The Call to Good Conduct in Christ - Research Paper Example

? The Call to Good Conduct in Christ Introduction It is a fact that Scriptural interpretation is a matter that is important in revealing the intended meaning out of a pericope, and knowing the mind and intent of God. Known properly as hermeneutics, understanding Scripture and unraveling the puzzles in Biblical Scripture will become a possibility when applied. The case is not any different with the fourth chapter of St. Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians. While there are those who see Ephesians chapter 4 verses 17-25 (also known as the call to good conduct in Christ) as calling individuals to a particular code of conduct of behavior, others deem this same standpoint as a narrow and incomprehensive interpretation of Scripture. As a scholar in the making, it is imperative that I take a standpoint on the debate at hand, by postulating that the answer to the argument entails both elements of a yes and a no. First, by referring to the ways and thinking of the Gentiles as being darkened in understanding St. Paul means that the Gentiles lost consciousness of the presence of the true God. This can be explained by the fact that God in Genesis 12 had chosen the nation of Israel as an instrument of His revelation to the world and thereby handed the Law, the Scripture, religious traditions and above all Jesus the Christ through Israel. As such, unlike the gentiles who had no uniform source of specific and divine revelation of the true God, Israel had a covenant which consisted of the law and the prophets. In the Law there was the (old) covenant, the sacrificial system, circumcision on the eighth day of a male child’s life, the kosher law, law on dressings and law which governed man-man relations and man-God contacts. Besides these, the Jew had been blessed with the prophets who called them to repentance, reproved them, exhorted them, and gave them divine oracles concerning God’s will at a specific time. This is to the effect that unlike the Gentiles, the Jew had specific revelation of God, and had a lot to help them maintain consciousness of the true God and to be informed. On the converse, the Gentiles largely lacked specific revelation and lacked consciousness of God. It is important to note that the consciousness of God is the essence of spiritual livelihood, while the absence of this consciousness is spiritual deadness. Biblically, deadness does not denote inexistence, it means separation. Thus, the loss of the consciousness of God is spiritual death and the effect is a life that is fashioned by the will of the natural man. The natural man is dictated by debase passions and extremes such as lust, anger, lasciviousness, idolatry, strife dissensions, simulations, fornication, and debauchery, because his mind is focused on natural things, yet these vices are natural. It is the life by the will of the natural man that is scripturally referred to as the works of the flesh. It is these works of the flesh that are spoken against as having the potency to inhibit entrance into eternal life; while life after the natural life is referred to as enmity with God – not the ethno-cultural values that a given gentile community may be living by. According to Dunn (2006), it is also not proper to assume that in Ephesians 4: 17-25 an interest to standard conduct on the part of God is shown. The fact that God is not interested in behavioral uniformity is a matter that is well underscored by the events and outcome of the Jerusalem Council in 50 AD. The Council of Jerusalem comes against a backdrop of a heated and gradual disagreement between Apostle Paul and members of the Pharisees who had converted to Christianity. These Pharisees wanted the gentile Christians to subject themselves to the ceremonial laws of Moses, much to St. Paul’s disagreement. The matter raised enough controversy to elicit a strong public rebuke from Paul to Peter, in the Gentile Church in Antioch (Galatians 2:11-14). Upon the matter being taken to Jerusalem for a uniform decision by the 12 apostles, it was decided that it was most important that the gentile believers desist from meat offered to idols, blood, things strangled and fornication. These are matters that are broad enough not to have a definite compulsion on the specific behavioral mien a gentile individual or community should take. That the matter was settled is shown clearly by the preamble of the letter stating that the Holy Spirit participated in coming to this decision. In the light of the above, God would be opposed to an ethno-cultural value of a given gentile community if it only stood diametrically opposed to His word. Cultural practices that defile the body and defy God’s will such as necrophilia, gluttony, fornication (the use of the body for purposes outside the confines of marriage) may exemplify this situation. Then, such laws would be spoken of as having been formed by futile thinking of a mind that is darkened devoid of the knowledge of God. The crux of the matter here is that God is mainly concerned with a moral law than with a ceremonial law. Most cultures that are outside the Jewish heritage have laws that specify interpersonal conducts and a human-society conduct. In this case, it is not uncommon to find societal laws and cultural values that are concomitant with the moral law that was handed to the Jew. For instance, in almost all the gentile world, acts such as stealing, murder, covetousness, respect to parents and elders are also seriously emphasized. This abates the aspect of God wanting individuals from gentile communities to conform into one uniform behavioral predisposition. Therefore, one readily agrees with Dunn (1993) who points out that concerning the possibility of a standard conduct, the answer remains affirmative, as long as the moral law is concerned. Apart from the fact that Acts 15 makes specifications on what the gentile Christians ought to eschew underscores this aspect. Secondly, the moral law, as it is embodied in the Ten Commandments, is to help in dictating interpersonal relations and man’s relation to God. In the same manner, Jesus Christ referred to the keeping of His law as a yardstick for measuring a disciple’s love for Him (John 14:15). Similarly, it will be against the nature of Christ, for an individual to claim to be a disciple of Christ, having been regenerated by the Holy Spirit and still continue to live contrary to the moral law. Therefore, as far as the moral law is concerned, it will be in order to take the position that there should be a standard conduct. Nevertheless, as far as the ceremonial law is concerned, it is questionable whether God would be interested in a standard mode of conduct. This is because the ceremonial law of the gentile world may help only in the perpetuation of socio-cultural values of a given ethno-linguistic community. For instance, all African societies do not allow the second born or younger siblings to marry before the first born. Mostly this cultural observation is mainly upheld as an artifice to ensuring that the firstborn extends the honor of the family and is able to assume all the responsibilities due to a firstborn (such as leading the younger siblings in bride price negotiations). The modalities that are in place to ensure that this tradition is kept may vary from one African community to another, and thereby weakening the aspect of homogeneity in conduct. The fact that such kind of cultural practice does not contravene the will of God as it is stipulated in God’s book is a matter that further underscores the less need for universality of code of conduct. In regard to the above, the standard code of conduct can only be universal if the moral code is concerned. The more the ceremonial code is incorporated into this debate, the greater the behavioral disparity will become. Ceremonial laws are too variegated to bring about uniformity. George (2008) continues that the standard of conduct for the Church is very exclusive to other religions. This is because the law that operates in the Church is one that is not merely predicated upon moral law, but one that transcends it. Apart from the call for the Church to live a holy lifestyle as it can be seen in St. Paul’s 1st and 2nd Epistles to the Corinthians, the Church is a physical yet divine entity and is therefore to live as such. The divine nature of the Church is well underscored by the fact that it is the body of the risen Christ who is both human and divine. With the Holy Spirit also being spoken of as the administrator of the Church, it is obvious that the chasm between the conduct standard of the Church and other religious outfits varies greatly. Another factor that pits the conduct of the Church and that of other religions as being very different from each other is the nature of the law that is supposed to govern both. Other religious organizations have codes or standards of conduct which are largely drawn from the moral law, as a way of staying above reproach. The ceremonial laws that govern the worship ceremonies in these religious outfits are meant at instilling piety, an atmosphere of reverential worship. On the contrary, the conduct of the Church is one that is closely linked to the source of life of the Church. It is the same Spirit that raised Christ who sustains the Church, guides it (as it is seen in Acts 13:2), works in the world through it and gives the Church life. In regard to the above, the Church is to follow the divine unction from the Holy Spirit, so that the work of evangelism may continue and be successful. This removes the Church from a shared pedestal with other religions and places it on its own platform. This is so, because due to the leading of the Spirit which the Church is to follow, the task of the Church is not to be overly concerned with the prescriptive code of conduct, but with how it serves as an instrument through which the Spirit of God flows to touch the sick, the lost, the discouraged, and the needy. According to Winter (2003) as for the conduct of the Church and its individual members, it is still true that the standard of conduct for the Church is not at par with other religions. The Church is supposed to live as a new man of the spirit. This is so, because the old man is supposed to die (or be crucified) with Christ in His death. The new man appears after his spirit is supposed to rise with Christ, so that the believer should not be living a life in accordance with the ways of the old man. Some of the ways of the old man are summed up in the litany of vices such as lewdness, anger and deceitful lust. Because of this, the call of God to the Church regarding holy living is not merely the prescriptive eschewing of what may be considered as sin, but the inward renewal of the spirit of the mind. Question on the Need for a Standard of Conduct The world together with the Church needs to have a standard of conduct, as far as moral law is concerned. However, as touching the ceremonial law, there is neither a serious need to seek a standard of conduct, nor the realization of such a feat is feasible. This is because the world is made up of different societies with different socio-cultural values, which are relayed from one generation to another through different means. However, the need for homogeneity of standard codes of conduct when it comes to the moral law is necessitated by the need to have a functioning criminal justice system. Because of the above, God is less likely to be interested in promoting conformity on the ceremonial law. It is for the same reason that in the New Testament, God seeks to break down ethnic barriers between the Jew and the gentile, by annulling the strength of the kosher law to Jewish religious leaders such as St. Peter and St. Paul. At a given instance, St. Peter is shown the culinary vision full of creatures the Torah declared unclean, while on a rooftop in Joppa. The Lord commands Peter to take up and eat (Acts 9). St. Paul later says that any food that is accepted with thanksgiving is sanctified for consumption (I Timothy 4:3-5). In almost the same vein St. Paul passes on the Sabbath laws, the feasts and the sacrificial rituals as not being the substance, but the foreshadowing of Christ who is the actual substance. The converse of the above is that the absence of the aspect of conformity is bound to impose cultural relativism on human civilization. With cultural relativism, it becomes hard to determine the right from wrong, and thereby crippling the criminal justice system. The criminal justice system only works because some elements are legally defined as either wrong or legitimate. When, for instance, pedophilia is allowed in a given society and cultural relativism is used to ascertain the matter, the pedophile will neither be arrested, nor prosecuted in the court of law, simply because his action is not definitely qualified in the law as good or evil. Whether God Requires a Standard of Conduct On a personal standpoint, it is agreeable that God would favor a standard of conduct on the world, but only as far as the moral law is concerned. This is because the Christian God is a God of order, and it would therefore be reasonable that such a God entrenches a standard of conduct on the moral law, so that any breach against the moral law can be prosecuted and punished by the law. Immediately if there is no uniformity as for the standard conduct of the moral law, it becomes impossible to prosecute and punish even obvious crimes such as murder, theft, and rape. A society in this kind of situation is the one that will face the chaos. It is, nevertheless, important to take into consideration the fact, that as for the Church the standard of conduct that God is mainly concerned with is not a prescriptive code of conduct, but His people being transformed into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. The presupposition that God is interested in behavioral homogeneity is amiss, since it faces out the place for uniqueness and individuality for those who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. On the contrary, the transformation into the likeness of Jesus Christ is supposed to touch an individual’s character, and not his behavioral candor. By leaving ceremonial laws, the character of the believer is not harmed, even when that believer dispenses the responsibilities that have bestowed upon him by his society. The character of Christ that is supposed to be taken up by all Christians is instead summed up in love which is kind, meek, patient, not boastful, does not rejoice in evil and overcomes with good. Furthermore, it is very possible for one to keep the moral and ceremonial law and still not meet the spiritual requirements that are needed by the law. This is because the law is spiritual, while the man, who is trying to keep to these laws, is carnal. It is the same problem that accosted St. Paul, since, despite the fact that he kept the law to the latter, yet he struggled with covetousness in his heart, for instance. References Dunn, J.D.G. (2006). The Theology of St. Paul the Apostle. Michigan: Eerdmans Publishing Co. Dunn, J. D.G. (1993). The Epistle of Galatians. New York/ London: Hendrikson. George, E. (2008). Understanding Your Blessings in Christ: Ephesians. Oregon: Harvest House Publishers. Winter, F. (2003). Understanding Ephesians. New York: Christian Services Publishing. Read More