Moral Duty
Numbers 4:49
"At the Lord's command through Moses, each was assigned his work and told what to carry. Thus they were counted, as the Lord commanded Moses."
When I ponder obedience and God's commands I start to think about moral duties, which is quite a different category from moral values. Moral values are what we aspire to be while duties are what we strive to obey. As Christians we claim that both are objective and universally binding because these are grounded in an essentially transcendent, almighty, all-knowing, and wholly good Creator. But how different are the foundations between the two? Moral values are grounded in God's essential nature, on the other hand our moral duties are grounded in His commands to us. So our duties, just as much as Israel's at the time of Moses are similar: We have objective obligations and prohibitions because God has issued certain imperatives to us. However, I'm thinking, does this make our obligations non-universally binding therefore not objective? Because apart from revelation or direct issuances from God, would anyone know their moral duties? Say, the Israelites prior to the Law, Gentiles who did not subscribe to God or non-believers to Christ. They're not somehow required by God to "bring the whole tithe" (Mal 3:10), are they? Or to "love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, strength and soul" (Luke 10:27), or to be Christlike holy because God is holy (I Pet 1:16, Lev 20:26). The key is that to begin with, there is a categorical difference between ontology (its basis) and epistemology (how we come to know of it), but the apostle Paul in his letter to the Romans also gives us a clue, stemming from Romans 1:19–20 where he tells us that God has, since creation, made His eternal power and divine nature plain for everyone to see, corollary to this, knowing Him and His commands, relating to Him (giving ones life to Christ as Lord and Saviour), learning and reading Scripture, and subsequently obedience to Him would also be an obligation. God has also sent His Spirit, and many bearers of His words through prophets of old and carriers of His good news through the apostles, missionaries, and us —and our witness and prayers. Finally, further to this, St. Paul also tells us that God has written His laws in everyone's hearts (and consciences): "Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them (Rom 2:14–15)."
"At the Lord's command through Moses, each was assigned his work and told what to carry. Thus they were counted, as the Lord commanded Moses."
When I ponder obedience and God's commands I start to think about moral duties, which is quite a different category from moral values. Moral values are what we aspire to be while duties are what we strive to obey. As Christians we claim that both are objective and universally binding because these are grounded in an essentially transcendent, almighty, all-knowing, and wholly good Creator. But how different are the foundations between the two? Moral values are grounded in God's essential nature, on the other hand our moral duties are grounded in His commands to us. So our duties, just as much as Israel's at the time of Moses are similar: We have objective obligations and prohibitions because God has issued certain imperatives to us. However, I'm thinking, does this make our obligations non-universally binding therefore not objective? Because apart from revelation or direct issuances from God, would anyone know their moral duties? Say, the Israelites prior to the Law, Gentiles who did not subscribe to God or non-believers to Christ. They're not somehow required by God to "bring the whole tithe" (Mal 3:10), are they? Or to "love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, strength and soul" (Luke 10:27), or to be Christlike holy because God is holy (I Pet 1:16, Lev 20:26). The key is that to begin with, there is a categorical difference between ontology (its basis) and epistemology (how we come to know of it), but the apostle Paul in his letter to the Romans also gives us a clue, stemming from Romans 1:19–20 where he tells us that God has, since creation, made His eternal power and divine nature plain for everyone to see, corollary to this, knowing Him and His commands, relating to Him (giving ones life to Christ as Lord and Saviour), learning and reading Scripture, and subsequently obedience to Him would also be an obligation. God has also sent His Spirit, and many bearers of His words through prophets of old and carriers of His good news through the apostles, missionaries, and us —and our witness and prayers. Finally, further to this, St. Paul also tells us that God has written His laws in everyone's hearts (and consciences): "Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them (Rom 2:14–15)."
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