As we think through social ethics from a biblical perspective, we need to be careful and not confuse God’s absolute laws with His biblical principles. God’s laws are to be obeyed as stated and not filtered through our own justification. However, there are many things that God did not include in His Word. In those cases we are given a set of principles that we can apply to give us direction in making decisions.

Offense Principle: Defined

The Bible teaches that we should be willing to abstain from anything—even if the activity isn’t itself wrong—for the sake of another Christian. The Offense Principle states that we should put aside our own desires and activities if doing the activity would cause a stumbling block in the life of a weaker brother.

When thinking through this principle it is important to understand who a weaker brother is and what it means to offend them. First look at the concept of offend. The Greek word used in Matthew 5:29; 18:6 and Romans 14:21 for offend is the word σκανδαλίζω (skandalizō or skän-dä-lē’-zō). According to the Strong’s Concordance this word is a metaphorical word that means to place a stumbling block in someone’s way which causes them to fall. In other words, to entice someone to sin. Paul says in Romans 14:21 that we should not do anything that may cause a weaker brother to fall into sin because of our action.

Offense Principle: Clarifying Questions

Will participating in this activity cause a weaker brother to sin?

The question now becomes, who is a weaker brother? A weaker brother would be a new or immature Christian who is humbly seeking the truth. This is not someone who has a personal agenda, but someone who honestly wants to learn God’s Word and grow spiritually.

I remember when I was in high school there was another teen who had recently been saved and was hungry to learn anything about God and His holiness. My friend concluded that since our bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost, we should not drink any beverages like Coke because of the chemicals they contain. As more mature Christians, we decided that we would not drink any Coke-type products when we were with him. Is drinking Coke sinful? No. Yet we choose to abstain from drinking carbonated beverages around our friend while he tried to grow into a stronger Christian. However, when we were away from our weaker brother we still drank carbonated beverages. The outcome was that within a couple of weeks he also determined that they were not necessarily wrong and he lifted his personal ban.

There will always be people who try to preach their own agenda and make everyone around them feel guilty. The Offense Principle is not intended for those situations. The Bible’s teaching is clearly that we should abstain from any activity that would cause a weaker brother to sin.

Offense Principle: Biblical Basis

Again we can look to the key passage on biblical decision making, 1 Corinthians 8-11:1 to help us with this principle. In 1 Corinthians 8:9, 10 Paul is talking about eating meat offered to idols. He has already concluded that it is fine for a Christian to eat this meat. However, he says in these verses that just because it is non-sinful to eat the meat, you should still abstain if it might cause a weaker brother to sin.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:23 and 24 that we should be concerned with the welfare of other Christians around us.

Other verses which support this principle are Matthew 5:29; 18:6; Romans 14:21 and James 4:17.

Offense Principle: Application

This principle primarily deals with activities that are not questionable as to whether they are right or wrong. If something is sin, then you shouldn’t do it. The issue here is knowing when to abstain from non-sinful activities for the sake of others.

You may know a new Christian who concludes that any music composed by a non-Christian is evil music. Your friend honestly wants to grow in the Lord. If he gets into your car while you are playing music by Beethoven (who may have been a Christian but reportedly did not go to church), would you still play the music? Is there any question in your mind as to whether or not Beethoven’s music is sinful? You may not personally have a problem with listening to a certain type of music, but if it causes your weaker brother to sin (and he would be sinning if he believed it was wrong and listened to it anyway according to Romans 14:22 and 23) then you should abstain.

This principle can help you make decisions not on whether something is right or wrong, but whether you should participate in the activity in certain situations. Do you have another situation in which you wonder if this principle applies? Leave a comment below and allow us to discuss it.

God has given us various principles in His Word that can be applied to help us make godly decisions in our lives. These principles should be used when the Bible does not specifically state whether an activity is right or wrong. However, you should avoid applying these principles to that which God has already prohibited or approved in His Word. Using biblical principles to justify an activity that is expressly prohibited will cause confusion.

Association Principle: Defined

God has told us to abstain from all appearance of evil (1 Thessalonians 5:22). Something might, in and of itself, not be wrong; however, we are told in the Bible that we should not even do the things that would make others think we might be doing something inappropriate.

Association Principle: Clarifying Questions

• Will this activity require you to associate with that which is evil?
• What is the present dominant association of the activity?
• What does society immediately associate with the given activity?

While God’s Word never changes, the associations of activities change. A simple example of this is playing cards in the United States. There was a time when cards were only associated with gambling. The dominant association of cards for both the world and the church was with an activity that has its roots in greed and laziness—both of which are sins that the Bible condemns. But there is nothing inherently wrong with pieces of paper which have numbers and pictures on them.

Today if you saw a mom, a dad and two kids playing cards there is really no association with gambling. The present dominant association with cards today is an activity that people play at family reunions where no money is involved. This is an example of where an activity and its association has changed over time. There was a time when playing cards would have been wrong for a Christian, but those days are gone (though they could come back).

Do people still gamble with cards? Absolutely. However the present dominant association with cards today is not with the activity of gambling.

Thinking a bit further through the example though, there may be a time and place where playing a game of Go Fish isn’t appropriate. If I were visiting my friends who live in Las Vegas, I would abstain from playing Go Fish (or any card game) in a public location. Playing with my family at the family reunion down by the lake is different from playing with a group of men at a coffee shop in Las Vegas.

Association Principle: Biblical Basis

A key passage on biblical decision making is 1 Corinthians 8:1 through 11:1. Paul goes into great detail on applying ethical principles when deciding what is appropriate or not. Was it wrong for Paul to eat meat offered to idols (1 Corinthians 8)? There was no difference in the meat before and after it was offered. If the meat was fine to eat previous to being offered, then it was fine to eat afterwards. The idol does not change the meat in any way. However, the present dominant association at the time was that eating the meat put your stamp of approval on the activity of idol worship. Eating the meat was strongly associated with the idols. Therefore, out of principle, Paul said that he would not eat the meat (1 Corinthians 8:13).

Here are some passages that help us understand the Association Principle. 1 Corinthians 5:11-13; 2 Corinthians 6:14-17 and Ephesians 5:11, 12 talk about our associations with people. Disassociating yourself from evil things is discussed in 1 Corinthians 8:1-11:1; Romans 14:16; 1 Thessalonians 5:22.

Association Principle: Application

Here are some activities you can run through the filter of this principle. Using the other biblical principles in this series, you can make your own decision about these activities.

• Should Christians go to the movies?
• Is it OK for Christian men to have facial hair?
• How long is too long for a man’s hair?
• How short is too short for a lady’s dress?
• Is it appropriate for you to play cards where you live?
• Should a Christian go to an office Christmas party? At a bar?
• Would you go to a restaurant that bills itself as a “Bar & Grill”?

We know that the Bible is a book of absolutes in the matters it discusses, but there are always new activities that we need to evaluate according to God’s principles. Some of the above activities would probably never change, however the present dominant association in your culture may be different than what it is in mine.

What other questions do you think the Association Principle can help answer? Do you have a question about one of the biblical principles of social ethics that you want to ask? Leave a comment below.

Biblical Principles of Social Ethics

I took a class in college many years ago called Social Ethics. The premise of the course was to show how to make proper biblical decisions and avoid improper decision-making models. Most students seemed to enjoy the class probably because it required us to stretch our thinking on how to make our own decisions. It was a time we were looking to break away from our parents and push forward into a life of our own. There were many decisions to be made during those college years.

In the class we were taught ethical principles that I have personally used for over 20 years to help me make decisions on what is right and wrong in various situations. Most doubts can be resolved with these six principles. But the Bible has many principles that you can use to help you make decisions. The six principles mentioned here are examples of how you can look for other principles in the Bible.

Social Ethics Defined

Social ethics are the set of rules—often unwritten—that are accepted by a society on what is and is not appropriate. These are not laws to be obeyed, rather they are principles to be applied to different situations to help you make a proper decision based on what society deems appropriate. As we look at ethics in several related posts here, I will be talking about ethics in a biblical frame of mind. Therefore, the society that makes up the set of societal rules in this context will be the body of scripture as given by God.

Different societies, cultures and countries have their own set of ethical principles. What is acceptable in one place is taboo in another. Since God wrote His Word to teach us throughout time and history, it is a book full of principles that can be applied in any time or place. Therefore, biblical principles of decision making can be applied in all societies and time periods.

The Decision-Making Process

First we should look to God’s Word to see if there is an absolute law stating what is and is not acceptable. A good example is the Ten Commandments. God tells us what we should and should not do in cases of murder, lying, theft, etc. When God has written a law, it should be obeyed.

However, out of necessity, the Bible is a book of principles instead of a list of laws. It would not make sense to anyone until the start of the 20^th century to have a catalog of laws about automobile driving rules in the Bible. But the Bible has principles that can be applied when driving a camel, a car or a rocket ship. Sometimes people will justify something as being acceptable by God because He did not write a specific prohibition of their chosen sin in the Bible. Taking a few minutes to look at biblical principles and applying them to the questions at hand would show the person that what they want to do may be wrong.

To start your decision-making process there are two things you should note:

• God’s laws are to be obeyed.
• God’s principles are to be applied.

One of the biggest mistakes a person can make is to apply ethical principles to that which God has already prohibited in His Word. It causes confusion when you try to use these principles to justify something that God already prohibits.

The Six Principles

There will be a series of posts which discusses each of these principles in detail. My fear is that you will only look at the principle and the question which helps you apply it without reading the full discussion and application of the principle. Please take the time to see how to properly think through the principle and what the biblical basis for the principle is.

• Association Principle: Will this activity require me to associate with that which is evil?
• Offense Principle: Will this activity cause a weaker brother to sin?
• Wedge Principle: Will doing this lead to future sin?
• Doubt Principle: Do I think this might be wrong according to the Bible?
• Edification Principle: Will this activity help build me up as a Christian?
• Expediency Principle: What is the best thing I can do in this situation?

Why Apply the Principles?

Learning to live by principles is a mark of spiritual maturity. Not applying God’s principles of social ethics is a sin as much as breaking one of God’s laws (Romans 14:21, 23; James 4:17; I Corinthians 8:12).

There are many non-biblical ethical models as well. They all break down and are not easily applied in every situation. This is because they are based on man’s wisdom at the time and place the ethical model is devised. At a later time in history those models no longer work because the social ethics of the world has moved to something new.

Learning and applying these six principles of biblical social ethics will help you as you seek to grow spiritually in your Christian walk.

One of the greatest witnessing tools available to anyone is their own Christian testimony. Telling other people your own story of how you understood your need for salvation is a powerful means to witness to others around you. This does not mean that you should avoid telling them what the Bible says, but giving a clear example through your life of how God can save and change a person is a great first step in bringing someone to the Lord.

If you have not shared your testimony with others before, let me encourage you to write it out. Writing your Christian testimony will help you hone in on what is important in your story and what is not. Preparing your testimony on paper will give you a confidence that will help you when you stand before a group or share with an individual.

As a powerful witnessing tool, your testimony should simply share with the listener (or reader) the basic elements of salvation. Here are some questions that will help you think through the basics of what each testimony should include.

• How did God reveal to you that you were a sinner?
• Once you understood your condition before God, how did God begin to show you His love?
• With an understanding of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, what were the next steps you took to accept His salvation?
• Did God use one person or event to show you your need, or were there several people over time that God brought into your life?
• What were some of the events surrounding your salvation? Were you in a church? At a park?
• Do you have any stories that illustrate how God made Himself known to you?

Now that you have your testimony written down, you need to look for opportunities to tell others. Often people will give their testimony for the first time at a church meeting.  When going on a mission trip the individuals in the group are usually asked to share their testimony with others in the group or on the field where they are visiting. These are great opportunities to tell others what God has done for you. You are surrounded by friends who want to know more about God’s leading in your life.

Your friends and co-workers may be the first ones who see that there has been a change in your life. You might find it easy to tell them about the Lord because they are already curious. However, telling strangers about your salvation may seem a little awkward. Just remember the last time you got involved in a conversation with someone you had previously never met. Did you talk about the weather? Your favorite baseball team? We usually talk about things that are going on around us. Use that as an opportunity to steer the conversation so you can tell what God has done for you.

Be careful to avoid “church words.” These are the words and phrases we become accustomed to in the church, but the world has no idea what they mean. Remember each time you give your testimony that there may be someone in the audience who is unsaved. This is true even if you are telling your story in church. Keep your words easy to understand.

• What is a sinner?
• What does it mean to repent?
• You were convicted?! Of what crime?

Try to use normal vocabulary. Not everyone has the same background and experiences you have. Take time to answer any questions that come up about the Lord. Not everyone will get saved the first time they have the Gospel presented to them. It is our privilege to tell others about our salvation, it is God’s responsibility to draw them to Himself.

Reading books like Ray Comfort’s God Has a Wonderful Plan for Your Life or Charles Ryrie’s book, So Great Salvation, will help you understand your own salvation in a clearer way. These books can help you define, in simple terms, what salvation means to your friends.

Sharing your Christian testimony is important. By writing it out and sharing it with your friends, you will soon become bold enough to tell complete strangers about your Savior.

I am reading through the book of Deuteronomy and notice that in my notes it is a book that I tend to skip over (I keep a record of how many times I have read each chapter in my Bible). Apparently it is one of those books that I neglect more than I should.

However, I am actually a little surprised by this revelation. When I flip through my Bible I have lots of verses in Deuteronomy underlined. I also have notes in the margin of what God has taught me while reading through the book. If I didn’t know how many times I had read the book in comparison to the rest of my Bible, I would have said that it looks as equally used as any other book.

The book of Deuteronomy is filled with great verses that you probably know if you have been in church any length of time. It is not an obscure book. It is quoted from many times in the New Testament.

Following are a few verses from a 5 chapter span of the book that you probably already know or are familiar with.

Deuteronomy 6:5 “And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”

Deuteronomy 8:3b “…that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.”

Deuteronomy 10:12, 13 “And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, To keep the commandments of the LORD, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?”

Deuteronomy 11:18-20 “Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates:”

Deuteronomy 11:26-28 “Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day: And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.”

The book is made up of four sermons preached by Moses to the people of Israel before they finally entered into the Promised Land. These are the sons and daughters of the men and women who came out of Egypt. Much of the book is a re-telling of the history of Israel so that the current generation would know how God had led them in the past. Chapter 5 is a complete restatement of the the Ten Commandments.

What about your copy of Deuteronomy? Has it been neglected for too long? Take some time to read the Word of God as told through the mouth of Moses in the book of Deuteronomy.