Ethics

Having suggested that man’s fundamental destiny is to find God, it makes sense to enquire how one takes hold of this destiny. Clearly if we are to know God steadily we must have some understanding of who He is. This enables our heart to love Him. Because of this, Scripture and theology hold an important place in the life of the believer.

But I think that there is more that must be said on this point. There is more to us than just the part of our mind which considers God abstractly or aesthetically, and so if we are to love God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength we must do something more than theology. Not only this, but to know God fully we need to be the kind of person who can bear the knowledge of God, which is a weighty thing. And this ability to bear the knowledge of God is just a matter of being a good person. So we seek God not only by trying to understand Him better, but also by becoming a good person.

This is where ethics comes in. Ethics, at its best, is the study of what makes a good person good, and how to become a fully good person from where we actually are. Because all of life is set up to favor the good person, there are many benefits other than knowing God that come from being a good person. This is because God loves it when we are good, and He blesses those who become good people. But the deepest benefit of being a good person is that we can know God in a profound way.
In the contemporary religious milieu we find that not much emphasis is placed on being a good person, and that not much advice is given to help us become good. But this is one of the fundamental purposes of religion. “Without holiness no one will see the Lord,” St. Paul said. Indeed, it seems that many people today do not believe that it is possible to become thoroughly good.

But being a good person is one of the (if not “the”) best gifts that God can bestow upon a human being. It does not happen instantaneously, nor does it happen without a struggle. But it can happen, and it has happened to many, many people throughout history. Through Christ’s help we can become full of love and free from sin. He said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled,” i.e. through His help they will be obtain a solid goodness of heart.

Ethics teaches us what is right and wrong, and the nature of how one does what is right. The highest written expression of this outside of the Bible is probably the writings of Augustine, Aquinas, and Wesley; but many, many others in every Christian tradition (as well as those of the other religions) give great instruction as to how we can do this.

Given the role that goodness plays in life here and hereafter, and given the fact that our last end is to know God, it is not an exaggeration to say that the purpose of life on earth is for us to become truly good. Life on this planet and in human civilization is set up by God to enable us to become good people who love God and our neighbors. At the Last Judgment, the primary thing that will be evaluated is what kind of person we are.

Indeed, having correct knowledge of God includes knowing that He expects us to be good, and that He offers to help us with this. Because of this, the most important aspect of education is the knowledge and training to be a good person. There really is a lot to learn here, and unfortunately neither our churches nor our schools today give us much guidance on how to approach this.

Not only this, but we can say with assurance that the greatest people in human life and human history are those who were good and knew how to teach others about this. Jesus said, “Whoever practices and teaches these commandments will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Zeno, Seneca, Epictetus, Confucius, and Lao-Tzu are the great exemplars of the secular ethical tradition; the saints and great Protestants are the best religious examples. Our founding fathers in America actually knew a lot about this, especially Washington and Lincoln. And high above any of these is the character, example, and teaching of Jesus Christ. This is also the primary reason that Jesus is the greatest and smartest human being who ever lived.

As the Western nations forsook Christianity, modern thought was been unable to provide either a sound knowledge of God or a powerful ethic to guide human life. This is the main reason why meaningless is such a problem in our contemporary world. It is also why we must be resolute in our intention to become a good person, and willing to read those writings that were written before Modernity on how to become one. And we should always keep in mind that the goal and reward of being good is to know God, who is greater and more beautiful than anything else. The psalmist said, “in thy right hand are pleasures forevermore.”