Ethics is the systematic study of morality. The scriptural foundation and authority for moral law, ethics, and civil justice is summarized below. A just society practices retributive justice in the context of government under the rule of law. Leviticus 24:17-23
God’s Perfect Moral Law Standard, Fallen Man’s Impossible Requirement, the True Believer’s Pursuit by Faith
“You, therefore, are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Matthew 5:48
Golden Rule
Lk 6:31 And just as you will that men do to you, do to them similarly.
Two Greatest Commandments
Mt 22:36 “Teacher, which command, great in the law?”
Mt 22:37 He then was saying to him, “‘Love the Lord your God in your whole heart, and in your whole soul, and in your whole mind;
Mt 22:38 this is the great and first command.
Mt 22:39 “Second then, like it, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
Mt 22:40 In these two commands the whole law hangs, and the prophets.”
Ten Commandments, (Ten Words)
Then God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
1 “You shall have no other gods before Me.
2 “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
3 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.
4 “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.
5 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you.
6 “You shall not murder.
7 “You shall not commit adultery.
8 “You shall not steal.
9 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” Exodus 20:1-17
Pursuing Just Law by Faith in God in Christ
Ro 9:30 What therefore shall we say? That gentiles not pursuing justice obtained justice, the justice then by faith,
Ro 9:31 Israel then pursuing the law of justice arrived not at the law.
Ro 9:32 Why? Because not from faith, rather as from works, they stumbled at the stone of stumbling,
Ro 9:33 even as written,
“Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and rock of offense, and one believing upon Him shall not be ashamed.”
Divine Just Law, the Believer’s Delight
Ps 119:70 “… I delight in Your law.”
Law Governing Speech
Ep 4:29 Each rotten word from your mouth let not out, but rather something good for building from the need, that it may give grace to those hearing.
Ep 4:30 And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, by which you are sealed for the day of redemption.
Ep 4:31 All bitterness and wrath and anger and shouting and blasphemy lift from you with all vice.
Ep 4:32 Become then to one another kind, gracing yourselves, just as also the God in Christ has graced you.
Col 3:8 Now then put from you also all anger, wrath, evil, blasphemy, base-speech from your mouth.
Col 4:6 Your word always in grace with salt seasoned, to see how one must, you to each one, answer.
Prov. 16:23 The heart of the wise instructs his mouth
And adds learning to his lips.
Mt 12:34 Begotten of vipers, how are you able to speak good, being evil? For from the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
Mt 12:35 The good man from the good treasure expels good, and the evil man from the evil expels evil.
Mt 12:36 I say then to you that each useless word which men will speak, they will deliver concerning it account in the day of judgment;
Mt 12:37 for by your words you will be justified, and from your words you will be condemned.
Mk 7:15 There is nothing from outside of the man, entering into him, which is able to profane him, rather the things proceeding from the man, these are profaning the man.
Retributive Justice Designed into this Life, Related to the Next
Ga 6:7 Be not misled, God is not ridiculed. Whatever therefore a man sows, this also shall he reap;
Ga 6:8 that one sowing to the flesh himself from the flesh shall reap destruction, one then sowing to the Spirit from the Spirit shall reap life eternal.
Ga 6:9 The good then doing, let us not be discouraged, for in due time we shall reap, not fainting.
Helpful Scriptural Statements of Racial Ethics
There is one human race.
Race names claiming natural race distinctions are divisive fictions.
Differences in religion, philosophy, and nationality, including political, judicial, cultural, and linguistic are real and significant, but not essentially racial in the above natural sense.
Unhelpful Racist Language
Red, white, black, brown, yellow
People or persons of color