The Bible and Ethics

Abstract

The Bible is not a handbook of ethics, but because biblical religion strongly links religious commitment to behaviour, the Bible deals deals extensively with ethical issues. It is precisely in the area of ethics that biblical religion makes itself real in the life of the believer, and it is the point at which the relevance or irrelevance of religion is felt most keenly. The question, "Is the Bible still relevant today?" is frequently answered in terms of the perceived ethics inherent in the Bible. This article will survey some of the more prominent themes in biblical ethics, and will discover these to be astonishingly relevant to modern society, societies far removed in time and culture from those who first received the written word of God.