Christian Ethics part 3

Telling someone not to be in fornication when he or she is, not to be addicted to drugs when he or she is, not to feel ill about someone when he or she is is a counsel of futility.
We don't come to give advice. We come to give good news.
Telling someone what he ought to do is an act of futility unless you have Christ.
He is the One Who will give you the power to do what you ought.

Ephesians 1:17-19
17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might…

When God speaks, it is truth and we must obey. If you are to say you are a Christian, this is not negotiable. God's truths are immutable. If He said fornication and adultery are wrong, they are still wrong in the 21st Century. The Bible says God determines what is right or wrong, not us. This is what we call moral values and ethics. You can chose to obey God or not, but you cannot chose to disobey God and claim His blessings. 

God Himself is powerful to do anything, but it is in keeping with His own holy, righteous, truthful, loving nature. The Christian conservative fundamentalist goes to the Bible and begin with God and by a process of analysis try to say what does the Bible try to say about life and nature and by a process of deduction try to apply that to life. If the Bible says God cannot lie and you are called to be perfect like your Father is perfect, you cannot justifiably lie. 

Luke 6:46

"Why do you call Me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?

Galatians 5
16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

Ephesians 5
3 But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let them not once be named among you, as becomes of saints;
4 neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not befitting, but rather giving of thanks.
5 For this ye know: that no whore monger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God.
6 Let no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things comes the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.

All orthodoxy begins with God. When you come to Biblical ethics you have basic presuppositions. These are that God is, God has revealed Himself, and God determines what's right and wrong. 

Sin resides in will, the will to not do what God commands. 

Man is free in that he can chose or reject to obey God. 

Man is under God and is obligated to do what God commands. 

When you sin against God, you are judged to be wrong and sinful. 

The only way you can put this into effect is by a moral transformation of your nature. 

It is exactly why counsel about right and wrong was futile. 

Is there any power that will enable us to do what we ought to do?

The basic concepts in Christianity is that the goal of life is to become like Christ in character. 

The reason God created us was to bring glory to Himself. 

We glorify God by reflecting back to God the purpose for which we were created. 

You were called to God to conform to the image of Christ. 

We want to love the evil and hate the good, and we want to do the evil and reject the good. But through Christ I receive a new nature in which I can glorify God with my life by His power in me.

Moral likeness of Christ is my purpose, to be clean in my character, moral inwardness.

Not merely to not commit murder, but also not to be angry with my brother without a cause. Not merely not commit adultery, which has a social involvement, but also not be vile in my thinking. 

You take the power of sex which God gave you to be united with one person in the invisible bond of marriage for intimacy and unity and oneness and all the joys of fellowship to be one together and bring to the world those conceive in the image of God, to process it like the dogs in the field.
But through Christ and in Christ, we may do what we ought to do.