Making Ethical Decisions – The Proper Standard

To introduce our approach to the proper standard, we’ll touch on three aspects of God’s revelation. In the first place, for our works to meet the proper standard of what is good, they must adhere to all the commands or laws of God. Listen to how John summarized this idea in 1 John 3:4:

Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.

Notice what John did not say: He did not simply teach that everyone who practices lawlessness commits sin, as if lawlessness were just one of many kinds of sin. Instead, he said that every sin amounts to lawlessness — a rejection of God’s commands. James addressed this issue in 2:9-10 of his letter when he said this:

If you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.

Clearly, some violations of the law are sinful, such as showing partiality, which James mentioned here. But James then went on to say that to violate any command is to violate the entire ethical system of Scripture.

The truth is, God's Word is always our binding ethical norm, and we must never violate it. So, all good works must conform to the standard of God’s commands in Scripture.

In the second place, the proper standard not only requires conformity to God’s commands in his law, but also submission to all Scripture. Listen to 2 Timothy 3:16-17:

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Paul didn’t limit the moral aspects of Scripture to those portions that contain commandments and legal codes. Rather, he insisted that all Scripture was useful for ethical training. All Scripture places moral demands on us. Therefore, our actions must conform to the standards of all of Scripture if they are to be morally good.

In the third place, God's revelation in creation itself — commonly called “general revelation” — is also part of the proper standard for good works. One of the clearest places we find this idea in Scripture is Romans 1:20. There Paul wrote:

For [God’s] invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So [people] are without excuse.

Paul then went on to argue that despite what people know about God's moral standards through general revelation, they prefer to sin. People’s actions are condemned because they violate the standards revealed by God's general revelation. Scripture teaches that good works must conform to God's word as it is revealed in the commands of God’s law, in all of Scripture, and in creation.