Statistical Morality

We saw yesterday, our consciences will be properly trained only if we spend time studying God’s Word in detail. But there is another major reason why we must seek to understand His desires as they are expressed in the Scriptures—to counter the false ethical ideas that bombard our minds each day.

The world today confuses ethics and morality. Most people use these words interchangeably. However, they are very different things. The word ethics comes from the Greek word ethos, while morality stems from the word mores. Both of these Greek words have come into the English language intact. The ethos of a culture has to do with its underlying philosophy, its understanding of how the world fits together. An ethos is a philosophical value system. Mores have to do with customs and habits of behavior in a culture. Therefore, ethics is called a normative science, the study of norms or standards. It is concerned with what we ought to do. Morality, however, is a descriptive science, the study of the way things happen or behave. It is concerned with what we actually do.

The confusion of these two concepts has brought us to the point of “statistical morality,” in which the normal becomes the normative. We do surveys to find out what the majority is doing, and that is judged to be normal behavior. Then we urge others to fall in line and conform with the majority. Properly understood, ethics is concerned with what is right, while morality is concerned with what is accepted. But Western culture has come to a point where something is judged to be right merely if it is accepted. Morality has become ethics.

This sort of confusion provokes a crisis for the Christian. When the normal becomes the normative, the biblical ethic to which we are called has been turned on its head. The principles of behavior laid down in God’s Word, principles that stem from God’s own character, form the ultimate ethos for Christians. We are to live according to principle, not expediency. The world will tell us that many behaviors are acceptable because “everyone” is doing them, and it is easy to be swayed by such arguments. That is why we must know the Scriptures. Our consciences will guide us aright only if we thoroughly saturate our minds with the ethical principles of God.