Here’s an excerpt from Christian Living and the Ethical Mandate, Cory Brock’s contribution to the March issue of Tabletalk:
What do we mean when we say “ethical mandate”? Ethics is reflecting on how one ought to live life. If there is an ethical mandate, there is a command that tells us what it means to live the good life. If there is a command, that means there is a command giver. This simple confession stands against modernity, which confesses that moral goods are not real but socially constructed. Yet, Christians know that the triune God is the command giver. In the incarnation, God comes to the world and shows us a life that is truly good. Looking at the life of Christ in the Gospels, it is not difficult to state precisely what God requires of us. Jesus affirmed the words of the lawyer in Luke 10:27: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart . . . soul . . . strength . . . and mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” In John 13:34, He gives a “new commandment”: “love one another.” The ethical mandate of the Christ-centered life is to love God and to love others with our whole selves.
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