Christian Social Teachings: A reader in Christian Social Ethics from the Bible to the Present

Influences

1

Hebrew Bible

The ethical vocation of the people of Israel and the Christian community that followed is grounded in and takes its life from the intimate relationship God has chosen to establish with humankind. Genesis 1:26-27 tells us that humanity is created in the very image of God. It is a special relationship that human beings enjoy among all creatures. In the creation account of Genesis 2, we see God molding the first human being from the dust of the earth like the potter molds the clay and then breathing into that form the life-giving divine breath. As images of God, human beings are dependent beings, dependent upon God for life itself. God not only creates humankind but gives them the fruits of the creation for their flourishing (Genesis 1:29 and 2:16). Humanity’s relationship to God is constitutive of its being. Thus, when Adam and Eve yield to the temptation of the serpent to eat the forbidden fruit and be like God, (Genesis 3:5) they step outside the circle of their true being. In their lost innocence they must now live out the struggle between good and evil (Genesis 3:22). The ethical themes of the Hebrew Scriptures find expression in the history of this conflict of good and evil from Cain’s murder of Abel forward into the New Testament.

God does not abandon a wayward humanity or the promise of creation for the harmony of all things. God’s actions in history continue to reveal God as the One who desires that humankind flourish along with the whole of creation. The covenant with Abraham (Genesis 15), the deliverance of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, the giving of the Law in the covenant of Sinai (Exodus 19­–24), the covenant with David (2 Samuel 7), and the delivery of the promised land of Canaan to the tribes of Israelites are all actions in history by which God raises up a people set apart as a witness to the nations (42:6). God is at work in the world through this covenant people to bring reconciliation among the peoples (Isaiah 2:2-3; 60:1, 3) and peace throughout the creation (Isaiah 11:6-9). It is the ethical vocation of Israel to reflect these divine purposes in their conduct as a society with a special, intimate, relationship with God that echoes the promise of humankind’s creation in the divine image sustained by God’s active presence in history.

The prophets continually call the people to faithfulness to their covenant vocation through the practice of justice and works of mercy. As God acts with steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth (Jer. 9:23), so Israel is to do likewise. The prophet Amos admonishes the people for their shallow piety and calls on them to let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream (5:24). As God has been merciful in delivering the people from slavery and giving them their land, so they are to reenact those divine actions in their own practice of mercy (Zechariah 7:9). The well known passage from Micah 6:8 is a succinct statement of Israel’s calling: He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Selection 1: Exodus 20:1-17; 21:1-11, 22-25, 33-36; 22:21-27

These selections are from what is known as the Book of the Covenant, beginning with the reminder that is the basis of Israel’s ethical vocation, God’s merciful deliverance of the people from slavery in Egypt. There follows the apodictic (unconditional) law that becomes known as the Ten Commandments. In time the tablets of the law would come to rest inside the Ark of the Covenant , the sign of God’s mercy, as another reminder that God’s grace precedes and sustains the call to obedience as a response to divine favor. That call to obedience also involves ordinances that set forth the sort of casuistic or case law illustrated in these selections. Casuistic law recognizes that social life is often complex and motives and circumstances must be sorted out. Some examples also display characteristics of that ancient culture having to do with slavery and the status of women that we would find disturbing and ethically unacceptable. When we juxtapose that with the ordinances expressing God’s compassionate concern for aliens, widows, orphans, and the poor, we are alerted to a distinction biblical scholars often make between what is at the core of God’s self-revelation and what is part of the cultural scenery.

²⁰:¹Then God spoke all these words: ²I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; ³you shall have no other gods before me. ⁴You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. ⁵You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, ⁶but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments. ⁷You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name. ⁸Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. ⁹Six days you shall labor and do all your work. ¹⁰But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. ¹¹For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.

¹²Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. ¹³You shall not murder. ¹⁴You shall not commit adultery. ¹⁵You shall not steal. ¹⁶You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. ¹⁷You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

²¹:¹These are the ordinances that you shall set before them: ²When you buy a male Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, but in the seventh he shall go out a free person, without debt. ³If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him. ⁴If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master’s and he shall go out alone. ⁵But if the slave declares, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out a free person, ⁶then his master shall bring him before God. He shall be brought to the door or the doorpost; and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him for life. ⁷When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do. ⁸If she does not please her master, who designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed; he shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has dealt unfairly with her. ⁹If he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her as with a daughter. ¹⁰If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish the food, clothing, or marital rights of the first wife. ¹¹And if he does not do these three things for her, she shall go out without debt, without payment of money.

²²When people who are fighting injure a pregnant woman so that there is a miscarriage, and yet no further harm follows, the one responsible shall be fined what the woman’s husband demands, paying as much as the judges determine. ²³If any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, ²⁴eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, ²⁵burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. ³³If someone leaves a pit open, or digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it, ³⁴the owner of the pit shall make restitution, giving money to its owner, but keeping the dead animal. ³⁵If someone’s ox hurts the ox of another, so that it dies, then they shall sell the live ox and divide the price of it; and the dead animal they shall also divide. ³⁶But if it was known that the ox was accustomed to gore in the past, and its owner has not restrained it, the owner shall restore ox for ox, but keep the dead animal. ²¹You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. ²²You shall not abuse any widow or orphan. ²³If you do abuse them, when they cry out to me, I will surely heed their cry; ²⁴my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children orphans.

²⁵If you lend money to my people, to the poor among you, you shall not deal with them as a creditor; you shall not exact interest from them. ²⁶If you take your neighbor’s cloak in pawn, you shall restore it before the sun goes down; ²⁷for it may be your neighbor’s only clothing to use as cover; in what else shall that person sleep? And if your neighbor cries out to me, I will listen, for I am compassionate.

Selection 2: Leviticus 25:8-9

In this tradition of the jubilee year, Israel was commanded to forgive debtors, set free those sold into slavery for their debt, and restore lands to families who had to sell them due to economic hardship. Families would then be reunited on their lands. Here we have an image of biblical justice in which people are set free from oppressive social and economic circumstances to begin life anew. It demonstrates that justice was viewed from the vantage point of those in need. Justice begins with the mercy of God and the merciful actions God demands of the people and for the people. There are echoes of the jubilee tradition in Isaiah 61:1, which Jesus read in the synagogue and applied to his own person and work (Luke 4:18-21). In both Isaiah 61 and Luke 4, elements of the jubilee are incorporated in the messianic hope for God’s future reign.

²⁵:⁸You shall count off seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the period of seven weeks of years gives forty-nine years. ⁹Then you shall have the trumpet sounded loud; on the tenth day of the seventh month—on the day of atonement—you shall have the trumpet sounded throughout all your land. ¹⁰And you shall hallow the fiftieth year and you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you: you shall return, every one of you, to your property and every one of you to your family.

Selection 3: Prophetic Accents

Amos 5:6-24

Amos prophesied the middle of the eighth century bce, during the prosperous and peaceful reign of Jeroboam II. Things seemed good. However, Amos was harsh in his criticism of reliance on military might and of a self-congratulatory complacency mingled with immorality, injustice and shallow piety. Jesus is quoted in Matthew 9:13, I desire mercy not sacrifice, though Hosea 6:6 shares in this same spirit, as does the epistle of James. Amos’s passionate cry for justice and disdain of meaningless ritual has remained a constant summons throughout subsequent generations.

⁵:⁶Seek the Lord and live, or he will break out against the house of Joseph like fire, and it will devour Bethel, with no one to quench it. ⁷Ah, you that turn justice to wormwood, and bring righteousness to the ground! ⁸The one who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning, and darkens the day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the surface of the earth, the Lord is his name, ⁹who makes destruction flash out against the strong, so that destruction comes upon the fortress. ¹⁰They hate the one who reproves in the gate, and they abhor the one who speaks the truth. ¹¹Therefore because you trample on the poor and take from them levies of grain, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not live in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine. ¹²For I know how many are your transgressions, and how great are your sins—you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and push aside the needy in the gate. ¹³Therefore the prudent will keep silent in such a time; for it is an evil time. ¹⁴Seek good and not evil, that you may live; and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you, just as you have said. ¹⁵Hate evil and love good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

¹⁶Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord: In all the squares there shall be wailing; and in all the streets they shall say, Alas! alas! They shall call the farmers to mourning, and those skilled in lamentation, to wailing; ¹⁷in all the vineyards there shall be wailing, for I will pass through the midst of you, says the Lord. ¹⁸Alas for you who desire the day of the Lord! Why do you want the day of the Lord? It is darkness, not light; ¹⁹as if someone fled from a lion, and was met by a bear; or went into the house and rested a hand against the wall, and was bitten by a snake. ²⁰Is not the day of the Lord darkness, not light, and gloom with no brightness in it?

²¹I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. ²²Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon. ²³Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. ²⁴But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream.

Isaiah 11:1-9

Isaiah prophesied in Judah during the latter part of the eighth century BCE, a worrisome time for Judah sitting as it did adjacent to the Northern Kingdom that had just been annexed by Assyria. If Amos seems to have offered no hope for escape from God’s judgment, Isaiah by contrast engenders the hope of a coming messiah and a proleptic (or anticipatory) vision of a peaceable kingdom marked by harmony throughout creation and the end of hurt and destruction. The early verses have been applied to Jesus as the Messiah. The text has been an inspiration to peacemakers and, of late, a way to connect concern for the health of the planet with God’s plan of salvation.

¹¹:¹A shoot shall come out from the stock of Jesse,

and a branch shall grow out of his roots.

²The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him,

the spirit of wisdom and understanding,

the spirit of counsel and might,

the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

³His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.

He shall not judge by what his eyes see,

or decide by what his ears hear;

⁴but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,

and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;

he shall strike the earth with the rod his mouth,

and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.

⁵Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist,

and faithfulness the belt around his loins.

⁶The wolf shall live with the lamb,

the leopard shall lie down with the kid,

the calf and the lion and the fatling together,

and a little child shall lead them.

⁷The cow and the bear shall graze,

their young shall lie down together;

and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

⁸The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,

and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.

⁹They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain;

for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord

as the waters cover the sea.

2

New Testament

The message of the New Testament might well be summarized by Jesus’ words in Mark 1:15: The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news. The whole of New Testament ethics is implicit in this proclamation. It is the ethics born of repentance and faith in light of the realization that the kairos has come, the time is fulfilled, the fullness of God’s reign is revealed and assured in the person and work of Jesus, the Christ. Here and elsewhere in the synoptic gospels we are told Jesus went about proclaiming that the kingdom of God is at hand (for example, Matthew 4:23) He identified the meaning of his person and work with prophetic hopes for God’s future. It is in him that the messianic vision of Isaiah 61:1 and its promise of good news to the poor, the blind, the captives, and the oppressed is to be fulfilled (Luke 4: 18-21). John the Baptist’s disciples question Jesus on John’s behalf if he is the one for whom John was ordained to prepare the way. Jesus’ answer is a yet another identification with prophetic hope and an implicit claim to be the one bringing in the reign of God: Go tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news brought to them. (Luke 7:22; Matthew 11:4-5) God’s promised future, proclaimed by Jesus, anticipated by his teaching and works, and sealed by his resurrection is marked by the triumph of life, wholeness, freedom and justice, peace, and community with God and each other. The Christian ethic of neighbor love seeks these values of God’s promised future in the present, energized by the revelation of their coming as an integral part of the good news of Jesus Christ.

That love (agape)—which Jesus commands for God and for the neighbor (Matthew 22:37-39; Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27)—is the very core of the law and the prophets (Matthew 22:40), giving both motive and direction to the Christian ethic. Christians are to love as they have been loved by God in Christ (John 15 12). God’s love (agape) has been poured into our hearts Paul says, through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.(Romans 5:5) Christ is the example of the self-giving love and servanthood (Philippians 2:4-11; Matthew 10:45) that he admonishes his disciples to embrace (Matthew 10:43-44).

While there is no explicit discourse on the connection between love and social justice, the two are clearly linked together. As we noted above, the values love seeks for the neighbor, revealed by Jesus as marks of the coming kingdom, are essential components of social justice. Beyond that connection we find Luke’s gospel replete with concerns for the poor, Matthew’s parable of judgment against those who have neglected the need (Matthew 25:31-46), Paul’s declaration of the equality of Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female (Galatians 3:28), and the Epistle of James’s condemnation of partiality against the poor as unbecoming for those called to love the neighbor (James 2:1-9).

Though Christian ethics is an ethics of self-giving love ready to turn the other cheek and go the extra mile, the New Testament concern for justice and the social good is also realistic in recognizing and supporting the necessity of civil authority and law. The governing authorities are established by God for the common good and the punishment of evildoers. Support of governing authority is obedience to God’s purposes and a matter of Christian conscience and Christian witness to the larger society. (Romans 13:1-7; 1 Peter 2:12-17) At the same time, Christians are not to obey government no matter what; governing authorities are established by God to carry out God’s purposes. We must obey God rather than any human authority. (Acts 5:29) Christians clearly support just law and recognize the need for law in an evil world while yet being ready to go beyond the law in love for the neighbor, even their enemies.

Selection 1: Matthew 5

This is the first chapter of what has been called the Sermon on the Mount, which extends through chapters six and seven. Chapter five is of particular interest because of its focus on Jesus’ ethical teachings, including insight into the radical nature of love. Moreover, the tenor of Jesus’ proclamation makes it clear that he is claiming the authority of the one who is bringing in the kingdom of God and creating a new state of affairs. His teaching is therefore about a way of life that for all its apparent impossibility is, nonetheless, by the grace of Christ and the encroaching reign of God, a new possibility. The chapter is readily divided into four sections. The beatitudes (1-12) can be understood as a presentation of the virtues of Christ like love that are the blessings of the disciples of Christ. The similes (13-14) make the point that Christians are salt and light and should be what they are. A transitional section (17-20) is Jesus’ claim to fulfill the law and the prophets, reminding his hearers that he is in continuity with God’s revelation to Israel and its consummation. The antitheses present a radicalization of the law that drive beyond action to include motive.

The Beatitudes

⁵:¹When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. ²Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

³ ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

⁴ ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

⁵ ‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

⁶ ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

⁷ ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

⁸ ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

⁹ ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

¹⁰ ‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

¹¹ ‘Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. ¹²Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

¹³ ‘You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.

¹⁴ ‘You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. ¹⁶In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

¹⁷ ‘Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. ¹⁸For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. ¹⁹Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. ²⁰For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

²¹ ‘You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, You shall not murder; and whoever murders shall be liable to judgment. ²²But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, You fool, you will be liable to the hell of fire. ²³So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, ²⁴leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. ²⁵Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way to court with him, or your accuser may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. ²⁶Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

²⁷ ‘You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery. ²⁸But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. ²⁹If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. ³⁰And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell.

³¹ ‘It was also said, Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce. ³²But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

³³ ‘Again, you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord. ³⁴But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, ³⁵or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. ³⁶And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. ³⁷Let your word be Yes, Yes or No, No; anything more than this comes from the evil one.

³⁸ ‘You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. ³⁹But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; ⁴⁰and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; ⁴¹and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. ⁴²Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.

⁴³ ‘You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. ⁴⁴But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. ⁴⁶For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same? ⁴⁷And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? ⁴⁸Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Selection 2: Luke 4:14-21 and Matthew 11:2-6

In each of these selections we find Jesus quoting from Isaiah. In Luke it is Isaiah 61:1 and in Matthew 11 he is quoting from a combination of Isaiah 29: 18-19, 35:5-6, and 61:1. In each case Jesus is pointing out that the works expected of the Messiah are being fulfilled in his person and work. Not only are these passages important for revealing Jesus’ messianic claim as the fulfillment of prophetic hope and expectation, but the works of the Messiah reveal the will of God for healing, liberation, and justice. The hope that Jesus comes to proclaim is for the well-being of the whole person and the whole world. Thus, the Christian community is called to an ethic of peace and justice that imitates the works of its Lord. A clue to Jesus’ social ethic may be found in the fact that Isaiah with its rich social teaching is the prophetic book most quoted by Jesus.

Luke 4:14-21

⁴:¹⁴Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. ¹⁵He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.

¹⁶When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, ¹⁷and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: ¹⁸‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, ¹⁹to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’ ²⁰And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. ²¹Then he began to say to them, Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.

Matthew 11:2-6

¹¹:² When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples ³and said to him, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?’ ⁴Jesus answered them, ‘Go and tell John what you hear and see: ⁵the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. ⁶And blessed is anyone who takes no offence at me.’

Selection 3: Luke 10:25-37

This is perhaps Jesus’s best-known parable. Being a good Samaritan has entered into popular parlance as a way to describe acts of kindness and help to a neighbor in need. The double love commandment given here to the lawyer occurs in Matthew and Mark as well. Only here in Luke is it accompanied by an example of love in action that we are commanded with the lawyer to emulate. That Samaritans were outcasts is well known. That Jesus makes a Samaritan the shining example suggests not only that Jesus reaches out to all people but also that his followers should do so as well; all are our neighbors.

Luke 10:25-37

¹⁰:²⁵Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. Teacher, he said, what must I do to inherit eternal life? ²⁶He said to him, What is written in the law? What do you read there? ²⁷He answered, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself. ²⁸And he said to him, You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live. ²⁹But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, And who is my neighbor? ³⁰Jesus replied, A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. ³¹Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. ³²So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. ³³But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. ³⁴He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. ³⁵The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ ³⁶Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers? ³⁷He said, The one who showed him mercy. Jesus said to him, Go and do likewise.

Selection 4: Luke 12:15-31

Jesus’ parable of the rich fool is not an attack on wealth per se but a warning against greed. The rich fool is not condemned for having a good year but for his lack of readiness to share, a theme connected to the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16: 19-21.) Both parables, found only in Luke, voice this theme of the need to be concerned for the wellbeing of others. The rich fool’s dedication to his own security is a form of idolatry that closed him off from that concern for others. Followers of Christ, by contrast, are not to be anxious for their own security, but place their trust in God and dedicate themselves to the values and promises of the kingdom Jesus has come to usher in.

¹²:¹⁵And he said to them, ‘Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’ ¹⁶Then he told them a parable: ‘The land of a rich man produced abundantly. ¹⁷And he thought to himself, What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops? ¹⁸Then he said, I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. ¹⁹And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry. ²⁰But God said to him, You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be? ²¹So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.’

Do Not Worry

²²He said to his disciples, ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. ²³For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. ²⁴Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! ²⁵And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? ²⁶If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? ²⁷Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. ²⁸But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! ²⁹And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. ³⁰For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them. ³¹Instead, strive for his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.

Selection 5: Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2:13—3:8

As noted in the general introduction to New Testament influences, these two texts contain admonitions to obey civil authorities that God has established for the common good. At the same time, as Paul says in the Romans text, love of neighbor is the fulfilling of the law. How the ethics of Christian love is both to support, critique, and be involved with civil authority and their mandate to promote and preserve justice remains an ongoing source of debate with positions ranging from avoidance of public life to vigorous activism. The diversity of views is to a great extent a function of differing circumstances in different places and different times, leading to different interpretations of how the texts apply. First Peter’s admonition to slaves and wives to be obedient to masters and husbands is certainly received in a different light today than it would have been in first-century Palestine (see also Ephesians 5:22—6:9).

Romans 13:1-14

¹³:¹Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God. ²Therefore whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. ³For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you wish to have no fear of the authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive its approval; ⁴for it is God’s servant for your good. But if you do what is wrong, you should be afraid, for the authority does not bear the sword in vain! It is the servant of God to execute wrath on the wrongdoer. ⁵Therefore one must be subject, not only because of wrath but also because of conscience. ⁶For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, busy with this very thing.

⁷Pay to all what is due them—taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due. ⁸Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. ⁹The commandments, You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, Love your neighbor as yourself. ¹⁰Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

¹¹Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; ¹²the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; ¹³let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. ¹⁴Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

1 Peter 2:13—3:8

²:¹³For the Lord’s sake accept the authority of every human institution, whether of the emperor as supreme, ¹⁴or of governors, as sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to praise those who do right. ¹⁵For it is God’s will that by doing right you should silence the ignorance of the foolish. ¹⁶As servants of God, live as free people, yet do not use your freedom as a pretext for evil. ¹⁷Honor everyone. Love the family of believers. Fear God. Honor the emperor. ¹⁸Slaves, accept the authority of your masters with all deference, not only those who are kind and gentle but also those who are harsh. ¹⁹For it is a credit to you if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly. ²⁰If you endure when you are beaten for doing wrong, what credit is that? But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s approval. ²¹For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps. ²²He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth. ²³When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. ²⁴He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. ²⁵For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.

³:¹Wives, in the same way, accept the authority of your husbands, so that, even if some of them do not obey the word, they may be won over without a word by their wives’ conduct, ²when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. ³Do not adorn yourselves outwardly by braiding your hair, and by wearing gold ornaments or fine clothing; ⁴rather, let your adornment be the inner self with the lasting beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in God’s sight. ⁵It was in this way long ago that the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves by accepting the authority of their husbands. ⁶Thus Sarah obeyed Abraham and called him lord. You have become her daughters as long as you do what is good and never let fears alarm you. ⁷Husbands, in the same way, show consideration for your wives in your life together, paying honor to the woman as the weaker sex, since they too are also heirs of the gracious gift of life—so that nothing may hinder your prayers.

⁸Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind.

Selection 6: 1 John 4:7-21 and 1 Corinthians 13:1-7

Love of neighbor, as we have seen, is the cornerstone of the Christian ethic in all its expressions, social and individual. Nowhere in the New Testament is the utter necessity of agape for authentic Christian living more pronounced in these two texts. The wellspring of love for John is from the love of God who is love itself. For John as well as Paul, the absence of love, its actions, and the marks of its character render one’s claims to true faith and morality empty and strident.

1 John 4:7-21

⁴:⁷Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. ⁹God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. ¹⁰In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. ¹²No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. ¹³By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

¹⁴And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. ¹⁵God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. ¹⁶So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.

¹⁷Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. ¹⁸There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. ¹⁹We love because he first loved us. ²⁰Those who say, I love God, and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. ²¹The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

1 Corinthians 13:1-7

¹³:¹If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ²And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant ⁵or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. ⁷It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

For Further Reading

Brueggemann, Walter. Journey to the Common Good. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2011.

Knight, Douglas A. Law, Power, and Justice in Ancient Israel. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2011.

Johnson, Luke Timothy. Prophetic Jesus, Prophetic Church: The Challenge of Luke-Acts to Contemporary Christians. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2011.

Pilgrim, Walter. Uneasy Neighbors: Church and State in the New Testament. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1999.

Part 2: The Early Church

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Apostolic Fathers

The ethical teachings of these early Christian Fathers receive their special character from the fact that they are written by Gentiles living in a pagan world. The Torah cannot be assumed; it is not an integral feature of the cultural context. Thus, practices such as abortion, infanticide, pederasty, magic, and witchcraft that were common in the Hellenistic Roman Empire needed to be confronted to an extent that would not be necessary in a Jewish environment. Then as now, the Christian ethic finds expression in engagement with the particular features of the context in which Christians find themselves. As such, the Christian moral witness takes on an apologetic function as a window to the Christian faith and its values.

To some degree a sense of the impending eschaton is shared by the first two of these writers. It is most pronounced in this statement from the Epistle of Barnabas, the earliest of these second-century writings: The day is near when everything will perish together with the Evil One. The Lord and his reward are near (21:3). Writing later in the century, Justin feels the need to explain the delay in the Parousia, For the reason why God has delayed to do this [bring about the end of the world] is His regard for the human race; for He foreknows that some are to be saved by repentance, and perhaps some not yet born. Justin displays little concern over this apparent delay, however, though he doubtless shared the view that the days of the world are numbered. The hope for the Lord’s return, then, surely influenced the ethical teachings of these early fathers. It helps to explain the uncompromising demands of their individualistic ethic. There is little need for a carefully nuanced social ethic designed to cope over time with a myriad of fluctuating claims, conflicts, and demands for compromise. Furthermore, in a setting and time when Christianity was an often-persecuted minority there was scant opportunity to exert influence in matters of justice and the civil order and a great need to be true to the faith in the most rigorous way possible. Somewhat in contrast, the selection from Irenaeus, written in the latter half of the second century voices more concern over the order of this world.

Selection 1: The Epistle of Barnabas XVII–XXI

This anonymous epistle, which enjoyed canonical status for a time in some circles, has been dated anywhere from the late first century to the early years of the second. Few if any scholars believe that it was written by Paul’s colleague Barnabas, who likely died before the book was written. Our selections from the second part of the epistle present a version of the ways or paths, the Way of Light versus Way of Darkness. This teaching is quite similar to the two ways teachings laid out in the Didache, another anonymous document from the same general time frame. Ironically, given the anti-Jewish rhetoric of the first part of the Epistle of Barnabas, it is generally believed that both this epistle and the Didache were derived from an earlier Jewish source adopted by Christian teachers.

The Two Ways

18. But let us move on to another lesson and teaching. There are two ways of teaching and power, one of light and one of darkness, and there is a great difference between these two ways. For over the one are stationed light-giving angels of God, but over the other are angels of Satan. And the first is Lord from eternity to eternity, while the latter is ruler of the present era of lawlessness.

The Way of Light

19. This, therefore, is the way of light; if any desire to make their way to the designated place, let them be diligent with respect to their works. The knowledge, then, that is given to us that we may walk in it is as follows. You shall love the one who made you; you shall fear the one who created you; you shall glorify the one who redeemed you from death. You shall be sincere in heart and rich in spirit. You shall not associate with those who walk along the way of death; you shall hate everything that is not pleasing to God; you shall hate all hypocrisy; you must not forsake the Lord’s commandments. You shall not exalt yourself, but shall be humble-minded in every respect. You shall not claim glory for yourself. You shall not hatch evil plots against your neighbor. You shall not permit your soul to become arrogant. You shall not be sexually promiscuous; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not corrupt children. The word of God shall not go forth from you among any who are unclean. You shall not show partiality when reproving someone for a transgression. Be humble; be quite; be one who reveres the words that you have heard. You shall not hold a grudge against your brother or sister. You shall not waver with regard to your decisions. You shall not take the Lord’s name in vain. You shall love your neighbor more than your own life. You shall not abort a child nor, again, commit infanticide. You must not withhold your hand from your son or your daughter, but from their youth you shall teach them the fear of God. You must not covet your neighbor’s possessions; you must not become greedy. Do not intimately associated with the lofty, but live with the humble and righteous. Accept as good the things that happen to you, knowing that nothing transpires apart from God. You shall not be double-minded or double-tongued. Be submissive to masters in respect and fear, as to a symbol of God. You must not give orders to your male slave or female servant (who hope in the same God as you) when angry, lest they cease to fear the God who is over you both, because he came to call those whom the Spirit has prepared, without regard to reputation. You shall share everything with your neighbor, and not claim that anything is your own. For if you are sharers in what is incorruptible, how much more so in corruptible things! Do not be quick to speak, for the mouth is a deadly snare. Insofar as you are able, you shall be pure for the sake of your soul. Do not be someone who stretches out the hands to receive, but withdraws them when it comes to giving. You shall love as the apple of your eye everyone who speaks the word of the Lord to you. Remember the Day of Judgment night and day, and you shall seek out on a daily basis the presence of the saints, either laboring in word and going out to encourage, and endeavoring to save a soul by the word, or work with your hands for a ransom for your sins. You shall not hesitate to give, nor shall you grumble when giving, but you will know who is the good paymaster of the reward. You shall guard what you have received, neither adding nor subtracting anything. You shall utterly hate the evil one. You shall judge righteously. You shall not cause division, but shall make peace between those who quarrel by bringing them together. You shall confess your sins. You shall not come to prayer with an evil conscience. This the way of light.

The Way of Darkness

20. But the way of the black one is crooked and completely cursed. For it is a way of eternal death and punishment, in which lie things that destroy men’s souls: idolatry, audacity, arrogance of power, hypocrisy, duplicity, adultery, murder, robbery, pride, transgression, deceit, malice, stubbornness, sorcery, magic art, greed, lack of fear of God. It is the way of persecutors of the good, of those who hate truth, love a lie, do not know the reward of righteousness, do not adhere to what is good or to righteous judgment, who ignore the widow and the orphan, are vigilant not because of fear of God, but for what is evil, from whom gentleness and patience are far removed and distant, who love worthless things, pursue a reward, have no mercy for the poor, do not work on behalf of the oppressed, are reckless with slander, do not know the one who made them, are murderers of children, corrupters of God’s creation, who turn away from someone in need, who oppress the afflicted, are advocates of the wealthy, lawless judges of the poor, utterly sinful.

Concluding Remarks

21. It is good, therefore, to learn all the Lord’s righteous requirements that are written here and to walk in them. For the one who does these things will be glorified in the kingdom of God; the one who chooses their opposites will perish together with his or her words. This is why there is a resurrection, this is why there is recompense.

I urge those in high positions, if you will accept some well-intentioned advice from me: you have among you those to whom you can do good—do not fail.

The day is near when everything will perish together with the Evil One. The Lord, and his reward, is near. Again and again I urge you: Be good lawgivers to one another; continue to be faithful counselors of one another; get rid of all hypocrisy among you. And may God, who rules over the whole world, give you wisdom, understanding, insight, knowledge of his righteous requirements, and patience. Be instructed by God, seeking out what the Lord seeks from you and then doing it, in order that you may be found in the day of judgment.

Selection 2: The First Apology of Justin Martyr 14–17, 27–29

Justin was a Palestinian who flourished in the middle of the second century and was later martyred for his faith. A Christian and a Platonist, Justin believed that the seeds of truth (the logos) were sown in all people. This was his famous teaching of the logos spermatikos (see the Second Apology, 8, 10, and 13). His apologetic efforts to defend the faith and convert his pagan hearers were thus an appeal to the truth of the logos (ultimately the Christ) of which they already have knowledge. Thus, despite the stark contrast between Justin’s account of biblical ethics and pagan practices, it seems safe to assume that, given his doctrine of the logos, Justin would expect his listeners to be able to recognize the truth and obligation of these teachings. Therefore, one might hazard the thought that, individualistic though these ethical teachings may be, their accessibility to all people could provide the foundation for the sort of broadly shared social ethic that emerges later in Christian history.

The Moral Power of Christianity

14. For we warn you in advance to be on your guard, lest the demons whom we have previously accused should deceive you and divert you from reading and understanding what we say. For they strive to have you as their slaves and servants, and sometimes by appearances in dreams, sometimes by magical tricks, they subdue all who do not struggle to the utmost for their own salvation, as we do also who, after being persuaded by the Word, renounced them, and follow the only unbegotten God through His Son. Those who formerly delighted in fornication now embrace chastity alone; those who formerly made use of magical arts have dedicated themselves to good and unbegotten God; we who once valued above everything the gaining of wealth and possessions now bring what we have into a common stock, and share with everyone in need; we who hated and destroyed one another, and would not share the same hearth with people of a different tribe on account of their different customs, now since the coming of Christ, live familiarly with them, and pray for our enemies, and try to persuade those who unjustly hate us to live according to the good advice of Christ, to the end that they may share with us the same joyful hope of a reward from God the master of all. But lest we should seem to deceive, we consider it right, before embarking on our promised demonstration, to cite a few of the precepts given by Christ Himself. It is for you then, as powerful rulers, to find out whether we have been taught and do teach these things truly. Short and concise utterances come from Him, for He was no sophist, but His word was the power of God.

15. Concerning chastity he said this: Whosoever looks upon a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart before God. And: If your right eye offends you, cut it out; for it is better for you to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven with one eye, than with two eyes to be cast into eternal fire. And: Whosoever shall marry her that is divorced from another husband, commits adultery. And: "There are some who have been made eunuchs by men, and some who were born eunuchs, and some who have made themselves eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven’s sake; but not all can receive this saying. So that all who according to human law make second marriages are sinners in the sight of our Master, as are those who look on a woman to lust after her. For not only the man who in act commits adultery is condemned by Him, but also the man who desires to commit adultery; since not only our deeds but also our thoughts are open before God. And many, both men and women,