Ethics in The Bible - Ethics in The New Testament

Ethics in The New Testament

See also: Christianity and slavery, Homosexuality and Christianity, Women in the Bible, Antisemitism in the New Testament, Biblical law in Christianity, and Christian ethics

The nature and context of the books of the New Testament are seen by some as very different from that of the Hebrew Bible, which Christians call the Old Testament. The New Testament is intended as a New Covenant, not records of time-honoured traditions. The main dispute of the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15), whether non-Jewish converts should be considered bound to the Old Testament laws, are addressed elsewhere in the New Testament, e.g. regarding dietary laws

"Don't you perceive that whatever goes into the man from outside can't defile him, because it doesn't go into his heart, but into his stomach, then into the latrine, thus making all foods clean?" Mark 7:18. (See also Mark 7)

or regarding divorce

"I tell you that whoever puts away his wife, except for the cause of sexual immorality, makes her an adulteress; and whoever marries her when she is put away commits adultery." Matthew 5:31. (See also Mark 5)

The central teachings of Jesus are presented in the synoptic Sermon on the Mount, notably the "golden rule" and the prescription to "love your enemies" and "turn the other cheek".

"You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'"(Matthew 5:43)

"But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you."(Matthew 5:44)

However, according to critics, numerous passages seem to contradict this teaching: Matt. 23:17,25-33, Luke 11:40, Matt. 11:20-24, Luke 10:13-15, Luke 19:27, Matt. 26:24, John 8:44, Acts 13:7-11, 1 Tim 1;20, Gal. 1:8, 2 Cor. 6:14-15, 1 Cor. 5:5,13.

Asked by one of the Pharisees which is the greatest commandment in the law (Matthew 22:36), Jesus names as the central commandment of his teaching the practice of love (agape) both towards God and one's fellow men:

"'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment. A second likewise is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'"

This reply was, in context, conservative. Jesus' first commandment is actually the second line of the Shema, a passage from the Torah that priests recited in the Temple, and that other Jews recited in their prayers, twice a day; the Pharisees considered this to be the most important principle in Judaism. Jesus' second commandment (known as the Great Commandment of the Hebrew Bible) echoes the principle of Hillel, one of the most important Pharisees in the decades prior to Jesus' birth. In short, Jesus answers the Pharisee by quoting the two most important Pharisaic principles.

Elsewhere in the New Testament (for example, the "Farewell Discourses" of John 14 through 16) Jesus elaborates on what has become known the commandment of love, repeated and elaborated upon in the epistles of Paul (1 Corinthians 13 etc.), see also The Law of Christ and The New Commandment.

See also Paul of Tarsus and his relationship with Judaism.