I’m reading Backgrounds of Early Christianity by Everett Perguson. In this book Perguson notes that morality was not associated with religion in Greco-Roman paganism. Rather, morality was taught by philosophers and teachers or was the result of one’s national customs. Perguson also notes that this distinction between religion and morality is strange to those of us of the Judeo-Christian heritage. [1]
But is this separation between religion and morality really that strange to us Christians? Our doctrine of salvation states all we need to do to be saved is to believe and nothing else. Our ethics or morality has nothing to do with our salvation.
However, this blog and my book reference multiple Biblical passages that contradict the notion that our ethics have nothing to do with our salvation. One example is in Galatians 6 where Paul is talking about Christians and Christian problems; he is not talking about unbelievers. He says:
Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. (Galatians 6:7-9 ESV)
Religious rules for Greco-Roman paganism were largely ceremonial and not ethical. Major events in a family’s life were celebrated by offering gifts to various idols and gods. [2] Is that much different from salvation being just a matter of belief? Is God satisfied, are we saved, just because we say the right words at one point in our lives? Is God satisfied if we have a ceremony of professing belief and baptism? If you answered “yes” then it appears that the practices of the Greco-Roman pagans were not much different from our practices as Christians today. If you answered “no” then we need to change our doctrine of salvation.
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[1] Everett Ferguson, Backgrounds of Early Christianity, Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1993, pp. 65 and 165.
[2] Ibid., p. 165.
