Ethics and the New Testament

            It is crucial we remember that the New Testament’s behavioral injunctions are predicated on the new life and identity believers have in Jesus Christ. When this point is forgotten, the New Testament’s behavioral injunctions are mistaken to be ethical mandates after which people are encouraged to strive. In this case, we are adhering to the letter of the New Testament but not to its spirit, and our thinking is bringing about death rather than life (2 Cor. 3:6).

            For example, Paul teaches that love is not rude (1 Cor. 13:4–5). If we forget what the New Testament is about—the new life given us in Jesus Christ—we easily misinterpret this teaching to be an ethical injunction. We read it as saying, “Thou shalt not be rude.” So in sincere obedience we set about doing our best to avoid being rude. We will tend to feel good about ourselves when we are avoiding rudeness, and we will feel bad about ourselves when we find we are rude. Moreover, given this focus, we will invariably notice the rude behavior of others and judge them accordingly, just as we judge ourselves.

            Of course, it is not always easy to differentiate between having healthy personal boundaries that sometimes tell people to go away, on the one hand, and actual rudeness, on the other. So to fulfill this ethical mandate, we may have to think earnestly and debate long on what exactly constitutes rudeness and the specific conditions under which a behavior might look rude but not actually be rude. If there are situations in which people disagree, we might find ourselves planting ourselves on one side of the debate or the other. Indeed, if it is important enough to us, our posturing could result in factions of Christians arguing with one another—often very rudely!

            Now we must notice in this scenario that we are entirely focused on our behavior, centered on ourselves, and living out of our knowledge of good and evil. We are living out of our heads, filtering everything through what we think we know about rudeness. Most significantly, we have entirely missed the point of Paul’s teaching. For Paul’s point was not that we should try hard to avoid rudeness but that we must live in love. If you are living out of the love of God, you won’t be rude. Indeed, you will fulfill all the law. Conversely, you can strive to obey a hundred rules you’ve created to define rudeness in particular situations but be completely devoid of love.

            As with all of his behavioral injunctions, Paul was not giving us a list of do’s and don’ts in 1 Corinthians 13. He was rather describing what life in Christ, life in love, and/or life in the Spirit looks like. His purpose was not to get us to act different; his goal was to help us to be different. In telling us love is not rude, for example, Paul was giving us a flag to help us notice when we are acting out of love and when we are not—that is, when we are acting out of the old self and when we are acting out of the new. Paul’s behavioral injunctions are not things we are supposed to strive to perform, nor are they new universal ethical rules by which we are to try to motivate all people to live. They are evidences that disciples are participating in the abundant life Jesus came to give.