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Summary of Good conduct and Key moral principles - Christianity and Dialogues
A comprehensive summary of the chapter Good Conduct and Key moral principles
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Good conductWhy is good conduct important for Christianity?
● It brings the reward of earning a place in heaven and iti avoids being sent to hell
● Jesus is the basis of good conduct → Letter to Ephesians → Paul urges them to abandon bad
conduct and to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ
● In Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount → ‘Let your light shine before men, that they may see your
good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven’ → good conduct glorifies God.
● Matthew 22:35 - 40 Jesus says that the greatest commandment is to love God with all one’s
soul, heart and mind. The second commandment is to love your neighbour as yourself → on
these two depend the law and the prophets.
Not all Christians agree what good conduct is and why it’s good
● Some moral commands in the Bible are immoral → One of the Letters of Paul to Titus
condoned slavery.
● Some see Jesus’s authority as human and might question some of his teachings → ‘turn the
other cheek’(Matthew 5:39) some interpret this as pacifism, which for some is immoral as it
discourages defending the innocent.
● Some believe we should not be doing what is right for a reward or to avoid punishment, but
simply because it is right.
● Some liberal Christians see heaven/hell as psychological, not physical realities
Those who see the Kingdom of God as a future → emphasis on the doctrine of Atonement → those
who accept Jesus and God’s Holy Spirit can have the gift of eternal life in the Kingdom of God.
However, how do Christians access the Kingdom of God?
Justification by faith
→ to justify is dikaioo in greek → it can mean: ‘to make righteous’, ‘to defend the cause of’ or ‘to
plead for innocence’
● Justification is escathological → only God can justify humanity, not works.
● ‘For no human being will be justified in his sight by works of the law, since through the law
comes knowledge of sin’.
● Romans 3:20-26 → Paul says that no human being will be justified in God’s eyes by works of
the law. Righteousness is not ‘earned’ by following the Law as all have sinned (original sin),
to be judged ‘righteous’ by God can only be a gift by God’s grace → to redeem humanity
through the sacrifice of Jesus who atoned for humanity’s sins.
● So justification only comes by having faith in Jesus, not by works.
● Romans 4:2-5 → Abraham lived many centuries before Jesus’ atonement → still justified, no
by works but by his faith in God.
● Romans 5:1-2 → Paul’s conclusion, when we have complete faith in God and rely on His
grace rather than upon our works, we have ‘peace with God’ and we can confidently expect
our final destiny to be with God.
, Justification by works
● Letter of James
- ‘What does it profit my brethren, if a man says he has faith but not works? Can his
faith save him?’
- What is the point of faith without works? → if someone lacks food or clothes and
someone says that they love them without doing anything about it that is useless → so
faith without works is dead.
- Faith can be shown by works → faith on its own is useless because even the demons
believe in God.
- Abraham showed his faith through his works → he was going to sacrifice his son.
- Just as a body without a spirit is dead, faith without works is dead.
So should Christians prioritise faith, works or both?
Prioritising work
● Some christians accept the letter of James as clear → ‘faith apart from works is dead’ → even
demons believe in God and they are judged by their demonic work not by their belief.
● Many Christians accept the need for works on the basis of Jesus’ Parable of the Sheep and the
Goats.
- Jesus’ message is clear → God makes no mention of whether those who are
sheep/goat like lack faith → they are judged by their work. → the sheep go to the
kingdom of God and the goat goes to hell :(.
- To follow Jesus is to follow his command → ‘Let your light so shine before men, that
they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven’
Prioritising faith
● St Paul: ‘For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is
the gift of God - not because of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that
we should walk in them’ Ephesians 2:8 - 10.
● It is not a person’s faith that saves, but God who saves the person through the channel of their
faith.
● Martin Luther → doctrine of sola fide → ‘justification by faith alone’ → he believed God
pardons the guilty sinners on the basis of their faith alone with no reference to their works. So
the sinner's faith is passive, not active.
● So, righteous works are the result of being justified by God and born again through the Holy
Spirit.
● Sola fide for Luther was so important that to ignore it is to preach a fake gospel → the Church
depends on this.
● Sola fide is one of five interlinked fundamental doctrines → sola gratia (by grace alone), solus
Christus (Christ alone) and soli Deo gloria (to the glory of God alone) → emphasise Paul’s
argument that salvation is through Christ alone, through his work of atonement.
Prioritising both faith and works
● The Catholic church did not accept the view of sola fide → some human effort had to be
involved in the process of justification.
● Catholic teaching is that grace comes to the individual through baptism → faith is then
developed in the context of the Church as faith grows after baptism. Which leads to a new
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