Do I refrain from doing evil things, as is described in the Bible?

      I’ve often wondered: when Jesus was a toddler, did his mother have to teach him not to bite other children? Toddlers are some of the most violent humans on the planet. Most toddlers have to be taught not to bite or hit. They have to be taught to share.

      Christians typically have one of two answers to this question. Some say, “Absolutely not! Jesus was sinless and perfectly loving. He would have been a sweet child, even as a toddler. The Holy Spirit would have directed him to always share and never hurt other children.” Others, especially those who have been parents, are more circumspect. They say, “Of course he had to be taught not to bite. Learning is part of the human experience, and we can hardly say he was fully human if he didn’t have to learn right from wrong.”

      I don’t have an answer. The Bible is silent about Jesus’ childhood, except for that one time he wandered off and his parents spent three days searching for him in Jerusalem. As far as childhood stories go, that sounds pretty normal for a precocious kid.

      Our earliest training in ethics is pretty straightforward: “Thou shalt not.” Don’t hit. Don’t bite. Don’t throw objects in Grandma’s dining room. Don’t gossip or insult people. And when God brings freed slaves out of Egypt and gives them rules for living together, God gives them the Ten Commandments that often tell them what not to do. We might think of the Ten Commandments as the Israelite people’s version of toddler ethics. Don’t make graven images. Don’t kill. Don’t commit adultery. Don’t covet. These are minimum-level rules for getting along as a society of diverse people with diverse motives and interests. Ethicists call this “deontological” or “rule-based” ethics.

      As we mature, the lessons get more nuanced. We start asking why, and we begin to learn a version of ethics that goes beyond “thou shalt not” to a more positive vision of the world God wants. Why do we honor the sabbath? Because labor laws are important to keep people and animals from being worked to death. Because even the poorest among us need time off to honor God and their physical bodies. Because the land needs to lie fallow so it can replenish itself. Why don’t we murder? Because every person is made in the image of God.

      But all we have to do is look around at the world to know we never outgrow the need for these basic rules. John Wesley points out that Christians don’t own this kind of ethics. “Heathen honesty,” he calls it. When Jesus told a story about a man wounded on the side of the road, he made a Samaritan the hero of his story, to remind his listeners that God’s chosen people didn’t have a monopoly on decency. We don’t ignore people in need because that’s one of our basic rules. It implies a general responsibility toward the rest of society. Exodus 21:33 says that we shouldn’t dig a pit and leave it uncovered, in case an animal falls into it. If we’re going to live together and experience God’s grace through one another, we can’t be negligent of other living beings in our community.

      These rules extend beyond personal conduct and touch on social evils, also. “Doom to those who pronounce wicked decrees, and keep writing harmful laws to deprive the needy of their rights,” says Isaiah 10:1-2. Bribes, slander, and injustice tarnish not only our souls, but all of society.

      Wesley made “do no harm” the first of the General Rules of Methodist Societies. In “The Almost Christian,” he says this is part of “having the form of godliness.” By itself, it’s not enough. But it’s the place we all begin. During Advent, the beginning of the Christian year, it’s appropriate for us to return to this as a foundation of the Christian life.

      We all start our life and our spiritual journey as toddlers. We long to be grown-ups, but our immaturity causes us to wound ourselves, wound one another, and wound God’s good creation. But God, like a loving parent, gives us a set of simple norms. Like children, we learn to live together according to a basic level of human decency. If the world could even live up to this standard, we would be closer to the reign of God.

       Rev. Dave Barnhart