One of the repeated ethical themes of the Bible, especially of Jesus’s ministry, is the idea that real love is best shown by doing things for people who are hopelessly incapable of ever doing anything good back for you: strangers, the poor, the outcast. To what degree should this concept be a primary objective of our behavior? One competing notion is that we should do good for people as a way of gaining influence in their lives in order to bring them to Christ. Another, very American and pragmatic model, is to invest your resources where they are likely to do you the most good. What would it look like if we took this principle seriously for ourselves? In our churches? In our domestic policies? In our foreign policy? And should we be trying to do so?
Monday, February 23, 2009
Ethics: Doing Good For Those Who Can’t Reciprocate
One of the repeated ethical themes of the Bible, especially of Jesus’s ministry, is the idea that real love is best shown by doing things for people who are hopelessly incapable of ever doing anything good back for you: strangers, the poor, the outcast. To what degree should this concept be a primary objective of our behavior? One competing notion is that we should do good for people as a way of gaining influence in their lives in order to bring them to Christ. Another, very American and pragmatic model, is to invest your resources where they are likely to do you the most good. What would it look like if we took this principle seriously for ourselves? In our churches? In our domestic policies? In our foreign policy? And should we be trying to do so?
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