I was watching a movie yesterday, and the main character, while trying to decide to doing something he felt questionable about said this, "Guilt before we act is called morality." It kind of stuck with me. As a Christian, I have heard ample things on morals and ethics, but sometimes I forget just what those are. He brought up a good point.
I think that the words: morals and ethics get interchanged quite often. And, I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing. I just think we need to look at them a bit separately. I have a friend and my brother would always tell him, "X, you have great ethics, but your morals are lacking." If I had to venture a guess, I could say that ethics are the "rules" or standards of which we base our actions. I think also that they reside outside of ourselves.
When I think about ethics, I think of my faith. I think of the reason I do and don't do things and I equate them with my "Christianity." I do think that my ethics are much better than my morals. Why? Because my ethics are those things which I desire to line up my entire life. I miss the mark. Oh, God, do I miss the mark. But, I have the intention of the "right way."
I am sure that most people have heard the idiom, "Hell is paved with good intentions." I think that is a pretty crass saying. I think this for the simple fact that if we want to do good and we don't...we are at least desiring the right thing. Didn't Paul say in Romans that he didn't do what he wanted to do, but he did what he hated. But he knew the difference! That to me is the very first start! I think this is where I am. I have been able to step away from myself and see the things that I have wanted to do I didn't do...and those things I didn't want to, I did.
For a long time, I tried to justify what I did so that I could try to line it up to my morals. What I should have done was recognize that I what I thought/think I had/have is a good set of ethics, but had a tendency to lack in the moral department. When we embrace our human side and feed its desires we lack in our morals. That doesn't mean that we have neglected our ethics. It does mean that we have to be careful because in those moments when we have one and not the other we have a tendency to come off as a judgmental person...EW!
So, then we have a responsibility. I like this quote from this movie. I think that the more guilt we have toward something, yet we do it anyway we have neglected our morals. On the way to work, I was thinking about this very thing, and I do believe that the closer we are with the Spirit of God, the more often we will recognize the strength of our morals which in turn reflects our ethics.
Very interesting stuff...very interesting.
I think that the words: morals and ethics get interchanged quite often. And, I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing. I just think we need to look at them a bit separately. I have a friend and my brother would always tell him, "X, you have great ethics, but your morals are lacking." If I had to venture a guess, I could say that ethics are the "rules" or standards of which we base our actions. I think also that they reside outside of ourselves.
When I think about ethics, I think of my faith. I think of the reason I do and don't do things and I equate them with my "Christianity." I do think that my ethics are much better than my morals. Why? Because my ethics are those things which I desire to line up my entire life. I miss the mark. Oh, God, do I miss the mark. But, I have the intention of the "right way."
I am sure that most people have heard the idiom, "Hell is paved with good intentions." I think that is a pretty crass saying. I think this for the simple fact that if we want to do good and we don't...we are at least desiring the right thing. Didn't Paul say in Romans that he didn't do what he wanted to do, but he did what he hated. But he knew the difference! That to me is the very first start! I think this is where I am. I have been able to step away from myself and see the things that I have wanted to do I didn't do...and those things I didn't want to, I did.
For a long time, I tried to justify what I did so that I could try to line it up to my morals. What I should have done was recognize that I what I thought/think I had/have is a good set of ethics, but had a tendency to lack in the moral department. When we embrace our human side and feed its desires we lack in our morals. That doesn't mean that we have neglected our ethics. It does mean that we have to be careful because in those moments when we have one and not the other we have a tendency to come off as a judgmental person...EW!
So, then we have a responsibility. I like this quote from this movie. I think that the more guilt we have toward something, yet we do it anyway we have neglected our morals. On the way to work, I was thinking about this very thing, and I do believe that the closer we are with the Spirit of God, the more often we will recognize the strength of our morals which in turn reflects our ethics.
Very interesting stuff...very interesting.
If I was one of those cool HTML kids I'd add a "thumbs up" emoticon. (Yes I used the whole word! And seriously how to Emoji = Emoticon? <~~~ No "J" in this word!)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, "thumbs up"... The perfect summary of how I feel about this post.
Thank you, Ob. I find this subject to be hard to think about at times. It gives me too much to chew on, and I get slightly overwhelmed.
ReplyDelete