MORAL CODE
I S
L. Pike, W ycliffe Bible Translators
Kenneth
and University of Michigan
T o d a y I’m asking you to look at an old problem: why is there a moral order? Notice that I didn’t say, “ Is there a moral order?” I am assuming that there is a moral order. W h y did God impose on us a sensitivity to morality? W e ll, we wouldn’t be man if we didn’t have a moral component in us— we’d be beasts. And we couldn’t be in the image of God if we didn’t have a moral component. But even these two answers do not satisfy me. Perhaps the follow ing illustration w ill lead to an answer. I saw once where some children were having a good time playing croquet. Then someone moved the ball a little with his foot, pretending that it was fun. letting others know he was doing it. Then someone else, because it was “ fun” and obviously “ clever,” did the same thing. This gave those two an unfair advantage— they were kicking the ball, while according to the rules it had to be hit with a mallet— so others started kicking too. Soon they were throwing it and batting it out of turn. Then there was no more game— there couldn’t be without rules. So the children who really wanted to play moved on because that game had been replaced by chaos. The one who had started the fun-cheating didn’t seem to notice that he had ruined the game, but his vanity was inflated because he had been so “ clever”— though he could no longer play either. That game we can compare with life here on earth. Frequently someone fails to keep the rules. H e does something “ cute,” or does something against the moral order, or attacks the Bible; and he thinks that this
increases his importance. Actually he is spoiling the life game and social chaos has momentarily resulted. If the game had been continued on the high moral order of its included rules, there would have been a higher level of pleasure— that integrated pleasure of playing the game, which is similar to the pleasure of the integration of a symphony orchestra. The expense of such pleasure would have been the keeping of the rules. N ow we come to the question, Are these rules eternal? Are they temporal? W e begin to find an answer in Mark 2 :2 7 (W eym ou th ) where Jesus H imself said, “ The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.” That tells us that the Sabbath was to be kept for the sake of man— not because it was an eternal law , a law of heaven. God gave man the law because it was good for him . M an needed the rest and so God prescribed rest through a rule. (That’s the way we do w ith our children. It’s good for them to get their sleep, so we make it a rule that they have to go to bed at such and such a time.) From this, I conclude that the ultimate reason for the laws of the moral order is that they are good for man and good for his society as a whole. Some people reject this point of view saying that we must obey God’s laws whether they are good for us or not. They are commands of God and that is all that is relevant, these folk affirm. Some say that these laws are eternal in the heavens. I argue that the commandment against adultery, at least, must be equated with a human order. Since there is no
THE KING'S BUSINESS
10
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online