Ethics in Christianity Essay

Morals and ethics are a major part of living life as a Christian. We ask ourselves what is the right and wrong way to live in this world. Does right and wrong even exist within this world and how do we come to understand our beliefs on the topic? Something must happen for us to come to the understanding and then what actions we must take to live the life we think we should. Christians believe that life should parallel with God’s word and aim to live the life He says we should. In Matthew 5:48 it states to be perfect because the Father is perfect. It does not mean that sin does not happen it just means to strive to attain the glorious life Christ meant for you to have. Romans 3:23 lets us know that sin has been a part of humanity since the beginning but to decide to live your life through Christ allows you the chance of forgiveness. Continuing to justify your faith in Christ leads you to the life you want and should live.

Although God gave free will to humanity, His purpose for us was that we seek and glorify Him. Matthew quotes Jesus in this very point saying, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Ryrie Study Bible: Expanded Edition, NIV, Mt. 22:37). Because of the disobedience of Adam and Eve, eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the concept of sin was brought into the world. Sin created a barrier between God and His human creations that we as Christians are, until the Day of Judgement, constantly trying to surmount in order to be in a closer relationship with Him. God, in His grace and wisdom, provided a way to reconcile our sin through Christ’s death and resurrection. The book of Romans tells us that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Ryrie Study Bible: Expanded Edition, NIV, Ro. 3:23-24). The sacrifice and resurrection of Christ, and subsequent atonement for our transgressions, created a way by which we as sinners might find our way back to a meaningful relationship with

The Bible however, designates very clear lines of morality as “ethics [are] based upon the nature and character of God” (Weider, Gutierrez, 72). Whether it be jealousy and greed or sexual immorality, the sinful nature is within each human as a result of The Fall. However, with the acceptance of Christ comes the gifts of the Holy Spirit, contradicting the sinful nature and instilling within the believer the character of our Creator (Galatians 5: 16-26). Scripture is very clear on living a life devoted to righteous and goodness, as apposed to rejection and truth and following evil , thus eternal condemnation being the consequence (Romans

Many people want to know what God is like. One of his characteristics is that he is the supreme ruler, who created everyone and everything in this world (Psalm 97). This is the Christian worldview of God. He is three persons: God, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Houdmann). He is also just, merciful, and loving towards all his creatures. Because he is all these things, God has given us humans, his creation, free will. With this free will, comes decisions that can either make us good or evil. Depending on if someone was good in life, he will go to heaven, or if he was evil, he will go to hell (Ezekiel 18). Now with the free will, humans decide what they want to do, and it is in their nature to be selfish. They will always strive to make their life better, choosing choices in which they will be benefited before others.

"Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important" (C.S. Lewis). Christianity is a religion based on the life and teaching, in the New Testament, of Jesus. It is a type of religion that only believes in one God. People who follow this religion are called Christians. Most Christians believe that God is one eternal being who exists as three distinct, eternal, and indivisible persons: the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ the eternal Word), and the Holy Spirit. Most Christians says that the work of the "Spirit of God", the Holy Spirit, is truly important.

Catholic teachings of free will recognize that God has given men and women the option to choose good or evil in their lives. According to the Catholic faith, God does not want humanity to be mere automatons, but instead autonomous. People have the dignity of freedom, but have to recognize with freedom comes the cost of evil. Christian belief in human freedom acknowledges that people are called but not compelled by God to choose the values of the Gospel, the teaching or revelation of Christ. Within the Gospel holds many moral values such as faith, hope, love, mercy, justice, forgiveness, integrity, and compassion (“Free Will, Conscience and Moral Choice: What Catholics Believe”). Followers of Christianity realize their human freedom and decisions should be based on these value, but if not, could be consequential with evil. Certain actions in the Catholic Church are ruled unholy and faced with severe punishment. The Ten Commandments are a summary of the conditions of life freed from the slavery of sin and are said to be written with the finger of God according to Exodus 31:18 (“Essential Freedom: Catholic Ten Commandments”) This biblical law expresses the basic freedom from sin that is necessary to live as a Christian.

2) Freegard (2006) states: “Autonomy as an ethical principle encompasses the fundamental protection and respect of persons, and freedom from interference ... A competent client should have the right to decide what is to be done with his or her body” (p. 112).

Since the moment Eve bit the apple from the tree of knowledge all of mankind has been introduced to evil which created humanities sinful nature. On the other hand, mankind was, nevertheless, created in God’s image which means humans still have the capability to love, create, reason, explore, be aware of right and wrong, justice, and to communicate and worship God (Origins, 2017). Jesus believed that since mankind was created in the image of God and created good by God, each person has the ability to be good, they just have to choose to be good. Many make wrong, sinful choices because they believe they know better than God. Mankind was made to follow God’s ‘rules’ because God knows best. Mankind was created to take dominion over God’s creation, to care for everything God had made. Genesis 1:28 explains how God commanded Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply.

Scenario: You have worked at this organization for over 10 years and feel totally unappreciated. You have not received a promotion or pay raise in over 5 years, and you work long days and typically take work home with you to stay caught up. Your supervisor—who you despise because of the way he treats you and because he does not authorize any promotion or raise, whereas other departments do—climbs the staircase in front of your cubicle every day to get to his office. This particular supervisor has been with the organization for over 30 years and can essentially retire at any time, but he chooses to continue to work. You happen to notice that a portion of the staircase is rotting out and

According to the Bible, God gave us the gift of an immortal soul that has the ability to think and reason, which places us at the top of the pyramid for morality. We are free to seek and love what is good, true and beautiful. Unfortunately, we have the tendency to steer off course and pursue the darkness that lives within ourselves. Luckily, we are able to determine what is right and wrong from our knowledge of God’s law or our conscience. God gave us (i.e. human being) a conscience that will serve as an ally to combat sinful temptations and to realize the magnitude of actions should we behave out of line (i.e. against God’s will). Our conscience leads us to do what is right or to confess and to seek forgiveness if we have done something

Who we ought and be, and what actions we ought to take or avoid based on understanding of the scripture and relevant human experiences. I subscribe to the divine command theory of ethics, as I believe you cannot have ethics without God. What is morally right is what God has commanded (for example, love thy neighbor), and what is forbidden by God is morally wrong. Of course, there are ethical atheist and unethical theist, but I find that I live a morally fulfilled and happy life through the guidance of the scriptures and my faith leaders. That said, a person can be ethical whether to subscribe to the Christian faith or not, the ethics of their behavior and respect and treatment of others is what is most

Last quarter I had finished an ethics class and we had a discussion and assignment about God. If he is all seeing and all knowing, then do we really have free will. In our book, Ethics: Theory and Practice and on page ninety-three there is a paragraph that states, “such a being seems to be very strange indeed—especially in view of the emphasis the three major Western religions place upon salvation—if it predetermines that some humans will be good and some will be bad, and then punishes and rewards them for something over which they have no control! Such a characterization of the supernatural being’s relationship with its creatures certainly does not square with the image of an all-merciful, all-just being that the three religions also accept.

Christian theism defines how ethics relates to the role of humans. “Ethics is transcendent and is based on the character of God as good [holy and loving]” (Sire, 2004). Theism teaches the universe is moral and there is an absolute standard by which we should all judge things. God is “the” standard and all issues should be judged next to His standard.

Morality is often referred to as decision-making and the difference between right and wrong. There are many aspects to Christian morality such as the practice of freedom, the understanding of moral acts, the formation of conscience, and above all realization of sin. Additionally, when referring to the practice of freedom when it pertains to the topic of morality, it is usually talking about the responsibility that is gained to be created in the image and likeness of God (“Morality”). In order to practice responsible freedom we must do things that would keep us in a more intimate relationship with God, such as going to church and getting baptized (“Morality”). When God created us he gave us the knowledge so we may choose to act "good" and ultimately share in his plan (“Morality”). Freedom is

We can construct and reconstruct Christian ethical types with the variable of Christian faith, just as we use other variables. History witnesses in Christian traditions that different ethical norms within the traditions are created based on their varying understandings of the correlation between God revealed in Jesus Christ and God revealed in