Neighborhood Church

What does it mean to do the right thing?

“But what were the rules? Everyone had a different answer. Increasingly, it seemed like a choose-your-own-adventure scenario, one with the highest stakes possible.” —Anna Russell

Am I doing the right thing?

The goal here is not to inform or educate, to listen or process, to build or intellectualize but to win, to own, to dunk on, to break the opponent’s brain, to spawn an argument of such devastating definitiveness that the matter can be considered, once and for all, closed.
Brady Brickner-Wood

Deontological Ethics

Existentialist Ethics

You can divide theories about human behavior into two: either you obey rules imposed from the outside, or you discover the deepest longings of your own heart and try to go with them.
Most of us wobble about between the two, obeying at least some of the rules either because we think God wants us to or because of social convention, but reverting to pursuing our own dreams, our own fulfillment, when given the chance.
NT Wright

Do good, get good. Do bad, get bad.

How do we separate right from wrong, especially in an age with a thousand competing voices?

First-century Judea was a melting pot of competing ideologies, religions, and people groups.

Pharisees and Sadducees

Love is the definitive word on human ethics and morality.

TELOS = Greek: The end, goal, or intended purpose

Love is the telos of human life.

We can only love God to the extent that we love those around us.

We cannot love God without loving others.

Love is our compass.

Am I walking in love?

What does love require of me?

Spiritual Fruit
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control

Love is an overall condition of the embodied, social self, poised to promote the goods of human life that are within its range of influence.
Dallas Willard

Love is both the end and the means, not only of the Christian life, but of human existence.

What Jesus is saying is, “Now that I’m here, God’s new world is coming to birth; and, once you realize that, you’ll see that these are the habits of heart which anticipate that new world here and now.” These qualities—purity of heart, mercy, and so on—are not, so to speak, “things you have to do” to earn a “reward,” a “payment.” Nor are they merely the “rules of conduct” laid down for new converts to follow—rules that some today might perceive as somewhat arbitrary. They are, in themselves, the signs of life, the language of life, the life of new creation, the life of new covenant, the life which Jesus came to bring.
N. T. Wright

Whether you are wired as a rule follower or a rebel, Jesus is inviting you to embrace a new ethic: the way of love.

I’ve thought about that day many times. If I had been stricter with myself—would I have made it any further? I’m not sure. I hope that we did the best we could with the information we had. There are some things we’ll probably never know.
Anna Russell

One of the clearest and most beautiful expressions of God’s unconditional love is his grace.