Page 52 - Biblical Ethics Course

Study Section 8: Biblical Ethics in the New Testament - continued

8.1 Connect

Today we are going to see what the Epistles teach about morality and ethics. The Epistles were
letters to people or churches to teach us what God says about how we should live. There is almost
NO history in the Epistles. They represent the clear teaching of God on a variety of subjects. Mainly,
they teach us how to walk in Christ. They give us our foundational shoring into the doctrines of the
Bible which God wanted us to know. So, we need to pay very close attention to what they tell us,
because they are all about Biblical ethics. They show us the right things to do and warn us about
doing the wrong things. Let’s learn more...

8.2 Objectives

1. The student should be able to explain the ethics of the various books and authors to be studied in
this section.

2. The student should be able to explain how the New Testament expanded the ethics of God to the
church.

3. The student should be able to derive the general principles presented in the New Testament to formulate a
complete Biblical ethics philosophy.

8.3 Epistles’ ethical teachings

As is to be expected, the Epistles provide clear parallels with the moral teaching of the Gospels,
even though they quote Jesus’ words surprisingly rarely (1 Cor. 7:10; 9:14). But because they
were written as practical answers to urgent questions from living churches, the tone of their
moral teaching is slightly different. From the Gospels it would seem that Jesus taught mainly in
broad general principles, leaving his hearers to make their own applications. In the Epistles, on
the other hand, the applications are often spelt out in very specific terms. Sexual sin, for example, is analyzed in
considerable detail (Cor. 6:9; 2 Cor. 12:21), and sins of speech come in for similarly detailed treatment (Rom.
1:29; Eph. 4:29; 5:4; Col. 3:8; Jas. 3:5).

Those who walk, live, and set their minds “according to the Spirit” find freedom, peace, acceptance with God,
and constant renewal as sons of God (Rom. 8:5–17). This new, Spirit-ruled life is characterized by the absolute
lordship of Christ over all attitudes and conduct (Rom. 1:3–4; 10:9–13; 14:7–9; 1 Cor. 6:13–20, etc.). Human
personality being “open” Godward, as well as toward social forces that corrupt, the soul united to Christ
becomes the vehicle of the divine Spirit, by whose guidance and enabling it is made capable of otherwise
unattainable virtue (Rom. 8:9–14; 1 Cor. 6:17–20; 2 Cor. 4:7–18). Paul presents a perpetually progressive ideal,
developing constantly in its scope of love, its depth of consecration, and in likeness to Christ. Paul does not claim
to have attained the goal, only to be straining forward at the ever-upward call of God in Christ, toward the
stature of Christ, being by degrees changed “into his likeness” and “conformed to his image” (Rom. 8:29; 2 Cor.
3:18; Eph. 4:13; Phil. 3:12–14).

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