What are Christian values?¶

There is much lip service given to 'Judeo-Christian values' (or just Christian values, really, since Jewish values and Christian values are pretty different from one another). However, there is not a lot of explanation of what exactly these values are, and why they're important. With this essay I hope to give clear answers to these questions.

The foundational text of Christianity is the Bible - at least 66 books, divided into Old and New Testaments. the Old Testament is the Jewish scriptures (Tanakh) placed into a different order. It starts with Genesis, which you can think of like the prequel to human history and Christianity itself. Genesis introduces the main character of the Bible - the one true God himself. God creates a beautiful, wonderful universe and calls it 'good'. He then creates His magnum opus, the pinnacle of all He's made - humanity - calling us 'very good'. Humanity is said to be made in God's own image, and therefore all humans (male and female) are made equally worthy of God's neverending love and God's maximally full life.

So, Christianity from the very beginning has been about the love people should have for God and each other. It's been about how human beings are of equal value and merit in God's sight. We don't have intrinsic worth, we have worth because of how God sees us. Objective worth. That's where our rights come from - straight from God himself, not individuals or society. Even if we didn't have the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we would still have rights by God. Thus, no account of Christian values can be complete without love. But what is love, biblically? Well, a good explanation can be found in Jesus Christ's most famous teaching - the Sermon on the Mount. It's in the books of Matthew and Luke. Matthew 5 teaches that the 'merciful' and the 'peacemakers' will be blessed (treated favourably) by God. Matthew 7 teaches that we musn't be judgemental, that we must give good things to others, that we must bear good fruit, and that the entire Old Testament can be summed up by the Golden Rule: 'Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them'. 1 Corinthians 13 teaches: 'love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.'.

From these we can see that from a biblical point of view, love is not merely a feeling. Love is a mindset - a way of thinking and acting. Love is active. Love knows what would benefit others and takes the initiative and does it. Love is both kind and honest. Love is optimistic and hopeful. Love perseveres. Love is treating yourself and others correctly. Love is affectionate and empathetic.

Another core value is wisdom. The Bible contains 3 books of wisdom literature, and the Sermon on the Mount. Wisdom, from a biblical point of view, is 'masterful understanding; skill; expertise' (Waltke, 2005). Waltke further argues that this includes both technical and artistic skills, as well as the art of governing. Proverbs 24:3 teaches that a house is built by wisdom. We cannot be wise without knowledge of our domain of competence. However, we cannot separate wisdom from the God who gives it (see the book of Daniel, the book of 1 Kings, and Psalm 127). Thus, those who do not worship God are unwise to do so, because they are limiting the amount of wisdom they can acquire. That is what Proverbs means by 'the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom' - the word translated 'fear' here means awe or reverence. Proverbs is the main source of Christian work ethic; it teaches that work is holy and that we must work hard if we want to succeed. However, it is not a universal law that hard work necessarily leads to success in the earthly sense - we may only succeed in a spiritual sense. Many poor people work extremely hard and receive little money for their efforts. God is not promising that if we work hard, we'll always become rich. God is saying that generally, the harder you work, the more wealth you obtain. Generally, people who are lazy become poor and hungry.

Another value found in Genesis 2 is responsible stewardship: 'The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it'. God has given us everything we now own, including our planet. It is our duty to God to cultivate all we own with wisdom and diligence and care. We are on earth to flourish, and to make all we are responsible for flourish too. God gives us charge of all the things we have power over, and we are meant to lead by example; lead by servicing that and those which are under us. Godly leadership is servant leadership. See Matthew 25.

Throughout the Bible, but most clearly in the New Testament, a value of liberty can be discerned. Christians are free to worship other gods (though God forbids it), we are free to commit crimes (though God says we must follow His laws and the laws of our government, as long as they are conscionable), and we are free to reason and reflect on and interrogate our beliefs. We are free to love God, or not. See Matthew 12:1-14, 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, and Colossians 2:16-23.

Finally, a Christian value is that humanity, while wonderful and 'very good' in God's sight, is also deeply flawed, fallible, and wicked. Our minds and our hearts are inherently biased and prone to self-deception. There is nothing we can do to save ourselves, all of us are equally prone to wickedness (which the Bible calls 'sin'). Only faith in the one true God will save us and guarantee us eternal life (moral and complete life on earth, perfect life in heaven in future). Without God, we are doomed to destruction. With God, we are destined for true life.

What are Christian values?¶

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