In Defense of Christian Ethics, Part 1

In this apologetics series, I will respond to some of the common objections made against Christian ethics by modern Western non-Christians.  

Distracts from Improving Earthly Life

The Objection: Christianity is actually a hindrance to ethical action.  It makes people “so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good.”  It makes people focus on a “pie in the sky” instead of focusing on solving real problems in the here and now.  As far as social justice goes, religion is “the opium of the people.”  It makes people focus on inner spirituality, “saving souls,” and the afterlife, rather than on establishing justice for people in this life.  As far as caring for the environment goes, religion is equally detrimental.  It makes people focus on having their souls leave this world behind and go to heaven when they die; as a result, people have no motivation to care for the environment in the physical world.  This lack of concern for the environment can result in serious long-term harmful consequences.

Response: This objection is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of Christian theology and Christian ethics.  Christian Scripture does not at all teach that the point of Christianity is to have one’s soul leave this world behind and go to heaven.  Rather, Christianity is about the establishment of God’s Kingdom of love, life, peace, and justice here on earth.  It is about God bringing about the renewal of all of creation, bringing about a new heavens and a new earth.  The Christian hope is not having one’s soul leave this world behind; the Christian hope is a future bodily resurrection into God’s new creation and an eternal, embodied existence in a renewed, physical world.  God has begun bringing about His new creation through the work of Jesus, and Jesus’s followers are called to be agents of God’s new creation in the here and now.  They are motivated to work to improve this world in the present by the knowledge that Jesus has already defeated all the powers of evil, and will fully consummate that victory when He comes again to fully make all things new.  This means that Christianity does provide a strong motivation for people to work to establish justice and to care for the environment in the here and now.  

Justice is an extremely important theme in the Old Testament Scriptures; the Old Testament prophets continuously call God’s people to act justly and to provide relief for the poor and oppressed.  There is no indication anywhere in the New Testament that this focus on justice is no longer important.  On the contrary, this focus is reinforced.  

Jesus began His public ministry by reading from the prophet Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has appointed Me to preach good news to the poor.  He has sent Me to proclaim freedom to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Isa 61:1-2; Luke 4: 18-19), and then declaring, “Today as you listen, this Scripture has been fulfilled” (Luke 4:21).  This does not at all sound like the purpose of Jesus’s ministry was to get people’s souls to go to heaven when they die and to ignore issues of justice.  The establishment of justice was absolutely central to Jesus’s mission.  Following Jesus’s resurrection and ascension into heaven, that mission is now carried out by the church, the “body of Christ.”  

Christian Scripture teaches that human beings are created in the image of God (Gen 1:27).  In other words, human beings are God’s representatives in His creation, given the responsibility of ruling over and caring for the rest of God’s creation.  Human beings fulfill their God-given role in creation by caring for and nurturing the rest of God’s creation, not by exploiting and destroying it.  This provides a foundation for a Christian concern for environmentalism.  Christians believe that God will one day intervene and set all creation free from its bondage to decay and death (Rom 8:19-23).  But, as with the issue of justice, this does not mean that Christians lack motivation to do what they can to care for God’s creation in the present, since Christians are called to be agents of God’s new creation in the here and now.  

Leads to Moral Complacency

The Objection: Christianity leads to moral complacency.  Christians believe that they are justified by “faith alone,” that merely believing certain things about Jesus guarantees them eternal life.  This leads people to believe that, because all their sins are forgiven, they can do whatever immoral things they want without any consequences.  Christianity makes people focus on beliefs, spirituality, and religiosity, rather than on ethics and morality.  Thus, it actually distracts people from focusing on acting ethically.

Response: This objection is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of Christian theology.  Christian Scripture does teach that Christians are justified by faith in Jesus, and not by the works of the Law.  However, it is very clear that, in the New Testament, “faith” does not simply mean an intellectual acceptance that certain propositions about Jesus are true; rather, “faith” means a radical reorientation of one’s entire thought and life around the truth of the Gospel and the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  The Christian Gospel does not merely invite people to believe that certain things are theoretically true; it invites people into a radical new way of life as part of the community of Jesus’s disciples, those who have made a commitment to follow Jesus.

In the New Testament, there is no such thing as faith without “repentance”: a turning away from sin, immorality, and anything that is inconsistent with the nature of God’s Kingdom.  The New Testament repeatedly teaches that obedience to and faithfulness to the Lord Jesus Christ are absolutely essential for Christians.  It consistently teaches that the Final Judgment will be according to works (Matt 25:31-46; 2 Cor 5:10; John 20:11-15).  

The New Testament does teach that Christians are saved by God’s grace rather than earning salvation through their own merit, but this does not mean that Christians lack motivation to do good works, since Christians demonstrate that they truly are Christians by living out their identity as God’s children in practical ways.  As the apostle Paul writes, “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act on behalf of His good purpose” (Phil 2:12-13).  Furthermore, Christians are motivated to do good works by their love for God and their gratitude to Him for saving them.  Christians believe that they are saved by grace through faith, but that does not mean that they lack motivation to obey God’s command to “make every effort to add to your faith virtue” (2 Pet 1:5).

Bases Ethics on an Ulterior Motive

The Objection: People should act ethically simply because it is the right thing to do, not because they hope to get some benefit from doing it.  Acting ethically for the sake of some ulterior motive is not truly acting ethically; it is merely selfishness in disguise.  Christianity, with its teachings about rewards and punishments in an afterlife, bases ethics in an ulterior motive.  But it is wrong to act “ethically” simply because you believe you will get something out of it in the afterlife; instead, we should act ethically simply because it is the right thing to do.

Response: It is not the case that Christians act ethically because of an ulterior motive, selfishly hoping to get something out of it for themselves.  Rather, the motivation Christians have for acting ethically is love, first, their love for God, and second, their love for their fellow human beings.  If you love someone, you will act in that person’s best interest, even if it is to your own detriment.  The apostle Paul wrote that he would be willing to be cut off from Christ and damned if it could mean the salvation of his fellow Israelites (Rom 9:3).  This is the kind of self-giving, self-sacrificial love that God demonstrated on the cross of Jesus Christ, and which now fills the hearts of Christians.  As recipients of God’s love, Christians have been transformed into children of God who love in the same way that God does.  Christians act ethically because they truly love God and their neighbors, not because they have some ulterior motive.

Now, the New Testament does sometimes speak of a “reward” that Christians will receive for being faithful (Matt 5:12, 6:4, 6, 18, 10:41-42, 16:27; Mark 9:41; Luke 6:23, 35; Eph 6:8; Col 3:24; Heb 10:35, 11:6; 2 John 1:8; Rev 11:18, 22:12).  Does this prove that Christian ethics is based on an ulterior motive?  No, it does not.  There are two different kinds of rewards.  There are rewards that are completely external to an activity.  An example of this would be someone working a job that they hate simply to earn money.  In this case, the person has an ulterior motive for doing this activity.  But there are also rewards that are organically connected to an activity.  An example of this would be climbing a mountain in order to have the reward of the breathtaking view from the top of the mountain and the sense of satisfaction of having accomplished the climb.  In this case, there is a reward for doing the activity, but there is no selfish ulterior motive.  

The reward that Christians receive for being faithful is of the latter kind.  Christians are motivated to be faithful and obedient to God because they will be rewarded by seeing God, having union with Him, and enjoying Him forever.  “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God,” says Jesus (Matt 5:8).  But unless you are pure in heart, you will not want to see God.  Christians demonstrate their love for God in concrete ways (i.e. act ethically) because that is the way to union with God, the object of their love.  This is not an ulterior motive for acting ethically; it is a “reward” that is naturally and organically connected with the activity of loving God.

Series Navigation

In Defense of Christian Ethics, Part 2 >>