Christians must return to biblical ethic, SBTC exec tells Midwestern chapel

KANSAS CITY, Mo.?In an age of ethical decline, evident in popular views on abortion, same-sex marriages and the like, Jim Richards, executive director of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, called for Christians to regain a solid, scripturally-based spiritual ethic. Drawing on Micah 6:8, Richards offered three principles of this spiritual ethic in chapel at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Oct. 3.

Comparing the role of Christians to worldly authorities, Richards emphasized the higher calling of Christians and the standard to which they are held.

“We have a higher calling even than the president of the United States,” Richards said. “We are called by God to represent God to people who need to know God.”

The way to effectively do this, according to Richards, is to be authentic. He proposed these three principles in order that Christians might effectively live their spiritual ethic before others.

First of all, “We must live the truth,” Richards said. Living the truth comes from knowing the truth as it is found in the Word of God. This leads to a public holiness in which Christians stand for the sufficiency of the Word of God against the evils facing society today. Public holiness is necessarily preceded and fortified by private holiness, or the reading of the Bible and prayer within the family at home. However, even before private holiness must be personal holiness. Personal holiness involves individual confession of sin before God alone.

“Our liberty can impact and cost the lives, ministry and effectiveness of others,” Richards said. Therefore, before joining together with family and standing publicly for truth, the Christian must stand before God in personal confession and maintain that relationship first.

The second element of this spiritual ethic Richards draws from Micah 6:8 is loving people. Richards suggests several aspects of the kind of love involved in this spiritual ethic.

“We give people the gospel because we love them,” Richards said, “but we also give people our integrity.” Furthermore, Christians owe it to the people around them to show love to and for their fellow Christians as a testimony.

Richard’s third and final principle of the spiritual ethic is longing for God. Those who understand that only God can do the necessary spiritual work in their hearts should feel nothing but humility before him.

“We [Baptists, all of Christendom] must come to a place of brokenness,” Richards said, “or God will remove his hand of blessing from us.” With all that Christians are faced with in the world today, Richards encouraged his audience that having a spiritual ethic will enable them to stay faithful to Jesus Christ and his Word.

At the end of Richards’ message, MBTS President R. Philip Roberts presented Richards with a citation in recognition of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention’s generosity to the seminary. Roberts also gifted Richards with a framed copy of a page from the Gutenberg Bible, the first chapter of the gospel of John.

Immediately following chapel, a ceremonial dedication was held for the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention Room at the William Koehn and Martha Myers Center for World Evangelism.