When There's No Rule for That
Good and evil are determined by the conformity of a thought or act to God’s character. When we bring principles of good and evil into our concrete world and apply them to particular behaviors we tend to call good “right” and evil “wrong”. In everyday thinking, we judge right and wrong in two key places: morals and law.
Let’s discuss morals by which I mean those behaviors judged by the individual conscience or by the general consensus of a community to be good and acceptable—or not.
Some aspects of morality are clear-cut, especially for Christians, because of biblical precepts. “You shall not murder” and “you shall not steal” are clear. Murder and stealing are evil and wrong. But—and this is the moral challenge that many conservative Christians fail to grasp—there are not as many straightforward precepts in Scripture as we might want.
For example, though the Bible presents gluttony and drunkenness as works of the flesh, it nowhere provides clear lines exactly defining either sin. The apostles counsel modesty in demeanor and dress but nowhere draw specific lines distinguishing appropriate from inappropriate. How do we know, then, what is appropriate and what isn’t?
The Bible warns about avarice and greed, but it never tells us where the line is between acceptable provision and those sins. There are warnings about debt being dangerous, but taking on debt is never prohibited. How much debt is too much? For what things is debt acceptable or unacceptable? Is it immoral to have a mortgage or use credit cards?
Likewise, we know that love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control are “the fruit of the Spirit”, but particular explanations of how each of these things must manifest themselves is, for the most part, lacking in the biblical instruction. Must I always be joyful—or is there a time to mourn and be sad? Is peace violated if I feel anxiety, and is anxiety always a sin? Can I be too patient and put up with too much wrongdoing? Can I be too forgiving? Is there a time for “tough love”? Does “tough love” violate kindness? If I rebuke someone is that a lack of patience on my part, or is there a time for rebuke? How do I know which is which?
These and many other things are not answered by biblical precept. For some of them we may find examples, e.g. David’s immorality or the self-righteousness of the Pharisees. Most of the time, however, we “feel” these things out by inference. We do our best to build our inferences on the principles of Scripture and by our own consciences and the perceptions of consciences around us.
There are problems with that, aren’t there? Our consciences can be poorly instructed or seared, hindered by the blindness resulting from original sin as well as our finiteness. Individual consciences can be misguided and so can social conscience. An entire society may have bad judgment about some matters, and different societies may judge matters differently. Societal perceptions change over time, so what is immoral in one time may not be deemed immoral in another.
For example, in the period from George Washington to James Monroe, men wore knee breeches. Only roughnecks and sailors wore long pants. With the shift to populism and the importance of “the little guy” under Andrew Jackson, the long pants of the average working man were suddenly a sign of that which was virtuous and knee breeches signaled that you were an out-of-touch aristocrat that didn’t care about the average person.
It’s not that good and evil change, or even that principles of morality change. People and human perceptions are not eternal. We change—our perceptions change—and so the things that signify and represent moral principles to us change. That makes moral practices fuzzier at the edges on certain points, and that makes anyone who demands certainty about everything uncomfortable, and in my experience one of the chief characteristics of conservative evangelicals has been the desire to be morally certain about everything.
There is not a divine precept for every moral point. To behave as though there is, is to believe a lie. Building some points of morality on inferences is just the nature of the world and of divine revelation, which is sufficient for us, but not exhaustive. Such moral principles can be held firmly but must be held tentatively, with a looser grip and a mind open to the possibility of different and better inferences.
Let’s discuss morals by which I mean those behaviors judged by the individual conscience or by the general consensus of a community to be good and acceptable—or not.
Some aspects of morality are clear-cut, especially for Christians, because of biblical precepts. “You shall not murder” and “you shall not steal” are clear. Murder and stealing are evil and wrong. But—and this is the moral challenge that many conservative Christians fail to grasp—there are not as many straightforward precepts in Scripture as we might want.
For example, though the Bible presents gluttony and drunkenness as works of the flesh, it nowhere provides clear lines exactly defining either sin. The apostles counsel modesty in demeanor and dress but nowhere draw specific lines distinguishing appropriate from inappropriate. How do we know, then, what is appropriate and what isn’t?
The Bible warns about avarice and greed, but it never tells us where the line is between acceptable provision and those sins. There are warnings about debt being dangerous, but taking on debt is never prohibited. How much debt is too much? For what things is debt acceptable or unacceptable? Is it immoral to have a mortgage or use credit cards?
Likewise, we know that love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control are “the fruit of the Spirit”, but particular explanations of how each of these things must manifest themselves is, for the most part, lacking in the biblical instruction. Must I always be joyful—or is there a time to mourn and be sad? Is peace violated if I feel anxiety, and is anxiety always a sin? Can I be too patient and put up with too much wrongdoing? Can I be too forgiving? Is there a time for “tough love”? Does “tough love” violate kindness? If I rebuke someone is that a lack of patience on my part, or is there a time for rebuke? How do I know which is which?
These and many other things are not answered by biblical precept. For some of them we may find examples, e.g. David’s immorality or the self-righteousness of the Pharisees. Most of the time, however, we “feel” these things out by inference. We do our best to build our inferences on the principles of Scripture and by our own consciences and the perceptions of consciences around us.
There are problems with that, aren’t there? Our consciences can be poorly instructed or seared, hindered by the blindness resulting from original sin as well as our finiteness. Individual consciences can be misguided and so can social conscience. An entire society may have bad judgment about some matters, and different societies may judge matters differently. Societal perceptions change over time, so what is immoral in one time may not be deemed immoral in another.
For example, in the period from George Washington to James Monroe, men wore knee breeches. Only roughnecks and sailors wore long pants. With the shift to populism and the importance of “the little guy” under Andrew Jackson, the long pants of the average working man were suddenly a sign of that which was virtuous and knee breeches signaled that you were an out-of-touch aristocrat that didn’t care about the average person.
It’s not that good and evil change, or even that principles of morality change. People and human perceptions are not eternal. We change—our perceptions change—and so the things that signify and represent moral principles to us change. That makes moral practices fuzzier at the edges on certain points, and that makes anyone who demands certainty about everything uncomfortable, and in my experience one of the chief characteristics of conservative evangelicals has been the desire to be morally certain about everything.
There is not a divine precept for every moral point. To behave as though there is, is to believe a lie. Building some points of morality on inferences is just the nature of the world and of divine revelation, which is sufficient for us, but not exhaustive. Such moral principles can be held firmly but must be held tentatively, with a looser grip and a mind open to the possibility of different and better inferences.