Book Reviews

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GUIDE TO CHRISTIAN ETHICS


“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” Jesus inquired. “I will tell you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice” (Luke 6:46-47). He resembles one who lays a solid foundation for building his house, so that it survives when a flood comes. While those who fail to do so are like a person who builds a house without foundation, so when the torrent strikes, it collapses and is totally destroyed.
I recently authored A Guide to Christian Ethics, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers, while the above serves as an impetus. A brief except follows from the earlier portion of the text, by way of providing a lead into this critical topic.
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets,” Jesus cautioned. “I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matt. 5:17). With such in mind, we turn our attention to the decalogue—concerning the ten commandments. Its importance can hardly be overstated. The rabbis “speculated that it was prepared on the eve of creation in anticipation of subsequent use; they asserted that as each commandment was sounded from the lofty height of Sinai it filled the world with a pleasing aroma; they concluded that all nature hushed to hear every word as it was spoken” (Morris Inch, Scripture As Story, p. 35). It was preserved from one generation to the next as a cherished legacy.
It would appear that the decalogue consisted of core teaching, which would be elaborated subsequently in its covenant setting. The latter was fashioned after a vassal treaty, wherein God pledged to intercede on behalf of his people on condition of their loyalty. It consisted of five segments: preamble, historical prologue, stipulations, sanctions, and provision for renewal. As succinctly expressed, the preamble declared: “Moses proclaimed to the Israelites all that the Lord had commanded him concerning them” (Deut. 1:3). As such, it identifies Yahweh as the heavenly sovereign, on whose behalf Moses extended the treaty for ratification.
Conversely, the historical prologue recalled God’s lavish provision for his chosen people in the past. Examples were readily available: “Yahweh had delivered his people from bondage in Egypt, graciously met with them at Sinai, sustained them in the wilderness, and given them recent victories in the Trans-Jordan. This he had done in spite of their persisting waywardness” (Ibid., p. 41).
The major portion of the covenant consisted of stipulations. Having taken great care to structure life according to divine precepts, it concludes with the injunction: “The Lord your God commands you this day to follow these decrees and laws; carefully observe them with all your heart and all your soul” (Deut. 26:16). There follows a promissory note: “He has declared he will set you in praise, fame and honor high above all the nations he has made and that you will be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he promised.”
The sanctions contrast the fortunes of the righteous and wicked. If obedient, the people could expect to be blessed in the city and in the country, by way of their posterity, the crops of your land, and the young of your flocks. So also with your basket, and your kneading trough, when you come in and go out. In every way that genuinely matters. If disobedient, they will be cursed in all the ways cited above.
The final section deals with covenant renewal. Such would allow the people to renew their commitment in the light of changing circumstances. As when they ceased to be a nomadic people, and settled in the land. Consequently, it would preserve essential continuity in the context of legitimate accommodation.
Thus alerted to the character of the covenant, we return to the decalogue as its central focus. Worthy of note, the first four commandments deal with one’s relationship to the Almighty, while the remainder pertains to inter-personal relationships Thus the dual commandment of loving God without exception and our neighbor as ourselves is greatly augmented.
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery,” Yahweh declares. “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exod. 20:2-3). This meant to disallow other deities.
In greater detail this “first word takes aim at atheism (we must have a God), idolatry (we must have Yahweh as our God), polytheism (we must have the Lord God alone), and formalism (we must live, fear and serve the Lord with our heart, soul an strength and mind). The ground of all morality begins here” (Walter Kaiser, Jr., Toward Old Testament Ethics, p. 85). Apart from the grounding of morality in the gracious will of a benevolent deity, it is given to partisan agendas and tempting compromise. (After which, the text explores the remaining commandments, and subsequently as they surface by way of fulfillment in Christ.)

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