- When God declares right and wrong, it's called morals.
- When industries or other groups of volunteers agree on a set of right and wrong, it's called ethics.
- When rulers or legislatures do it, it's called law.
- When people in authority do it, it's called political correctness.
- When most of society agrees, it's called popular opinion.
An important detail is morals are the foundation for the rest, not the other way around. Politicians, journalists, TV news anchors, and the rest of us shouldn't be making moral declarations without basing our claims on the written word of God. When people simply throw out accusations of immorality they're really just pushing propaganda, and most likely just objecting that someone has a different opinion. Differences of opinion aren't immoral, unless you're differing with your Creator.
Note, people who reject the history of the Bible are very likely to reject the morality of it, too. That's an understandable correlation. For now, let's assume we care what the Bible says, because proving its historicity is a different matter.
The 10
The 10 Commandments are perhaps the most famous part of the Old Testament. In part, because they're the infamous "thou shalt nots" which God gave the Israelites, and which Christians try to encourage the rest of the world as minimum standards of morality. They were given by God to Moses in Exodus 20, and Moses reminded the people of them in Deuteronomy 5. In case you don't have them memorized, here's my personal summarization:
- Do not believe in any other gods besides the one true God.
- Do not make any idols.
- Do not use the name of God without love, nor misrepresent Him.
- Remember and keep holy the Sabbath day.
- Honor your parents.
- Do not murder.
- Do not get sexually involved with anyone but the one person you are married to.
- Do not steal.
- Do not lie when testifying.
- Do not lust for nor misuse anything that is not yours.
About 2000 years ago, when Jesus walked the earth, He was asked which was the most important commandment. The person asking the question was not simply referring to the 10 Commandments, he was referring to their entire law, which included what we now know in the Torah plus all their made-up add-ons. The interaction was recorded in parallel passages of Matthew 22:34-40 and Mark 12:28-34. Jesus's answer was:
- Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
- Love your neighbor as yourself.
He was quoting Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. But another perspective on His response is He paraphrased the first 4 of the 10 Commandments with His first reply, then the last 6 with His second.
The 10 Commandments don't come with a prescription for punishment, at least not right there in the very next verses. They're just the "thou shalt nots" that are so famous. The implication is when God says don't do it, there's not supposed to be a need for an explicit punishment, you're just supposed to take God seriously. However, even most Christians today, and certainly most atheists, have forgotten or were never taught that there actually were punishments prescribed for most of the Ten. We just have to do the smallest amount of connecting the dots.
Rather than specifically look for each of the 10 Commandments, one by one, we can look for something else. We can look for when God made a moral declaration and pronounced that violation was a capital offense (punishable by death). Most of the following can be found with a simple keyword search (on BibleGateway.com or BibleHub.com or Bible.com or whatever tool you prefer) for "put to death" or "purge the evil" when using the NIV translation. Since recurring themes are present, I've made a pass at categorizing them:
Disrespecting God (the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd commandments)
- Exodus 22:20 - apostasy
- Leviticus 24:16 - blasphemy
- Numbers 25:5 - false gods
- Deuteronomy 13:1-5 - false gods
- Deuteronomy 13:6-11 - false gods
- Deuteronomy 13:12-18 - false gods
- Deuteronomy 17:2-7 - false gods
- Deuteronomy 18:20 - misrepresentation
Disrespecting the Sabbath (the 4th commandment)
- Exodus 31:14-15
- Exodus 35:2
Disrespecting your parents (the 5th commandment)
- Exodus 21:15
- Exodus 21:17
- Leviticus 20:9
- Deuteronomy 21:18-21
Disrespecting human life (murder, the 6th commandment)
- Genesis 9:5-6
- Exodus 21:12-14
- Exodus 21:22-23 - the preborn
- Exodus 21:29
- Leviticus 20:1-5 - infanticide
- Leviticus 24:17
- Leviticus 24:21
- Numbers 35:16-18
- Numbers 35:21
- Numbers 35:31
- Deuteronomy 19:11-13
Disrespecting human sexuality (sexual immorality, the 7th commandment)
- Exodus 22:19 - bestiality
- Leviticus 20:10 - adultery
- Leviticus 20:11 - incest: mother
- Leviticus 20:12 - incest: daughter-in-law
- Leviticus 20:13 - homosexuality
- Leviticus 20:14 - incest: mother-in-law
- Leviticus 20:15 - bestiality
- Leviticus 20:16 - bestiality
- Deuteronomy 22:21 - fornication/promiscuity
- Deuteronomy 22:22 - adultery
- Deuteronomy 22:23-24 - adultery
- Deuteronomy 22:25 - rape
Disrespecting human dignity (human trafficking, relates to the 8th and 10th Commandments)
- Exodus 21:16
- Exodus 22:22-24
- Deuteronomy 24:7
Others (only mentioned once, still applicable today)
- Exodus 22:18 - sorceress
- Leviticus 20:27 - mediums
- Leviticus 27:29 NLT - people God says should die, should die
- Deuteronomy 17:12 - disrespecting God's ambassadors
These weren't the only moral decrees God made (for examples, do a text search for "detestable", "dishonor", or "wicked") but since these were punishable by the most extreme punishment, they were arguably the most important, or highest priority. They could be called the minimum system requirements to be moral. Logically speaking, as with breaking any of the 10 Commandments, from a Biblical perspective, when we commit any of these capital crimes, regardless of whether we are caught and executed or not, or if we even just encourage/ enable others to commit them, then we earn ourselves the label "immoral."
If we dislike or disagree with God on any of these topics, that doesn't change the fact that God is God and the rest of us are not. It's been said that God was the only one around when the votes were cast, and there's never going to be a recount (Isaiah 43:10). Believers don't call the Bible true or inerrant because they happen to like or agree with 100% of what it says the first time they read it. The Bible is true independent of our feelings, and is confirmed by fulfilled prophecy and all observable (objective) reality.
If we aren't crazy about capital punishment then it's easy to say now, almost 3,500 years later, "what the hell?" when we read all these cases. I don't need to defend the opinion of our omnipotent Creator, instead, let's look at the reaction of the people He "imposed" these deadly rules on. Did they feel God was being harsh, shocking, cruel, or the modern buzzword: oppressive?
Near the end of Moses's most famous sermon, after being told/ reminded of all the above, the people responded by claiming God's commands: (all following quotes are from the WEB translation)
- The things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. -Deuteronomy 29:29b
King David lived under the law, hundreds of years later, just as much as the people to whom Moses spoke to personally. Here are a couple of David's comments/attitudes:
- Yahweh’s law is perfect, restoring the soul. Yahweh’s covenant is sure, making wise the simple. Yahweh’s precepts are right, rejoicing the heart. Yahweh’s commandment is pure, enlightening the eyes. -Psalm 19:7-8
- Give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good, for his loving kindness endures forever. -Psalm 107:1
- I run in the path of your commandments, for you have set my heart free. -Psalm 119:32
Of course, I'm not advocating we have an Old Testament revival and erect gallows and start lining people up for execution. These laws identified above established crimes for the nation of Israel (besides Genesis 9:6, which came much earlier) and in a literal sense do not transfer from their theocracy to my nation's democracy. But what does transfer is the timeless nature of the sentiment upon which the laws originated. When God established the Israelites as a nation, He set them up with a theocracy, and one of the first things He did (as any human monarch might do) was inform the people of His opinion on some moral behavior. These opinions established the boundaries of freedom people would have, just as every government on earth still does today. Because all civilizations are defined by what they won't tolerate. God's opinion should always trump any man's opinion because of the nature of being God.
Nothing new
The temptation to replace God-defined right and wrong with popular opinion is about as old as humanity itself. Adam, Eve, and the serpent thought they could replace God's reality with a reality they made up, as recorded in Genesis 3:1-6. It didn't work out well for them, and it won't work out well for us, either, if we reject God's explicit command(s). Did you notice in the original command, in Genesis 2:16-17, the restriction came after the declaration of freedom? The first thing God said was "you may freely eat of every tree of the garden." It was just that one tree next to the Tree of Life that they were restricted from (Genesis 2:9). And that made it a target. The point is, besides God is God, God is good, so when He defines morality for us, we should care, take Him seriously, believe Him, and obey. When we believe someone then we act like they're right.
Remember when Jesus did exactly the same thing? When He walked among us, one of the ways Jesus slammed the leaders of the day was to point out that they had disregarded something that God had declared a capital crime. Read it yourself in Matthew 15:1-9. Notice the religious leaders were claiming something was wrong and Jesus responded that for the sake of their popular opinion on right and wrong they were ignoring God's opinion on right and wrong. Jesus didn't call for everyone who violated to be executed in a catch-up clean-up act, but He did use an example from the law which prescribed capital punishment to make a point about remembering and honoring what God cares about. I'm doing the same thing now. Don't miss the religious leaders were whining about a ceremonial hand washing and Jesus replied with a moral capital crime. Further, Jesus dismissed their ceremonial concern and attacked their moral deficiency.
In Jesus's most famous sermon, the Sermon on the Mount, He started off with what we now call the beatitudes. Almost the next thing He said was He came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it. Then He spends the rest of what we now consider chapter 5 raising the bar on moral laws. For now, I'll just point out Matthew 5:21-22, where He didn't just remind us we're not to murder, but He also forbade us even hating people. Not only did Jesus leave murder a capital offense (as opposed to loosening the expectation & penalty) now thanks to Him we need to fear the fires of hell too! This was actually the first time the Bible explicitly mentioned hell by name. The second time was in Jesus's next breath, when He talked about adultery. Here again He raised the bar, made it harder to comply with the law, and raised the stakes by increasing the penalty for violation by introducing hell (Matthew 5:27-29). If Jesus was some peace-loving dope-smoking social justice warrior who advocated "make love not war," then if we heard Him say this we'd probably have responded "what the hell!?" (And we'd probably have called Him demon-possessed.) But really, do you think just maybe God thinks we should take Him seriously and use His definition of morality rather than arbitrarily making up our own (Matthew 6:33)?
So What?
Even though the literal Israelite laws no longer apply today, the opinion of our Creator remains. Do we care? Paul warned us in Galatians 6:7:
- Don’t be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.
Don't think for a second that because of Jesus's sacrifice we are off the hook. Paul warned us away from this foolish wishful thinking in Romans 6:1-2:
- What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer?
As did the author of Hebrews 10:26-27:
- For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which will devour the adversaries.
Certainly God was exasperated with His people in the Old Testament. Just one example was Jeremiah 8:6:
- I listened and heard, but they didn’t say what is right. No one repents of his wickedness, saying, “What have I done?” Everyone turns to his course, as a horse that rushes headlong in the battle.
And if their perspective wasn't enough, then remember Jesus's warning in Matthew 4:17:
- From that time, Jesus began to preach, and to say, “Repent! For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”
And Jesus's warning in Revelation 2:16:
- Repent therefore, or else I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of my mouth.
Repenting requires that we stop making immoral choices and encourage others to stop too. What is immoral? At least the actions God felt were capital offenses and the prohibitions in the 10 Commandments (Romans 7:7b). (Though some good runners up are things He hates, including but not limited to Proverbs 6:16-19, Isaiah 61:8, Zechariah 8:17, and Revelation 2:6.) Why does God care so much that He declared anything to be a capital crime in the first place? Because God is holy and not a fan of evil, but more to the point He cares about us and wants us to live long lives in fellowship with Him. But don't just take it from me, He gave His reasoning in Deuteronomy 19:19b-21a:
- You shall remove the evil from among you. Those who remain shall hear, and fear, and will never again commit any such evil among you.
Later, in Ezekiel 18:23, He elaborated:
- “Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked?” says the Lord Yahweh; “and not rather that he should return from his way, and live?”
- May it be known to you all... that in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth... There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that is given among men, by which we must be saved!
The only trick is we must take God at His word and accept this wonderful gift, then live more holy (moral) and obedient lives as evidence of our choice (Matthew 7:21, 1 Samuel 15:22-23).
Good & Bad
Let's be clear on the parallel here between moral and immoral to good and evil. Because God said to Isaiah "woe to those who call evil good, and good evil" in Isaiah 5:20. God taught a lot when He was incarnate, including: "out of the heart come evil thoughts - murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander" (Matthew 15:19, Mark 7:21-22). Does that list of "evils" sound familiar? I hope so:
- Murder: 6th commandment
- Adultery: 7th commandment
- Sexual immorality: 7th commandment plus all the other sexual choices God declared "wicked", "detestable", or "dishonorable" in Leviticus 18-20
- Theft: 8th commandment
- False testimony: 9th commandment
- Slander: expansion on the 9th commandment, possibly similar to how He raised the bar on murder and adultery in Matthew 5:21-32
Of course there are a ton of other evil and good claims in the Bible, both before and after Jesus's resurrection. And there was Malachi 2:17, where he lamented
Further, as important of a start as it is, it's not good enough to simply acknowledge good and evil, we should punish God-defined evil and reward good: AM 5:15, ROM 12:9 (and certainly not do the opposite PR 17:15, ISA 5:20). May it be said of us, we "believed the Lord, and He credited it to [us] as righteousness" (Genesis 15:6).
- You have wearied Yahweh with your words. Yet you say, ‘How have we wearied Him?’ In that you say, ‘Everyone who does evil is good in Yahweh’s sight, and He delights in them.’
Further, as important of a start as it is, it's not good enough to simply acknowledge good and evil, we should punish God-defined evil and reward good: AM 5:15, ROM 12:9 (and certainly not do the opposite PR 17:15, ISA 5:20). May it be said of us, we "believed the Lord, and He credited it to [us] as righteousness" (Genesis 15:6).