Theological Moorings for Ethics
By Hen lee Barnette
[Dr. Henlee H. Barnette is former professor of Christian Ethics at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.]
Schopenhauer, the philosopher, who understood compassion to be the basis of ethics, declared that "to preach morality is easy; to find a foundation for it is hard." In our time, the ground of ethics appears to be anthropocentric. In our post-modern world, homo mensura or "man is the measure of all things" is the prevailing philosophy. In our multi-cultural society, individuals tend to set their own moral standards; each does that which is right in his own eyes. As a result, we have become the people described by Isaiah, the prophet:
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil,
who put darkness for light and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and shrewd in their own sight (Isa. 5:20-21).
Here were a people who had lost the capacity to distinguish between right and wrong because they had become loosed from their theological moorings.
To meet the complex moral issues of life we must form solid and sound basic theological convictions as supports for Christian decision making and action.
1. The Reality of God
First of all, there is the need to recover a sense of reality of God, the living God, in contrast to a domesticated deity who can be manipulated to serve our own selfish ends. This is a God both transcendent and immanent, a God beyond us and yet with us from whom we derive our moral sense of obligation, compassion, judgment, and norms. This God is holy; and because he is holy, we are to be holy (Lev. 19:2). What does this God require of us? The answer is in a noble passage from the Hebrew prophet Micah: "Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God" (Micah 6:8).
Jesus Christ is the revelation of the living God: "who in his great mercy has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (I Peter 1:3). Jesus is the Word, the Logos, the crown and criterion of all biblical revelation. He is the canon within the canon, and he is the criterion of the canon. He is the key for the interpretation of the Holy Scriptures by which we can distinguish between the Word and the words of Scripture. Jesus is the answer to our understanding of the errors, cruelties, and mysteries in Scripture, especially in the Old Testament. Jesus Christianized and democratized the understanding of God in the Hebrew Scriptures. Jesus is Alpha and Omega; he is Lord; and he is Lord of the Christian`s life.
God is Holy Spirit and Holy Spirit is love. (And love without justice is mere sentimentality). Today, for many, Spirit has become "spirituality," an ambiguous, vaporous term minus ethical content, ethical dimension, and ethical action. Holy Spirit is a Power-Personality dwelling within the Christian and so empowering moral action.
Fruit of the Spirit is ethical. To be filled with the fruit of the Spirit is to express joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal 5: 22-23). Here every fruit of the Spirit is ethical. To be filled with the Spirit is to be morally responsible in interpersonal and social relations.
2. The Cross
The reality of the cross and resurrection are strong generators of Christian conduct. In seminary we learned various theories as to how atonement was thought to be accomplished by the death of Jesus. But the Apostle Paul`s view is that "While we were yet sinners Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8). In his death believers receive reconciliation. Paul never speaks of God being reconciled to us. He died for us not because we were Greek, Hebrew, Persians, or Americans, but because we were sinners. God proved his saving love for us on the cross. Much more we shall be "saved by his life" (Rom. 5:10) or in his life for "he always lives to make intercession for them" (Heb. 7:25).
Of course we cannot fathom the pain of Jesus death as the old hymn declares:
We may not know,
We can not tell
What pains he had to bear;
But we believe it was for us
He hung and suffered there.
The Christian ethic is grounded in the cross which is not only a doctrine but a discipline. Jesus said: "Take up your cross [not his] and follow me." What does this mean for the people of God today? In my view it means for us to bear the cross of redemption and righteousness though it may lead to our suffering and death like many Christian martyrs today.
Clarence Jordan, founder of Koinonia Farm and cofounder of Habitat for Humanity, told me once that Koinonia Farm had some legal problems. Clarence approached his brother, a lawyer, for help. Due to his political ambition the brother declined. (He later became a senator and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the state of Georgia.) Clarence reminded him that when they both joined the church, the preacher asked the same question: "Do you accept Jesus as Savior and Lord? I answered `Yes`. What did you say? His brother responded:
"Clarence, I follow Jesus up to a point." Clarence asked, "Could that be the cross?" "That is right" said his brother, "I follow him to the cross, but not on the cross. I`m not going to get myself crucified." The authentic Christian is called to take on the cross of discipleship and death.
3. Last Things
Millennium fever has stricken us. Lurid predictions are preached that the end of the world is fast approaching. Armageddon is said to be just around the corner. Y2K and other alleged crises are proclaimed by some ministers to motivate hearers "to keep those cards and letters coming in."
Authentic eschatology, as opposed to millennium speculation, is ethical. Indeed there is no theological doctrine in the Bible that does not have ethical implications. Theology without ethics is a torso. Take the coming of Christ at the endtime described in 2 Peter 3. Here is a scenario of impending global crisis in which the earth shall be consumed by fire. In an old spiritual this crisis is vividly described:
God gave Noah the rainbow sign;
No more water the fire next time.
This vision of the author of 2 Peter which is echoed in the old hymn has become a scientific possibility. When the day of the Lord comes, "the heavens shall pass away with a great noise" (a "rush and a roar," a "crackling roar," 2 Peter 3:10). As Paul Tillich observed: "This is no longer vision; it has become physics" (The Shaking of the Foundations, p.3). It has become the hydrogen bomb.
Now since this crisis will come, the writer of 2 Peter asks: "What manner of people should we be?" He answers: Christians are
to be characterized by holiness and godliness,
we are to be persons of vision looking for the new heavens and a new earth;
we are to be persons of peace,
we are to beware of being led astray by Scripture twisters;
we are to be steadfast,
and we are to be persons growing in grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Such are the ways Christians are to live in the light of the coming of Christ at the end time.
Then there is hell, another last thing. Half a century ago the president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, since the heresy hunters were after the faculty, suggested that some members of the faculty produce doctrinal articles to show how orthodox we really were. I drew the topic, "Why I believe in Hell." I developed three points and threw in a poem. First, Jesus taught it; second it is logical. People who give other people hell ought to get some somewhere; and third I`ve been there. The poem was from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam:
I sent my soul through the invisible,
Some letter of that after-life to spell:
And by and by my Soul returned to me
And answered "I myself am heaven and hell."
Needless to say there was an enormous fallout from that article. The project was terminated as the protest mail rolled in. At that time I was courting my beloved Helen, a student in my Christian ethics class. Someone placed my article on the seminary bulletin board and modified the title from "Why I believe in Hell" to "Why I Believe in Helen."
Then there is heaven which I believe in but not the traditional one of literal pearly gates, solid gold streets, and perpetual praising of God. Such a heaven might get very boring. When my oldest son was a small boy he confided in his devout mother that he really didn`t want to go to heaven. She was shocked and asked why. His reply: "They don`t play baseball up there."
Recently I read an article entitled "Why I want to go to heaven" by a pastor of a mega church. There were nine reasons:
delicious food, refreshing water, incredible beauty, new beginnings, meaningful service, loving relationships, sinless perfection, and uninhibited worship. However, there was nothing mentioned about increased knowledge.
I think heaven will be a place where we will go on learning. We will certainly know more than we do here where "we see through a glass darkly` (I Cot. 13). A student asked Dr. John Richard Sampey, former president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, if we would know each other in heaven.
His response: "Do you think we will be bigger fools up there?" I often think of those children with whom I worked in a cotton mill in the South. Some were as young as eleven. I was thirteen. We worked 10 hours a day, five and a half days per week for 18 cents an hour in 1925. There were no benefits of any kind regardless of age and you could be fired for any cause or no cause. In the winter we went to the mill in the dark and came out in the dark. We got one week of vacation per year. So much for the good old days. After six grinding years, by the grace of God, I left the mill for the ministry.
In heaven there must be catch-up courses for those left behind who never had an opportunity to attend school for the development of their intellectual potential. As for me I would like a graduate seminar on why God loves us so much.
Now, some of us are living in the evening shadows and are looking forward to a glorious sunrise. We think often of our own end day. What will be our last deed, or last meal, or last word before we make the Great Transition. Reflection on the end day may strengthen our resolve to be more kind, more gentle, and more humble. So bring your last day in today and live in the light of it.
Right moorings require no less.
