Every day, we are either making decisions or living with the decisions we’ve made. However, for Christians in particular, no area of decision making is as important as moral decision making.
God expects His people to be holy as He is holy (1 Peter 1:16). Scripture tells us “to do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice” (Prov. 21:3). The apostle John exhorts Christians to “practice righteousness” as a sign of being a child of God (1 John 2:29), and the apostle Paul reminds us that “the Kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17). The expectation is for Christians to live lives characterized by righteousness, and discernment in moral decision making is a key component to this charge. With that in mind, what are practices should we consider?
1. Keep Obedience to God as Your First Priority
Now, there is a reason why I believe this Sunday-school-esque “church answer” needs to be explicitly stated. There are two common and widespread ethical stances that many Christians have unknowingly adopted, which may be at odds with obedience to God: (1) the “Do No Harm” principle, and (2) Situational Ethics.
First, many Christians make moral decisions based on “Do No Harm”. Attributed to the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, the “do no harm” or non-maleficence principle is an essential of clinical ethics which obligates physicians to not harm their patients (e.g. do not kill, do not cause gratuitous pain and suffering, do not withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment, etc.). Though this principle may be appropriate for medical ethics, in contemporary ethical discourse, the “do no harm” principle takes on the idea that as long as no one is being hurt, it’s okay. In other words, people are free to do what they want as long as nobody gets hurt.
I believe there are a number of philosophical issues that arise if one were to simply determine their moral decision making by whether or not somebody is hurt (such as, the possibility of immoral non-harmful acts, the possibility of unknowing self-harm, the loss of an absolute moral standard of conduct, and the standard objections to all consequentialist ethical systems). However, to just consider one, for Christians the “Do No Harm” principle is a wonderful moral minimum, but Christians are called to more than the moral minimum. Perhaps, another way to state this is that there is a difference between “Doing No Harm” and “Doing Good.” Christians are primarily called to the latter, “not growing weary in doing good” as we live in obedience to the Spirit (Gal. 6:9).
Second, although most Christians have not read the works of Joseph Fletcher or heard of the ethical view known as Situational Ethics, many unknowingly subscribe to its teaching – namely, that we ought to consider the context of a situation when evaluating an action as moral or immoral, rather than evaluating actions by an absolute moral standard. The key question the situational ethicist asks when faced with a moral dilemma is, “What is the most loving thing to do in this situation?” Though moral rules, such as “do not murder” or “do not steal”, can function as strategic guides in human social interaction, the rules are not the arbiters of moral absolutes. The only moral absolute is to love.
Admittedly, it could be argued that asking “What is the most loving thing to do in this situation?” is based on biblical teachings (consider passages like John 13:34 or 1 John 4:7-8). However, while it is true that the bible emphasizes God’s commands for us to love one another, God has also provided clear moral directives which we ought to obey. One of the challenges of situational ethics is that love is never properly defined. It is a mere formal principle to guide action, but there is really no way to determine what the most loving thing to do is.
Instead of following a vague formal principle, we ought to obey Jesus, who taught us the first and greatest commandment is to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matt. 22:37), and clarified what it means to love Him by teaching “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15-17).
2. Commit to Knowing and Studying God’s Word
If we are going to obey God’s commandments, we need to know what God has revealed in His Word. The fundamental question that Christians need to ask when faced with a moral decision is “What does the Bible actually teach about X?” and not “What do I think the Bible teaches about X?”
One of the things I’ve noticed when it comes to many moral debates is that Christians on both sides believe Jesus is on their side. For example, consider Christians who claim Jesus is pro-life and Christians who claim Jesus is pro-choice, and Christians who claim Jesus supports same-sex marriage and Christians who claim Jesus supports traditional marriage. Unless we are following a double-minded Jesus who is unsure of what He believes, somebody is wrong. So, the question Christians need to consider is, “What does the Bible actually teach about X?”**
How then should we study the Bible to better know what it teaches? Here are four simple guidelines:
- Consider Studying the Bible prayerfully: pray Psalm 119:18, “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.” Ask God to reveal if you are lying to yourself, if you’ve been deceived, and pray for truth.
- Consider Studying the Bible in Context: the Bible is properly read as we consider its context – its literary, historical, grammatical, and intertextual context (i.e., how it fits in with the whole of Scripture). It is easy to take a verse out of context and interpret it how you wish. However, this is a poor practice in biblical interpretation.
- Consider Counsel from Wise, Godly Teachers: thankfully, “God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, and third teachers” who can help us understand the Scriptures (1 Cor. 12:28). We should seek out qualified pastors, leaders, and teachers who have been gifted to help us better understand the teachings of the Bible. The study of Scripture should be done in community.
- Consider the Teachings of the Church, Historic and Global: given our individualistic tendencies, we often forget that the Holy Spirit is active and has been active in the life of the Church, both historically and globally, to reveal the truth of God’s Word to believers. We should consider listening to our brothers and sisters of the past, while acknowledging tradition is not infallible, and listen to our brothers and sisters around the world, acknowledging the Western church does not have a monopoly on biblical teaching.
For Christians who want to honor and glorify God in their moral decision making, they must commit to actually knowing and studying God’s Word and be resolute in obeying God’s Word as an act of love and worship.
You can read a previous related article by Chris here.
For Accessible Resources to Better Study the Bible
- How (Not) To Read The Bible: Making Sense of the Anti-Women, Anti-Science, Pro-Violence, Pro-Slavery and Other Crazy-Sounding Parts of Scripture, Dan Kimball (2020).
- How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, 4th ed., Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart (2014).
- In All the Scriptures: The Three Contexts of Biblical Hermeneutics, Nicholas G. Piotrowski (2021).
- IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament, John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews, and Mark W. Chavalas (2000); New Testament, 2nd ed., Craig S. Keener (2014).
- Misreading Scripture with Individualist Eyes: Patronage, Honor, and Shame in the Biblical World, E. Randolph Richards and Richard James (2020).
- Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible, E. Randolph Richards and Brandon J. O’Brien (2012).
- Study Bibles would also be beneficial resources to consider for a more in-depth Bible study: ESV Study Bible (2008), Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible (2016), CSB Apologetics Study Bible (2016), NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible (2018), or CSB Ancient Faith Study Bible (2021).
- The Bible Project also offers videos and resources to assist Christians in Bible study.
**As an aside, there are many teachings in Scripture that I believe are clearly and plainly revealed. However, a question to consider is how can we know God’s will in matters not clearly or plainly revealed in Scripture? Although this cannot be addressed now, perhaps we can save this for a future post.