Antifragile Ethics in Mission
“You may never know what type of person someone is unless they are given opportunities to violate moral or ethical codes. ”
What is ethics? As a general concept, “ethics” is defined as applying the values of “good” and “evil” to a thing, person, or action.
Ethics is NOT:
Moralism and moral certainty. Knowing good and evil is much deeper than moralism, which is acting by a set of rules.
Not Greco-Roman ethics but Kingdom ethics
Not abstract
There is no universal principle of ethics works in all situations without nuance, without discernment. Cannot apply general rules to particular situations, which are often intricate, perplexing and ambiguous. Ethical theory cannot embrace the totality of living.
We are either listening to God or listening to the snake.
There is no neutrality – nor can the world remain a vacuum; unless we make it an altar to God, it is invaded by demons. Our needs do not define what is good; there exists transcendent values, because good and evil is beyond psychological concepts.
What are ethics?
Kingdom ethics applies the designation of “good” or “evil” of reality from God’s viewpoint on his throne to our specific life experiences
Kingdom ethics and our ethical obligation find their foundation in Genesis 1–3
Every act is evaluated in relation to God and humans. What we do to man, we do to God. Wwhat is good is what is holy based on God’s standard.
In the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve first “knew” evil, the same word for knowing is used as in the verse when Adam “knew” Eve. Kingdom ethics are relational and interconnected. One’s claim to be ethical means nothing unless it is expressed in relationship action.
Schirrmacher’s Ethical Decision Making Guide
Ethics applied to loving, thinking, working in our decision making, based on Jesus’ ethic of Love:
“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole law and the Prophets” (Matt 22:37–40, NASB).
1. Normative – God’s unchanging commandments - we generally find the normative aspect in basic values.
2. Situational – wisdom in cultural assimilation (or not) - The situational aspect’s importance is expressed in wisdom, which gauges situations on the basis of experience and specific situations.
In ethics a so-called collision of obligations, a situational ethic, and cultural assimilation all play a role.
3. Existential – the meaning of the heart and the conscience. The actual decision is made on the basis of normative and situational considerations. The existential aspect’s importance is expressed in the meaning of the heart and the conscience, whereby in the individual the actual decision is made on the basis of normative and situational considerations. At this point in ethics, one generally speaks about the conscience and motives.17
Not one of these stands alone. All three must be present in any ethical decision in the unique situation of risk.