Christian Ethics – Lessons 7 & 8
1. The three closely related issues in Lessons 7 & 8 are The Law and the Gospel: The Kingdom and the Christian Community: The Gospel and Social Institutions.
2. The two kinds of authority are the morality dictated by and authoritarian code versus the loving response in faith of the Christian to God's grace in Christ.
3. The two major issues related to the above are the relation of Christianity to Israel's moral obligations and the relation of the gospel of salvation through Christ to the law of love.
4. Jesus followed ceremonial Jewish law unless it conflicted with the human needs to be met in the people who listened to him.
5. 'Philia' love is an emotional response between personalities.
6. 'Eros' love is motivated love between two persons or situations.
7. 'Agape' love is the Bible's divine command.
8. The one law that is adequate or mandatory is to trust, obey and love the God who loved us so much that he gave us Christ and by living in Christ we must love our neighbour in fulfilment of that law.
9. The gospel must be related to earthly society because Christians must live both in the secular world and in God's world through redemption. Secondly, the world of the time of Christ was much simpler than ours although ther e were various responsibilities to be met, temptations to be resisted, and various rights and duties to be undertaken in the name of Christ. Thirdly, the gospel contains guidance on how the Christian should behave and act in relation to his fellow man.
10. There are three points that can be deduced from in which conservatism and revolutionary change can be sanctioned by the gospel:
a) The gospel does not work in a vacuum and changes to be brought about by the gospel take time to come to fruition.
b) It takes time for people and institutions to respond to the gospel and we need patience to allow the grace of God to do its work.
c) There is only one gospel and Christ gave his life for all men whether they want to believe or not.
No comments:
Post a Comment