What does it mean to be a good person? The vast majority of people will give answers that talk about interpersonal behavior, so-called horizontal ethics. Being a good person entails being good to other people. But we Christians have learned that something else comes first: being good to God. At the same time, even though we know the Great Commandment is to Love God Fully, we still may find ourselves a bit befuddled at the idea of trying to specify just what this requires from us. After all, obeying God is clearly a big part of it, but isn’t obeying God largely about how we treat other people? Surely so. Yet this seems to fundamentally ignore the more basic question: if we are supposed to love God, what does that look like? What, precisely, does it mean to be ethical toward God and to be unethical toward Him?
Monday, August 11, 2008
Ethics: What Ethical Obligations Do We Have Toward God?
What does it mean to be a good person? The vast majority of people will give answers that talk about interpersonal behavior, so-called horizontal ethics. Being a good person entails being good to other people. But we Christians have learned that something else comes first: being good to God. At the same time, even though we know the Great Commandment is to Love God Fully, we still may find ourselves a bit befuddled at the idea of trying to specify just what this requires from us. After all, obeying God is clearly a big part of it, but isn’t obeying God largely about how we treat other people? Surely so. Yet this seems to fundamentally ignore the more basic question: if we are supposed to love God, what does that look like? What, precisely, does it mean to be ethical toward God and to be unethical toward Him?
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