It is interesting and constructive for the thinking "marketplace minister" to look at the six approaches to ethical systems mentioned briefly at the end of Part One.

Let's use lying as an example. According to Geisler's work in analyzing ethical situations, the approaches to lying are as follows:

Of the three forms of absolutism typically held by evangelical Christians, Unqualified Absolutism is associated with the Anabaptist tradition, Conflicting Absolutism with the Lutheran tradition, and Graded Absolutism with the Reformed tradition.

Geisler says: "Total ethical relativism is not an option for an evangelical. God's character is unchanging, and His law reflects His character. Of the options within ethical absolutism, evangelicals must choose between Unqualified Absolutism, Conflicting Absolutism, or Graded Absolutism."

Understanding Graded Absolutism

In his analysis, Geisler writes in favor of Graded Absolutism or "ethical hierarchicalism." He says there are "serious problems" with the other two.

Graded Absolutism is based on three main premises:

According to Geisler, in unavoidable moral conflicts, God exempts people from breaking a lower law, because they cannot keep it without breaking a higher law.

"This exemption functions something like an ethical 'right of way' law—when a person enters an ethical intersection where two laws come into unavoidable conflict, it is evident that one law must yield to the other.

"Jesus explicitly declares the commandment to love God to be the 'first' and 'greatest,' and takes precedence over the command to love one's neighbor.

"In each case, the moral obligation to pray, worship God, preach the Gospel, and so forth, is a higher duty ..." he points out.

Kingdom business professionals, in the midst of a hectic schedule, can't be realistically expected to go through the various systems of ethical choice to determine a particular course of action! Often we make those sorts of choices under extreme pressure, and with little time for reflection and analysis.

If we see a situation before us that offers a moral choice, we always have the Bible to fall back on as our unerring guide and moral rudder. By looking more deeply into the various systems of Christian ethics, we can see that we do sometimes face choices that conflict, and if we accept the premise of graded absolutism, we at least have a way of making an informed decision.

Facing Our Ethical Dilemmas

In reality, of course, we are not often faced with choices like Corrie Ten Boom, where we have to tell a lie to save lives. I pray that we will never face such a situation, but if it does arise, we have a godly guidance system.

We are much more likely to face lower-level choices, like whether to lie to the taxman, bend the truth in an advertisement, or overcharge a customer. Here the choice is very straightforward—it is never right to lie to make a bit more money, even if we try to justify it by saying we are living in God's promises of prosperity (Deut. 29:9; Josh. 1:7; 2 Chro. 20:20; 3 John 1:2).

God undoubtedly wants us to have money, and not just enough, but more than we need (2 Cor. 9:8) so we can obey the Great Commission to go and witness and preach the Gospel. Indeed, God says He gives us the power to get wealth (Deut. 8:18), so He must want us to have it.

But He expects us to make ethical choices in the area of money and wealth, as in all other aspects of our Christian walk. He expects us to balance our prosperity with honesty and integrity. The same God that says to us, "Be fruitful and multiply" (Gen. 1:28), also says to us, "Be ye holy, for I am holy" (1 Pet. 1:15).

This Breakthrough Word has been somewhat different, delving deeply into issues of ethics and morality, but while it has been in one sense theoretical, the reality of our lives is that a successful Christian life, whether in business, government, or any other walk, is based on an ongoing succession of right and godly choices.

It has been said that where we are today represents the sum total of all the choices we have made so far in our lives. We face choices many, many times every day—some easy and obvious, and some hard and critical for our future.

In either case, God expects us to make choices that are based on His Word, and His ethical and moral system as revealed in the life and teaching of Jesus Christ. It is not enough for us just to be "ethical."

Our ethics must be God's ethics.

If this article has helped in any way to make a little more sense of what it means to be an ethical Christian, then the time and effort spent ploughing through it has been worth it.