Being a Hard-Liner regarding Morals

In earlier posts I spoke about how we as Christians (and adherents of all religions) should stand firm – be “hard-liners” to use the media’s favorite description of the pope. We should stand firm in faith and morals, but be open to change where appropriate in the areas of policy and practice. First, let’s look at morals.

Morals

There are good reasons why we should follow God’s commands in matters of morals and ethics (known as the Judeo-Christian ethic). First, God put these behavioral principles in the Bible so that we can truly know right from wrong, and not get ourselves into trouble. These types of teachings consist not only of things we shouldn’t do, but the things we should do: love our neighbor, care for the needy, exercise hospitality to strangers, etc.

Second, God’s morals and ethics are there as a blueprint for an orderly and caring society. We deviate from those principles and we end up with high crime rates, unethical behavior, selfishness, corruption, and lack of caring for the most vulnerable in society. Sound familiar?

And third, they tell us the ways we can glorify God in our daily living.

Unfortunately, our society is trying to abolish many these moral teachings from God by substituting its own, man-made, principles. However, I don’t believe that we can nullify, modify, or disregard biblical teachings regarding morals and ethics just because we might perceive them to be inconvenient, unfair, out of touch with our culture, or hopelessly old-fashioned. Some in our society may feel that they are more enlightened than God in such matters, but Christians should, in my opinion, believe that God’s moral truth is absolute and unchanging. Would you rather be blown about by the ever-changing winds of our culture, or stand on the firm foundation of God’s unchanging truth?

This discussion of morals is important because today people believe more in situational ethics and relativism than in the Ten Commandments. When we abandon God-made morality for man-made morality, we are in trouble.

More on this topic in a future post.