Toward A Christian Worldview - Faith Presbyterian Church Reformed

Chapter 2: Christianity and the Basic Elements of Philosophy
two. Ethics is a normative discipline, which seeks to prescribe obligations
on mankind. It has to do with what one “ought” to do. Ethics is a
matter of authority. Morals, on the other hand, describe the behavior
patterns of individuals and societies, i.e., what people do. One’s ethics
should determine his morals.
Christian ethics depends on revelation. Christianity maintains that
there is only one ethical standard for mankind, and that is the law of
God. As stated in the Westminster Confession of Faith (19:5): God’s
“moral law does for ever bind all, as well justified persons as others,
to the obedience thereof.” And sin is properly defined, as per the Westminster
Shorter Catechism (Q 14), as “any want of conformity unto,
or transgression of the law of God.” If there were no law of God, then
there would be no sin. Our moral conduct, then, is to be guided by the
ethical standard of the Word of God. Again to cite the Confession
(16:1): “Good works are only such as God has commanded in His
Holy Word, and not such as, without the warrant thereof, are devised
by men out of blind zeal, or upon any pretense of good intention.”
Behind the validity of the moral law of God, is, of course, the
authority of the God who gives us the law. The prologue of the Ten
Commandments is: “I am the Lord.” Theology and not ethics is primary.
The distinction between right or wrong is entirely dependent
upon the commandments of God, because He is “the Lord.” The
Christian system of ethics is based on the very nature of God Himself.
“You shall be holy for I [God] am holy” (Leviticus 11:44; 1 Peter
1:16).
All non-Christian ethics (and morals) are perversions of the only
true standard. As Paul points out in the first two chapters of his epistle
to the Romans, man has suppressed the innate knowledge of God and
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