Ethics for Situations Bible Study
Read the following passage and
answer the questions below.
Matthew 22:35-40 – "One of them, an
expert in the law, tested Him with this question:
36'Teacher,
which is the greatest commandment in the Law?' 37Jesus replied: '"Love the Lord your
God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." 38This is the first and
greatest commandment. 39And
the second is like it: "Love your neighbor as yourself." 40All the Law and the
Prophets hang on these two commandments."'
1) What do the two greatest commandments have as their
mutual basis?
______________________________________________________________________________
2) How are we to love God?
______________________________________________________________________________
3) If we love God in this way, what will we do? (See John
14:15 for help)
______________________________________________________________________________
4) How are we to love our fellow humans?
______________________________________________________________________________
5) If we love others in this way, what will we do? (See 1
Corinthians 10:24 for help)
______________________________________________________________________________
6) What does it mean for the Law
and the Prophets to hang on these two commandments?
______________________________________________________________________________
Ethics for Situations Bible
Study
Read the following passage and
answer the questions below.
Matthew 22:35-40 – "One of them, an
expert in the law, tested Him with this question:
36'Teacher,
which is the greatest commandment in the Law?' 37Jesus replied: '"Love the Lord your
God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." 38This is the first and
greatest commandment. 39And
the second is like it: "Love your neighbor as yourself." 40All the Law and the
Prophets hang on these two commandments."'
1) What do the two greatest commandments have as their
mutual basis?
Love
2) How are we to love God?
With all that we
are
3) If we love God in this way, what will we do? (See John
14:15 for help)
We will obey Him
4) How are we to love our fellow humans?
As we love
ourselves
5) If we love others in this way, what will we do? (See 1
Corinthians 10:24 for help)
We will be looking out for the
good of the other
6) What does it mean for the Law and the Prophets to hang
on these two commandments?
These are the
basis for all of Scripture, without these two things everything else falls down
Ethics for Situations Lecture Notes
The Context of Ethics:
Joseph Fletcher, writing in the
1960's, articulated the theory of "Contextual Ethics",
or
"Situation Ethics"
Christians agree
that all ethical decisions are ultimately made in real-life situations
The challenge for the Christian,
therefore, is to try to determine what is pleasing to God in the particular situations in which we find
ourselves
Fletcher's Moral Absolute:
In "Situation Ethics",
Fletcher says that the only moral absolute is to do what love demands in any
particular situation
The Problem with Fletcher's Theory:
Fletcher's one "Law of Love"
reduces ethics to one principle
God has given many
"Laws", not just the "Law of Love"
God's Love
Love does fulfill the Law
(Romans 13:10)
Augustine – "Love God and
do as you please"
All of God's laws are motivated
by His love
If you love God, then what
pleases you is doing what pleases God
Who determines what love demands?
The basis for ethics is,
absolutely, love, but love defined how?
God is love (1 John 4:8, 16)
In every situation, we have an
obligation to do the loving thing, but the God of love determines what love
demands, not us
Example – Two people are on a date. At the end of the
date, the guy says to the girl, "If you love me, you'll have sex with me"
What should the girl / woman do?
If she loves him, shouldn't she express that?
The proper reply from the girl /
woman is "If you love me, you wouldn't ask"
From the guy's perspective, in
this situation, love demands (permits and even requires) sin Love only permits
or demands sin if we try to determine for ourselves what love is or what love
demands. True love, God's love, does has no room for sin.
Pre-marital sex is statistically
normal.
Secular psychologists say that
extra-marital sex energizes the sexual relationship within a marriage.
In our post-modern culture, the
ethics of Jesus have been replaced by the ethics of custom
Ethics are
defined by what most people are doing
The Call of the Christian:
Jesus calls us to not conform to
the ethics of the majority of the people of this world (Romans 12:1-2)
Justin Martyr, an early
Christian, invited the Roman Emperor to scrutinize the sexual behavior of Christians in order to prove to
him that Christ has transformed how they
live their lives
Could we do
that now?
Statistically,
there is no difference between professing Christians and
non-Christians
when it comes to sexual, ethical behavior
(I would add
that there are Christians who share the views, or engage in the practices, of the world in almost
every regard or issue)
Conclusion (1 Timothy 1:3-11):
The purpose of the Law is to
show us how to love God and our fellow humans
Loving God is obeying the
commandments of Christ
That kind of
love, real love toward God, is the beginning of the Christian ethic
Discussion Questions:
1) If Christians agree that all ethical decisions are
ultimately made in real-life situations (when you're faced with the situation),
is there any value to thinking about it ahead of time? For instance, is there
any reason for you to think about the morality of perpetual life-support versus
"pulling the plug" if you or someone you know is not currently facing
that decision?
2) What kind of love does it sound like Joseph Fletcher
is advocating for?
3) Does our idea of love ever differ from God's idea of
love? Why or why not?
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