Through the past 3 weeks, we have been to a handful of social services in Singapore, namely Hannah Home, Sarah Senior’s Activity Centre and Healthserve @ Geylang as part of STEP 2017. It was an eye-opening experience, but some issues surfaced. Why the need for social services, what is the value of social services as a Christian, and whether does social work in Singapore inhibits the spread of the gospel. In summary, it comes down to objective morality from God vs from social convention.
Part 1: Laws of human nature governing objective morality
“The idea was that, just as all bodies are governed by the law of gravitation and organisms by biological laws, so the creature called man also had his law--with this great difference, that a body could not choose whether it obeyed the law of gravitation or not, but a man could choose either to obey the Law of Human Nature or to disobey it.” -CS Lewis
Supposing that after these visits I hear the cry for help from these areas of need, and I feel the impulse to help, but also an instinct that my ‘help’ will not make a difference at the same time. These instincts suggest that human beings have a set of rules in which we seek as guidelines to understand what is right and wrong. This is known as the law of human nature, and regarding this, it is not like any other law in the universe, such as the law of gravitation. It is not only about how Man behave, the same as how a rock behaves when subjected to law of gravitation, but also about how they ought to have behaved. The idea of decent behaviour is not the idea of doing good works that pays, as seen from decent behaviour of keeping promises that are inconvenient to keep and telling the truth when it is easier to tell a lie in place. Good behaviour is not necessarily the more convenient choice for us, and the contrary can be said. We cannot point to any one instinct inside as and judge that this instinct is bad or good. Just like piano keys, every single note is right at one time and wrong at another, and the law of human nature is the tune.
We explore the ‘thing’ which helps us to decide, to judge which instinct we follow in the end. Acknowledging the fact that Man are under a moral law, one that we did not make but we know we ought to obey (objective morality). On the second week, we had an introduction to apologetics where we ground objective morality to God. The other four common ways to account for this objective morality are:
1. Social: An action is right or wrong based on whether society approves or not.
2. Personal: An action is right or wrong based on personal conscience. Going against conscience is the only sin.
3. Biological: Morality is passed on from generations based on natural selection.
4. Utilitarian: “Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.” [1]
[1] - John Stuart Mill's Greatest Happiness Principle (GHP).
[2] http://strangenotions.com/does-objective-morality-depend-upon-god/
and the reality or power behind moral facts, via scientific inquiry. We cannot learn of the Moral Law or the law-giver from scientific inquiry, hence the Moral Law-giver is “beyond” or “behind” the universe.)[1]
We know about this God as the one true God through His moral law, that this God is intensely interested in ‘good’. This ‘good’, however, is not in the sense of soft and sympathetic, but tells you to do the right thing no matter how painful, difficult or dangerous it is. This is the terrible dilemma we are in; that we as Christians know that the universe is governed by an absolute goodness, but if it is, then we are making ourselves enemies to this same ‘goodness’ everyday. And so our case is hopeless; we cannot do without it, but we cannot do with it.
“Our God is the only comfort. He is also the supreme terror: the thing we most need and the thing we most want to hide from.”
Part 2: Christian Behaviour on Morality – Subject of Salvation and Good Works
When we discuss about this ‘Morality’, what idea picks up in your mind? To me, morality seems like the borders of an open field, to keep us in check and within the acceptable playing field. It is restraining, interfering and sometimes stops you from having all the fun you can have. Renowned thinker, scholar and author C.S. Lewis defines them as: (1) to ensure fair play and harmony between individuals; (2) to help make us good people to have a good society; and (3) to keep us in a good relationship with the power that created us.
“Morality seems to be concerned with 3 things. Firstly, with fair play and harmony between individuals. Secondly, with what might be called harmonising the things inside each individuals. Thirdly, with the general purpose of human life as a whole: what man was made for.”
Therefore, when thinking about morality, we must think in terms of all 3 kinds of relationship: between man and man, within man himself and relations between man and the power that created him. It is on this 3rd point that the main differences between Christian and non-Christian morality comes out. Charity, that of giving to the less fortunate, is an essential part of Christian morality. (From the parables of the sheep and the goats). For many of us the greatest obstacle to charity, to Christian morality, is not in our desire for luxurious living or for more money, but in our fear of insecurity, of whether do we have enough time and money and energy for ourselves at the end of the day. This can be viewed as temptation, as trial.
Christianity teaches that God raises all sinners, who believes and accept Him as Lord of their life, from death to life which inevitably results in a renewed life. Just as we cannot claim any glory in our initial salvation, we cannot claim glory in our subsequent good works.
“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” -Ephesians 2:10
“We have been clear up in the facts that that good works are not the cause of salvation; let us be equally clear up on the truth that they are the necessary fruit of it.”[2] – C.H. Spurgeon
“Christ justifies no one whom he does not at the same time sanctify.” - John Calvin
[1]http://www.paul-gould.com/2012/12/19/c-s-lewis-the-moral-argument-for-god-and-the-gospel/
[2] All Round Ministry [Banner of Truth], p. 310
Firstly, we are not saved by good works, but we are saved for good works. Those different prepositions make all the difference in the world. Also, good works are the evidence of salvation, not the cause of it.
If Christianity is true, why are not all Christians nicer than all non-Christians? New insights and greater interest in religion means nothing if they do not make our actual behaviour better. However, the world is not made up of just 2 types of people, Christians and non-Christians; and non-believers are also being led by God’s plan without them knowing. We should not be comparing Christians to other non-Christians and judge who is nicer, but we should compare a Christian to the same person had he not been a Christian. This ‘before and after‘ is important as we understand the concept of ‘New Men’.
Part 3: Social Work – Good works by Man themselves
So, should Man do good work? Regardless of belief, man ought to obey the law of nature imposed onto them by their creator (this power beyond the material universe) to do good works. It is a wonderful and awe inspiring to see that the demands of the law of nature cannot be met by us, but have been met on our behalf (how God Himself becomes a man to save man from the disapproval of God). Therefore, even for non-believers, when a man does good works, they are in fact answering to their inner feelings to do maintain a good relationship with God, on top of relationships between man and within man.
These people must face the facts laid in front of them, that there exists objective morality, and with that there must be a moral law giver, and that moral law giver is of outside the material world with some attributes as observed from the moral law itself; that He is impersonal absolute goodness that tells you to do the straight things no matter how tough the circumstances, and yet we shall always fall short of this standard. From these facts, we see that our God is the only comfort.
On top of whether Man should do good work, we also ask how should they go about doing good work. Some lessons for social work can be learnt from the cardinal virtues, namely prudence, temperance, justice and fortitude[1]. Prudence in man’s work to understand how his work can benefit others, temperance not only in knowing the lengths by which to extend help, but also not judging and comparing to those who have not contributed, justice in lieu with the idea of rights and returning what is their rightful due, and lastly fortitude, to overcome fear and also persevere when met with obstacles. It is also important to note that it is the quality of character we are talking about rather than the actions. We might think that provided we did the right thing that it does not matter how we did it, whether you did it willingly or unwillingly, grumpily or otherwise. But the truth is that right actions done for the wrong reason do not help to build the internal quality or character called a ‘virtue’, and it is this quality or character that really matters.
Part 4: Practical Conclusion
I feel conflicted on how man can do good works without first having accepted Christ. It is sad to see that it is just this slight enlightenment that they need to be converted. Although it is a concept difficult to understand and even more confusing to speak about, I pray that God grants me the wisdom to be able to understand and spread the apologetics in defense of the faith.
In doing social work, I have always been very reserved and have only done social work for the benefit of myself and in areas that I am comfortable in. The questions I have on morality behind social work, whether God’s work and social work can coexist once surfaced as I went through STEP,
[1] https://www.thoughtco.com/the-cardinal-virtues-542142
amongst many other concepts. Man’s work in providing social services for communities, to me, were in contradiction to the theory of good works being linked to salvation, that God prepared beforehand the good works and that His believers carries out.
For he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we may be holy and unblemished in his sight in love. -Ephesians 1:4
God’s sovereign plan does not stop at our salvation, but includes a life of godliness and leads to final glorification. If God had not only planned our salvation but He also planned our good works, then we have no grounds to boast in anything that I do for the Lord. John Calvin argues that a main practical application of the doctrine of sovereign election is humility, because it gives all the glory to God and none to us.[1] He also argues that it makes us feel how much we are obliged to God and it is our only ground for assurance. So when we recognize that God predestined both our salvation and our sanctification, it humbles our pride. Also, it reminds us to seek God and what He wants us to do instead of engaging in what we want to achieve.[2]
Lastly, perfectly ‘good’ behaviour maybe unattainable, impossible, but it is a necessary ideal prescribed for all men. For example, doing perfect mathematics is an ideal; you will certainly make some mistakes in some calculations, but there is nothing wrong in trying to be accurate at each step. This is important as we aim for daily perfection in everything we do in His name, let us remind ourselves that this lifestyle is only an ideal and that in aiming for perfection we shall achieve excellence. [3]
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