation is good.
• Humanity is good.
• Sabbath rest is good.
• The creation of humanity – in the image of the triune God,
created male and female, connected in sameness – is good.
• Being created with a vocation of working partnership – with the
Creator and with each other – is good.
• Now, things which were good are harder, fallen.
What does Genesis 1-3 tell us?
8. • Set in context with two things
• The person of God
• What God has done for us
• The commandments address our relationship with God, with
others, and with ourselves.
• God only desires an altar made of earth and rough stones, as
“chisels will profane it” (v.24-25).
The Ten Commandments
9. • “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.
You shall each revere your mother and father, and you
shall keep my Sabbaths: I am the Lord your God. Do
not turn to idols or make cast images for yourselves: I
am the Lord your God” (Lev 19.2-4).
• “I am the Lord” – 15 times in 37 verses
God’s Holiness as Foundational
10. • “For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the
great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no
bribe, who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and
who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing. You
shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of
Egypt” (Deut 10.17-19).
God’s concern for the vulnerable
11. • “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine;
with me you are but aliens and tenants” (Lev 25.23).
• “For to me the people of Israel are servants; they are my
servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt: I am the
Lord your God” (Lev 25.55).
Who is vulnerable?
12. • Every seventh year, slaves shall be released without debt, or
allowed to stay with their families (Ex 21.2-6).
• Likewise, every seventh year God calls for a Sabbatical Year,
where the ground lies fallow and is allowed to rest (Lev 25.1-7).
• Every fiftieth year, there shall be a year of Jubilee, where all
persons return to their property, and their property returns to
them. The land rests, and the Lord provides for the needs of all
(Lev 25.8-55).
• This provided a means for both the creation and
redistribution of wealth.
Year of Jubilee
13. • “What does the Lord your God require of you? Only to fear the
Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the
Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to
keep the commandments of the Lord your God and his decrees
that I am commanding you today, for your own well-being”
(Deut 10.12-13).
• Echoed in Micah 6:8: “He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to
love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
Connection between Idolatry and Injustice
14. • Isaiah 1.14-17 “You new moon and your appointed festivals my
soul hates; they have become a burden to me…and even though
you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of
blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the
evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn
to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the
orphan, plead for the widow.”
Connection between Idolatry and Injustice
15. • Amos 5.21-24 “I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot
stand your assemblies… Though you bring choice fellowship
offerings, I will have no regard for them… But let justice roll on
like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream.”
• Hosea 6.6 “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the
knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”
• Matt 9.13 “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not
sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous, but sinners.”
Connection between Idolatry and Injustice
16. • Moral standards go beyond (far beyond) mere external actions
• What do the Beatitudes, when read together, proclaim about the
kingdom of God?
• What would you say is the central message of the Sermon on the
Mount?
The Sermon on the Mount
17. • The Pharisees strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel; they tithe
on spices, but neglect the “weightier matters of the Law.”
(Matthew 20.1-16; 23.23-24)
• What are the weightier matters of the Law?
• What are the Pharisees doing which makes Jesus so angry?
The blindness of the Pharisees
18. • Matthew 25.44-46 “Then they will also answer, ‘Lord, when was
it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or
sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’ then he will
answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of
the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go
away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal
life.”
• Why do actions matter so much to Jesus here?
• How are they related to profession of faith or possession of
belief?
The sheep and the goats
19. • The Good Samaritan (10.25-37)
• Hospitality (14.1-24)
• The Prodigal Son (15.11-32)
• Jesus and Zacchaeus (19.1-10)
• Does these parables have anything in common? What is Jesus
emphasizing here?
Luke’s Sobering Parables
20. • Devotion to the life of worship, breaking bread together, fellowship and
teaching, holding all things in common and sharing financially (Acts
2:41-47)
• No private ownership, held all things in common, testified with great
power to the resurrection of Christ, no needy among them (Acts 4:32-37)
• How do these actions “testify with great power to the resurrection of the
Lord Jesus”?
• How do worship, teaching, testifying, and breaking bread together
connect with the acts of financial sharing and caring for the vulnerable?
• To what extent can or should we attempt to live this way today?
The Early Church
21. • The new life in Christ (Romans 12)
• Our bodies are members of Christ (1 Corinthians 6:12-20)
• The love chapter (1 Corinthians 13)
• Encouraged to be generous (2 Corinthians 8-9)
• Imitate the humility of Christ (Philippians 1:27-2:18)
• Think on good things (Philippians 4:8-9)
• Call to holy living (1 Peter 1.13-16 – echoes Rom 12.2)
• What struck you from these commands?
• How do they flow from the theological discussions which precede them?
“Therefore…” (or, Codes of Christian
Conduct)
22. • “For in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith…
There is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female;
for all of you are one in Christ Jesus… You are Abraham’s
offspring, heirs according to the promise.” (Galatians 3:26-29)
• What implications does this have for us today?
• Why does Paul root this statement in God’s promise to, and
covenant with, Abraham?
Neither Jew nor Greek…
23. • A warning against partiality (James 2:1-13)
• The warning to rich oppressors (James 5:1-6)
• The book of James begins with a trifold admonition:
• To grow in faith and wisdom
• To stand firm in the face of trial and temptation
• To become doers, not just hearers, of the Word
• How do these admonitions set the stage for what follows?
• Why does James declare that faith without works is dead?
Faith and Works
24. • “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who
loves is born of God and knows God… Love that has ben perfected among us
is this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is,
so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out
fear… We love because he first loved us. Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and
hate their brothers and sisters, are liars.” (1 John 4:7-21)
• What does this teach us about the nature of God?
• What does it teach us about the nature of love?
God is Love
25. • Matt 5.48 “perfect”
• Matt 19.21 “perfect”
• Rom 12.2 “perfect”
• 1 Cor 2.6 “mature”
• 1 Cor 13.10 “complete”
• 1 Cor 14.20 “adults”
• Eph 4.13 “maturity”
• Phil 3.12 “reached the goal”
• Phil 3.15 “mature”
• Col 1.28 “mature”
• Col 4.12 “mature”
• Heb 5.14 “mature”
• Heb 9.11 “perfect”
• James 1.4 “mature”
• James 3.2 “perfect”
• 1 John 4.18 “perfect”
Teleioi
“having reached its end, complete”
