But through all these different versions or models of Christianity there runs the same theme - a solid moral backbone. Even the raving cult leader has it. He is fanatical about honesty and personal integrity. He is ready to die for truth. The Salvation Army has it - obviously. The Victorian Christian is so upright she blushes at the sight of an ankle.
And this is exactly where the non-Christian stumbles, because there is a fairly general assumption that Christians have a monopoly on all the best morals, while the world is wicked and immoral, and utterly consumed in darkness. But is this really so?
Let us look at the list of virtues in Galatians chapter 6. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Other translations use other words, like kindness, and self-control and faithfulness.
Do Christians have a monopoly over these virtues? Hardly. Just a single visit to the city by bus will demonstrate that all these virtues are operating freely in all of society all the time.
If you are fortunate, you will see the driver wait patiently at the stop until a late customer catches up, and you will see him considerately lift the poor woman's heavy bag to her seat, and then someone will give up their seat so she may sit down. Later on you will see someone pick up and give back her purse, which she accidentally dropped. When you leave the bus you will see people holding hands, obviously in love, and a child will shout with happiness as his mother buys him a wonderful toy. In the shops you will see people waiting patiently in line, a man with a parrot gently tickling its breast, an old man walking very slowly across the street while a line of cars waits and the drivers smile at him, and further down the street you see a shopkeeper giving more than required to a customer who has very little money.
After a couple of hours you head home again, content in the knowledge that you have seen people showing love, being joyful, enjoying peace in the midst of noise and business, patiently waiting, being gentle, showing goodness, working faithfully, not answering back, obeying meekly, showing respect, and many of the people you saw were very self-controlled. The strange thing is, you saw not one Christian in all this crowd, or perhaps you did, but how would you ever know the difference, since all the people you passed were practicing the same morals.
Obviously Christian ethics are not a specific domain of the Christian.
But perhaps, someone may counter, Christian ethics are common to the Western world because Christianity has had such an influence over the last few hundred years. The Reformation in England may have introduced Christian ethics into a population which was not formerly Christian in any way, shape or form. What would we find if we went back to pre-Reformation times?
Pre-Reformation England was still influenced by the church, in this case mainly the Roman church, so we shall have to go back to Roman times, because the Romans were very pagan, having many gods and goddesses to worship and thank and pray to. Let us look at about 55 BC, when Rome made its first hesitant steps into Britain. The ambitious Julius Caesar landed with an army and began to explore this uncharted island around the north. He wrote of the Britons:
"The population is exceedingly large and the cattle very numerous. Tin is found inland and small quantities of iron near the coast. There is timber of every kind, except beech. Most of the tribes of the interior do not grow corn, but live on milk and meat and wear skins. All the Britons dye their bodies with woad, which makes them a blue colour, and this gives them a terrifying appearance in battle".
In order to operate mines, and work with timber, farm and milk cows, build houses and so on, a certain amount of consideration, self-control and honesty must be built into the population, otherwise it would lapse into anarchy. It looks as if Christian ethics were alive and well in pre-Roman as well as pre-Reformation times.
The point is, Christian ethics are neither new or original, and they do not represent a sweeping revolution in moral codes. There is hardly anything new or different at all about Christian ethics. They have been around since Adam and Eve were created, and they are common to every civilization and tribe which has ever lived. And, lest anyone raises the question, the Ten Commandments were not the first appearance of a moral code either, because long before Moses ascended Mount Sinai, the peoples of the world practised or broke every precept of the Decalogue.
From Ancient Egyptian writings:
"I have not slain men",
"Terrify not men or God will terrify thee"
"I have not brought misery upon my fellows. I have not made the beginning of every day laborious in the sight of him who worked for me"
"I have not been grasping"
"Love thy wife studiously. Gladden her heart all thy life long"
"I was a staff by my Father's side . . . I went in and out at his command"
From Ancient Norse writings:
"In hell (Nastrond) . . . I saw murderers"
"Man is man's delight"
From Ancient Hindu writings:
"He who is cruel and calumnious has the character of a cat"
"He who is asked for alms should always give"
"Your father is an image of the Lord of Creation, your mother an image of the Earth. For him who fails to honour them, every work of piety is in vain. This is the first duty"
"Children, old men, the poor, and the sick, should be considered as the lords of the atmosphere"
From Ancient Babylonian writings:
"Slander not"
"Has he . . . driven an honest man from his family? Broken up a well-cemented clan?"
"Speak kindness . . . show good will"
"Has he insulted his older sister?"
"Has he despised Father and Mother?"
From Ancient Chinese writings:
"Never do to others what you would not like them to do to you"
"He whose heart is in the smallest degree set upon goodness will dislike no-one"
"When the people have multiplied, what next should be done for them? The Master said, Enrich them. Jan Ch'iu said, When one has enriched them, what next should be done for them? The aster said, Instruct them"
"Surely proper behaviour to parents and elder brothers is the trunk of goodness"
"If a ruler . . . compassed the salvation of the whole state, surely you would call him Good? The Master said, It would no longer be a matter of "Good". He would without doubt be a Divine Sage"
"When proper respect towards the dead is shown at the end and continued after they are far away, the moral force of a people has reached its highest point"
From Ancient Roman writings:
"Nature urges that a man should wish human society to exist and should wish to enter it"
"Men were brought into existence for the sake of men that they might do one another good"
"What good man regards any misfortune as no concern of his?"
"I am a man; nothing human is alien to me"
"Part of us is claimed by our country, part of us by our parents, part by our friends"
These and many more quotes could be added, from other nations of the past, but the evidence is already clear that all these past nations were already practising the basics of Christian ethics long before Christianity ever appeared. It is therefore nonsense to consider Christian moral behaviour as being any different from the best moral behaviour of any other person. It also shows us that our neighbour, for all his faults, and that shopkeeper we see every week, and the Prime Minister and the children at the local school - all of them are moral to a certain extent, and their morality is similar in many ways to the best morality which the best Christian lives by.
But this is exactly what we should expect to find. Genesis tells us that Mankind came straight from the creative word of God, therefore Mankind bears a likeness to the Creator. God is pure and moral, therefore Mankind shows some of this likeness, despite sin. Romans tells us that the Gentiles (the non-Jews who do not have the aw of God to refer to) "show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness . . ."(Rom.2:15) Morals are built into the human race, and have been there since the first humans, and thence to their children, and outwards into all the nations. (All the nations in the world represent only one nation which has subdivided)
So, if all people display Christian ethics, what is so different about Christians? The answer: They are the only people who have admitted that they do not always live up to the moral standards which God requires. They have come to the cross and admitted that they deserve to die for their sins. They have accepted Jesus as their Saviour. And they alone have decided to turn away from immorality for the sake of Jesus.
When it comes to moral or ethical differences between Christians and unbelievers (I am sorry to say) there is sometimes very little difference, in fact some Christians are put to shame by the moral uprightness of unbelievers. But moral uprightness is not the criterion by which people may gain heaven. If it were I too would be a long way down the queue.
