On How We Are To Treat Others
Moral goodness in how we treat other people means conformity to the law of God who makes known his ethical demands by means of natural law and divine law.
Natural Law
The fundamental moral requirements of God are revealed to all people; God writes his expectations for conduct upon the hearts of all. The moral demands of the law are even written upon the heart of the person who has absolutely no contact with biblical teaching. Romans 2:14–15 refers to such people: “For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them.” Paul declares in this passage that the works that the law demands—such as being kind to one another, treating others with love and respect—are written upon the inner man by God the Creator. This inward law is called the natural law, the lex naturalis.1
What proof does Paul offer for the reality of natural law? The apostle provides two lines of evidence which prove that all people “know the Law by nature, or that they can distinguish between good and evil.”2 He refers in the first place to the fact that the nations of the world, although not having the written law of God, “by nature do the things in the law.” Martin Luther (1483–1546) draws attention to the fact that the heathen “who, though leading a wicked life and not truly and rightly worshiping God, nevertheless perform this or that good work, for which reason they may be rightly said to do some of that which the Law demands.”3 An atheist, for example, may be an outwardly decent person from a human perspective, courteous and thoughtful in the way that he or she interacts with others.
The fact that “the work of the law” is “written” in the hearts of all people is seen in the second place in the reality of the activity of the conscience “bearing witness,” and “their thoughts accusing or else excusing them.” Luther, once again, is very helpful in his explanation of the biblical text. “Now and on the Day of Judgment,” the conscience “bears witness.” On the one hand, “this witness is favorable when it concerns good deeds, for in that case their thoughts excuse or defend them.” On the other hand, “it is a condemning witness, when they do evil works, for then their thoughts accuse them and their conscience torments them.”4 The unbearable agony of an accusing conscience underscores the reality of the law written in the heart and our need to find refuge in Christ from the wrath of God.
The implications of natural law are significant. John Calvin (1509–1564) reflected upon this: “Now if the Gentiles have by nature God’s righteousness imprinted on their minds, we cannot call them wholly blind in their understanding of how to live.” “The natural law to which the apostle refers provides man with adequate guidance in the matter of right living.”5 Calvin went on to say, however, that “although we see the gift of distinguishing good from bad is common to all men everywhere, we should not think that it is completely sound and whole.”6 There indeed is the additional reality that “the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened” (Eph. 4:18). Isaiah 5:20 must pronounce judgement upon those who fail to differentiate between good and evil: “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil.”
Divine Law
The need for a precise and detailed presentation of the divine expectations for human behavior brings us to a second way in which God reveals his moral standards. The Lord’s moral requirements are also given to mankind by means of special revelation. There is the divine law, the lex divinitatis. We may think about the moral principles revealed to Israel at Mount Sinai, which are carried forward into the New Testament era in the law of Christ. The fundamental moral obligations that are imposed upon us include these mandates: giving honor to father and mother; protecting human life from conception to the time that God calls us out of this world; faithfulness to one’s spouse in the covenant relationship of marriage; respecting the private property of other people and not stealing from them; not bearing false witness and tearing down the good name of another; and other principles as well—Galatians 6:2: “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”
All these obligations fall under the category of the duty of love to others. Calvin reminds us that such responsibilities are not merely a matter of outward actions apart from the attitude of the heart: “Now he who merely performs all the duties of love does not fulfill them, even though he overlooks none; but he, rather, fulfills them who does this from a sincere feeling of love.” He addressed at this point the matter of giving alms to the poor. Christians, he insisted, “must put themselves in the place of him whom they see in need of their assistance, and pity his ill fortune as if they themselves experienced and bore it, so that they may be impelled by a feeling of mercy and humaneness to go to his aid just as to their own.”7
Justice and Truth
Core moral principles supernaturally revealed by God in the period of the Old Testament are provided in the Decalogue, but we should remember that the prophets also unveiled divine standards of ethics. Micah 6:8 is helpful in that it informs us as to the real essence of the moral order: “He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” God requires that we are to show two things in the way that we interact with people: justice (mishpat) and steadfast love (hesed).
The nuance reflected in these two traits is somewhat different. When we deal with justice with people, we are fair in our dealings with them. We treat them with respect. This, for example, is what is demanded in the eighth commandment. God makes the declaration that the private property of an individual belongs to him or to her—not to the entire world indiscriminately. We are to respect the labor of the person who earned the money to buy that particular item that he or she possesses. This means by way of application that the communist position advocated by contemporary politicians that the problem of poverty should be addressed by the government seizing private property to house the poor is contrary to the biblical moral order. Scripture conversely advances the position that we are to “remember the poor” and “to do good and to share” with the needy, not forgetting that “whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord” (Gal. 2:10; Heb. 13:16; Prov. 19:17).
Love is a bit different than justice. Love is more proactive. Love leads us to stop, to see, and to help those who are broken by their own sin or the sin of others. We are not to be the priest or the Levite who passes by on the other side, but rather the good Samaritan moved with compassion and reaching out with a helping hand caring for the bruised and broken (Luke 10:29–37).
What is utterly amazing is the statement of Jesus: “Love your enemies” (Matt. 5:44). This is what God does in common grace: “He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust” (Matt. 5:45). Even more amazing than the universal divine beneficence in the daily good gifts from heaven (Acts 14:17) is the love of God expressed at Calvary: “When we were without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom. 5:6).
The Beauty of Godliness
The biblical vision of morality provides a glimpse of heaven. John Charles Ryle (1816–1900) reflected upon the beauty of Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount in which he commanded all-embracing benevolence on the part of his disciples: “Unfailing courtesy, kindness, tenderness, and consideration for others, are some of the greatest ornaments to the character of the child of God.” The advantage of this kind of behavior has a direct implication for evangelism. “The world,” said Ryle, “can understand these things, if it cannot understand doctrine.” He noted, “There is no religion in rudeness, roughness, bluntness, and incivility.”8
Ryle went on to reflect upon how much happier the world would be if we all practiced the behavior commanded by Christ. He asked, “Who does not know that quarrellings, strifes, selfishness, and unkindness cause half the miseries by which mankind is visited? Who can fail to see that nothing would so much tend to increase happiness as the spread of Christian love, such as is here recommended by our Lord?”9
How true it is that the more we are brought under the teaching of the Holy Spirit, the more we will love one another, and the more happy we will be.10
Dr. Mark J. Larson
Warrenville, SC
1John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, vol. 1, 1559 edition, trans. Ford Lewis Battles (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1960), 367–68.
2Martin Luther, Commentary on Romans, trans. J. Theodore Mueller (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1976), 60.
3Ibid., 59.
4Ibid., 60.
5John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 1541 edition, trans. Robert White (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2014), 59.
6Ibid., 61.
7Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, vol. 1, 1559 edition, 697.
8John Charles Ryle, Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1977), 45
9Ibid., 46.
10Ibid.