God, ethics, and society

Short teachings from Hillcrest Church further exploring Sunday's teachings.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey, how are you doing? Tim here, and we are diving deep into uh the 10 words of life. Um so you know, we're kind of wrapping up this first week, and I just found myself reflecting on the idea of how what I say ethics or morality uh points to uh the existence of God and how these are connected together. Um you know, sometimes uh you know, so we're starting this ten words of life, and um and we've seen God says, I I brought you out of slavery, out of your land of Egypt, and then he gives the ten words. And um the first several, of course, about love of God, but then all these ways that we love neighbor, don't murder, um, don't lie, don't steal, um, these critical kind of ethical uh principles. And I just want to kind of muse a little more broadly about the place of ethics in Christianity and society. Um, you know, uh one of the things I think are kind of non-uh Christian and particularly non-religious, because there's other uh, you know, religious systems who at least have, uh, even though I would disagree with them on their view of God, at least have thought about how ethics fit in the world. But I think so often, like, so many folks in our kind of have no uh they're it's just kind of like morality by the seat of your pants kind of thing. Um ethics by your gut. Uh and I and I and I don't and I think so often it's not um it's not it doesn't make sense, it doesn't actually flow from how they see the world. Here here's an example. I mean, the a lot of times um Christian apologists talk about the moral argument for God. Like if a person really um doesn't believe that there's any uh God, that like this physical world is all there is, what are we talking about then in that worldview? About what what what are they talking about, what ethics are? Um if you say, one, the only things that are real are protons, electrons, neutrons, right? Are are the physical entities. If that's the only thing that are real, well, moral and ethical statements are not physical entities. Um therefore, moral and ethical statements aren't real in any substantive sense. They they're more than just descriptions of how humans feel. Um, they're not objective standards. Uh and so, you know, that we you know, to say that you shouldn't murder becomes a statement of your your feelings. It's not that this is objectively wrong and somehow tears at the fabric of the universe. Um and I think I think it's clear, and I think our I think most humans would feel this in their guts. They they have this intuition that um morals and ethics are real. That even if there's only two humans left in all the cosmos, it would be wrong for one of them to sneak up to the other while they're sleeping and kill them in their sleep. That that is just wrong. Even if there's no harm, even if there's no pain, even if there's no witnesses, it's wrong. Why is it it's it's ripping something at the fabric of the universe? Um and I would say it's violating the character of God. That's what's happening. And I think um, I think we intuit that we know this, humans do, and I think uh that um uh then reasonably we we have to admit, oh, some non-physical things are real, they're objectively real. These these uh these moral principles are non-physical realities, uh, we there, you know, then uh what other non-physical realities um might there be, and what other non-physical realities might they be connected to? I ultimately think they're connected to that there's a a being, there's an entity who created all things, and this entity um in and of itself is embodies goodness, and these moral principles flow from this entity, namely the triune God. Um but these uh uh uh and and you know, when we get into ten words, I think we see this. We see the God who made all things, um the his character is good, and he cares how humans uh treat one another. Um and uh and yeah, I think I think we see when we look around, we see a world um that is frankly pretty confused about uh about morality. Because once, especially in the Western world, once we begin abandoning any kind of religious conception of reality, we really begin like we just get ethically lost. Like um uh, you know, if you go back, um if you've read any Nietzsche or heard about, you know, Frederick Nietzsche, he was he was a staunch atheist and talked about the death of God. Um, but one of the interesting things about Nietzsche um is uh he lambasted his uh like the European culture of the day, he's in the late 1800s, because he basically what one of Nietzsche's things was this um Nietzsche saw clearly that if uh if there is no God, um if there is no uh uh Christian God, we are no longer obligated to follow the ethical value system of Christianity. Nietzsche said, why should we care for the poor? Why should we care for the weak? Why should we not assert ourselves? Um and uh and essentially Nietzsche said, you this is you know, I'm summarized, you cowardly European um cultural elites, you wanna um you wanna uh eject Christianity, but secretly hold on to Christian moral values. He called that slave morality, uh, was Nietzsche's term. And uh and he said he said you're cowardly, you you won't let go of these things. And um and not everybody has um not everybody has followed kind of secular philosophers. They haven't always followed Nietzsche insofar as saying we should reject um Christian morality, but there uh there's a there's a uh many non-Christian, Christian and non-think Christian thinkers alike have recognized the indebtedness um in the Western uh world to the uh the ethical system that comes right out of scripture, starting at the ten words. So here, like I was just looking at a couple quotes from a book I'd read. The the book that I had read, this is actually Tim Keller's uh An Invitation to the Skeptical, Making Sense of God. It's actually, I've read it two or three times, it's phenomenal. The footnotes alone are worth the price of the whole book. Um, it's very kind of laying the groundwork uh for why we would believe in the Christian conception of God. But a couple quotes out of here. Um, so um let's see. Like he quotes um Habermas, who is a German, uh a German philosopher on secularism, not a Christian guy. Um Habermas says the ideals of freedom, conscience, human rights, and democracy are the direct legacy of the Judaic ethic of justice and the Christian ethic of love. To this day, there's no alternative of it. Um or Derrida, who, you know, another existentialist philosopher, atheist, um, said that the concept of crime against humanity is a Christian concept. Um and I could I could go on uh and quote other philosophers who said very similar things. The point being there's this recognition, now they didn't go Nietzsche's route and say, therefore, in the West we should reject these ethical systems. They uh they're simply recognizing that we need to hold on to them, but how do we do that? That what they're trying to work out is how do we do that in a world that um with no longer um believes in Jesus? I would say, well, maybe it's maybe we need to go back to believe in Jesus. Maybe that would that would uh that's the grounding of these things. Um there's an interesting uh author, oh uh Alistair McIntyre. Um uh what is that McIntyre? The book that he wrote, uh I am literally just looking it up while I'm recording this. After Virtue, that's the one, where he talks about the loss of uh Alistair McIntyre talk talks about the loss of this kind of common narrative or story of reality or belief in God. And with the loss of that, when people lose this belief in God, ethics kind of lose their grounding, they become free-floating. And so I think that we see this in those worlds today where a lot of people, their way they do ethics is just whatever their gut tells them, um, which has a lot to do with who their parents were, who their friends are, what they're watching on TikTok. Um it's just kind of where they're gonna, you know, or whatever their crowd says is right or wrong. Whatever and and what they, you know, and we all we're all aware what they say is right and wrong on their social media account may be very different than the standard they hold themselves to um as well, and kind of this uh this free-floating uh ethic. And so I think, you know, as followers of Jesus, a couple things. One, I think it's imperative that we um that we understand the Christian ethical vision. I think it's under it's imperative that we build out our uh like what is right and wrong, um, how what is the good ethical life, um, that we understand that from a Christian point of view. Because, hey, friends, it's very uh uh it's very easy and possible and common to claim the name Jesus, but do live our ethical lives or or even think ethically about the world the same way as our non-Christian neighbors. Like there's nothing, just because you say you believe in Jesus doesn't mean that you actually then are thinking about what does it look like that my actions reflect the character of God. And so, one, to to think about that, and then two, to then embody it. Like if we're uh if we talk about these things but we don't actually do it when no one's looking, um, we are we are failing um in our obedience to God. And obviously, I don't mean that we would never stumble. What I mean is uh the trajectory, if our the trajectory of our life is away from obedience, um that is a that is a problem. So uh just some musings on ethics as we get into this 10 words, grounded in the character of God, I think point to the reality of God and uh in a world that's confused about ethics, I think, is photos of Jesus. Umbodying un having a comprehensive ethic connected to the character of God, and then actually living that out both personally and as a community, I think is um is a demonstration of God's good news. All right, grace and peace.