We are Moral Beings
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/moral: Moral: of, relating to, or concerned with the principles or rules of right conduct or the distinction between right and wrong: moral attitudes; founded on the fundamental principles of right conduct rather than on legalities, enactment, or custom: moral obligations; capable of conforming to the rules of right conduct: a moral being.
We are moral beings by God’s design.
It’s taken a while to get to this topic. It keeps slipping to the bottom of a list. Now, with hands on my computer keyboard and ready to begin I glance down. One of my fingernails is longer than the rest. It needs trimming; then, the filing of course. And once aligned I have no more reason for delay. Reluctantly I stare at the last topic in a series of blog posts on God’s Design for humankind.
Distinctly uncomfortable I plead, “Dear Lord, we are morally responsible because God is moral, and that’s his design?” How did I land with a loaded subject? Over my head, I am no philosopher or Christian apologist.
Good-bad, right-wrong these are black and white concepts; yet in my head the world spins revealing variegated shades of gray. I get claustrophobic when cornered into blunt distinctions as if the air gets sucked out of a room leaving me feeling dizzy and lightheaded. Maybe because I naively want people to get along, wish them happy, and absolutes can be so harsh. I find merciless certitude frightening.
“And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die’” (Genesis 2:16-17)
Born from God’s protected womb self-awareness slides into a chilly world; stark is the reality. Not so distinct are the choices for right or wrong.
Even murder has its gray areas–is it wrong to murder in self-defence or while protecting from attack someone weak and vulnerable? No wonder the dizziness.
Fickle At Best
Some argue one man’s garbage is another man’s treasure. Any neighborhood yard sale is proof enough. What is right for you is not necessarily right for me. Subjectivity and circumstance influence a right choice versus a wrong choice, so much hinges on our emotional state–fickle at best. But this modern-day maxim is more about preference than the goodness or badness of a choice. This blog post is not about preferences.
Universal Moral Laws
We understand natural laws like gravity–what goes up must come down. But as much as physical laws govern life, moral laws also frame it. And frameworks are necessary for survival.
The Ten Commandments
Certainly, The Ten Commandments is a framework that assured the survival of The Tribes of Israel https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+20%3A+1-17&version=NIV. God’s chosen people had in hand a template for social and moral order; a code of conduct to encourage citizens to co-exist in peace. Adopted and adapted through the ages by other cultures and traditions we see a modern day version funneling down thousands of years later in the 1948 United Nations General Assembly Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Declaration_of_Human_Rights. Today, the UDHR serves as the foundation for other human rights covenants and international treaties. As a species we are not done evolving.
Perhaps that is why Jesus sums The Ten Commandments into two essential directives that encompass their essence but also serve as critical pillars in humankind’s evolutionary prospering.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. Mathew 22:37-40 (NIV)
Golden Rule
And to love God is to love yourself, to love yourself is to love humankind, to love humankind means to love the planet and the universe–this is full-circle survival wisdom.
We are moral by God’s design.
The next blog post will start a new discussion theme called: Unique & Distinct.
What do you think, are we born with an internal moral compass?