It's Not Really Wrong As Long As It Doesn't Harm Another

The adage of “a behavior is not really wrong as long as it does not harm another” is a widely accepted phrase in today's American culture. Even if we apply this relative statement to the situation, do we obtain a clear answer concerning ethical boundaries? This kind of situational ethics cast a thick cloud over the issue of public or social versus private ethics and renders any solution unclear or without a broad application to society.

It does not consider long-term effect. It fails to regard the consequence it has on a host of other issues, such as integrity in business dealings, being truthful in all relationships, or attempts to cover up one’s behavior in other areas. If an employer engages in an extramarital affair with someone not within his or her company, are there not a number of behaviors involved, such as deceit, lying, cover-up, clandestine activity, avoidance, or denial of harm, wrongdoing, or a standard for behavior? Is there also not a disconnect between the behavior and its internal catalysts, such as lust, selfishness, sensuality, envy, or greed?

Jerry White addresses this latter question in his discussion concerning the underlying causes of sexual sin. He asserts that people engage in preparation and names a number of preparatory motives among which are sensuality, lusts, and cravings. [1] He writes, “The real battle in pre-sexual activities begins in the mind.” [2] Although the context is sexual morality, this holds true in all other areas of life. Philip Towner affirms White and adds another variable. He writes,
“In a very real sense, willing to act, thinking, and deciding all come under the category of the human power of the mind. People must make a decision about God, and volition is clearly involved.” [3]

He suggests that the primary issue and basis when addressing ethics is God. Two factors become evident within the realm of personal and social ethics. First, Christians accept the presupposition that men and women are created in the image of God and thereby become his image-bearers (Genesis 1:27; 9:6).

Second, as He is holy so also must we be holy (Leviticus 11:44; Ephesians 1:4; 1 Peter 1:15-16). This distinguishes Christian ethics from secular ethics. Carl F. H. Henry explains the connection between being made in the image of God and personal ethics:

“The Bible does not discriminate humanity from the animals in terms of morphological considerations, but rather in terms of the imago Dei. Humanity is made for personal and endless fellowship with God, involving rational understanding (Genesis 1:28-29), moral obedience (2:16-17) [emphasis mine], and religious communion (3:3). [4]

In this statement Henry covers three areas of humanity’s response to God: the reasoning man (rational understanding), the ethical man (moral obedience), and the spiritual man – the man connected to God (religious communion). Each expresses the Imago Dei and forms the framework for personal and social ethics. They are not separate and compartmentalized entities. Henry asserts that the Scriptures teach “humanity as a unitary personality of soul and body.” [5] As such his ethical framework is also unified and found in God Himself. This applies not only to the individual but also to the community.

Third, what a person expresses in behavior is first conceived in the heart. The Apostle James states this truth relative to temptation and sin:

“Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death” (James 1:13-15).

Embedded in James’ discussion on temptation and sin is the process that temptation takes. Temptation begins with a drawing away (or out of). The source is desires or lust. Lust is an internal principle that drives motivations and interacts with the heart to bring about the undisciplined passions. These passions entrap or delude the heart in believing the confronted temptation. When these undisciplined passions break out, they produce behaviors contrary to God’s way. The truth James teaches and then applies to temptation and sin is that behavior has its source in the motivations residing in the heart. Motivations affect the intellect, emotions, and will. Either lust or the Spirit of God drive the motivations (1:17-18) and produce destructive (1:15) or life-fulfilling behavior (1:19-21).

[1] White, Jerry, Honesty, Morality, and Conscience (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1978), 192-193.
[2] Ibid., 206.
[3] Towner, Philip H., Mind/Reason in Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1996), 529.
[4] Henry, C. F. H., Image of God in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 2001), 593.
[5] Ibid, 594.