GOODNESS: The Moral Order. Session 6.24 Secondary Task # 2: Teaching that Which Transforms – Internal Self Government Session 6.25 Secondary Task # 2:

GOODNESS: The Moral Order

• Session 6.24 Secondary Task # 2:Teaching that Which Transforms – Internal Self Government

• Session 6.25 Secondary Task # 2:Teaching that Which Transforms – All That I Have Commanded: Creation Ordinances

• Session 6.26 TRUTH: The Metaphysical Order (a)• Session 6.27 TRUTH: The Metaphysical Order (b) -

The Principles of Freedom• Session 6.28 GOODNESS: The Moral Order• Session 6.29 BEAUTY: The Aesthetic Order

Part 6 The Secondary Mandate – Teach that Which Transforms

The Text

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Overview of this Secondary Task

• Teaching that which transforms– Obedience – Internal Self-Government, the

key to transformation – All that I have commanded – Jesus is the

law-giver – Transcendent Ordinances

• Meta-physical Laws – TRUTH • Moral Laws – GOODNESS • Aesthetic Laws – BEAUTY

Outline

• Introduction

• The Ten Commandments

• Character Matters

Introduction

Review

• Three Aspects of Kingdom Culture

• TRUTH - Metaphysical Laws • GOODNESS - Moral Laws • BEAUTY - Aesthetic Laws

– “Trinitarian Culture”– Progressively impact all aspects

of the Great CO-Mission

Definition

• Goodness: The moral qualities which constitute Christian excellence; moral virtue.

The Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments

• Read: Exodus 20: 1-17• Questions:

– What are your observations of the Decalogue?

– The Decalogue has two major parts. What is the focus of each?

Love God1) You shall have no other gods before me.

2) You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.

3) You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

4) Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.

Love Your Neighbor5) Honor your father and your mother, so that you

may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

6) You shall not murder.7) You shall not commit adultery.8) You shall not steal.9) You shall not give false testimony against your

neighbor.10)You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, …

wife, …manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

Life or Death

• Read Deu. 30: 11-20• Questions:

– What is the choice facing human beings?

– What does God desire for us?

– What are the consequences of our choice??

Jesus and the Law• Set # 1:

– Read Matt. 5: 17-18– Question: What did Jesus come to do?

• Set # 2: – Read Matt. 5: 18-20 – Question: What did Jesus expect of his

disciples?

Jesus and the Law

• Read and discover Jesus’ response to the Pharisees’ understanding of the Law:

• Matt. 5: 21-26 – Murder• Matt. 5: 27-30 – Adultery• Matt. 5: 31-32 – Divorce• Matt. 5: 33-37 – Oaths• Matt. 5: 38-42 – Retribution• Matt. 5: 43-48 – Love for enemies

Jesus and the Law

• Answers:– He is challenging those who

keep the letter of the law and break the spirit of the law

– Internal self-government not external pretense or tyranny

• Question: What is Jesus focusing on?

The Summary of the Law

• Read – Set # 1: Matt. 7: 12; 22: 36-40; Luke 10: 27; Rom. 13:

8-10; – Set # 2: Mark 12: 28-31, 33 Gal. 5: 14; James 2: 8

• Questions:– What are the similarities and differences in these

passages?– What does Jesus say is the greatest of the two

commandments?– When the Law and the Prophets are summarized by

only one of the Great Commandments, what is it? Why?

1 John 4: 20-21

“If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.”

The Summary of the Law

The Ten Commandments

The 2 CommandmentsLove God

Love your neighbor

1 CommandmentLove your neighbor

Civil Law and the Moral Order

“An unjust law is a law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law.”

Thomas Aquinas

Civil Law and the Moral Order

“A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law.”

Martin Luther King, Jr.Letter from a Birmingham Jail

Character Matters

Moral Ecology

• It is a healthy moral ecology that leads to a healthy care for the planet as well as social peace and economic prosperity..

• World is focused on ecology crisis• The lack of stewardship of the

environment stems from a crisis in our moral ecology.

• Moral ecology – mores, moral habits, “habits of the heart”

Everything Is Permitted

“If God does not exist, everything is permitted.”

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Cult and Culture

• Read Psalm 115: 2-8 and Hosea 9: 10b

• Questions:– What do our natures reflect?– What is the relationship between worship and

culture?

Cult and Culture

4     But their idols are silver and gold, made by the hands of men.

5     They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but they cannot see;

6     they have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but they cannot smell;

7     they have hands, but cannot feel, feet, but they cannot walk; nor can they utter a sound with their throats.

8     Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.

Ps 115:4-8

The Benefit of the Moral Order

• Individuals and nations can live in the moral framework for which they were designed.

• They will produce:– More goodness and less evil– More wholesomeness and less

decadence– More honesty and less treachery– More lawfulness and less

lawlessness– More social order and less

disorder– More freedom and fewer jails

Teach them to obey all I have commanded:

The Moral Order