reaction paper in ethics
Man’s duty to God
Man was created by God as the crown of all his creation, in God's image and after His likeness with a reasonable soul, to rule on God's behalf over all creation. Man forfeited this high privilege on account of his sin and the breaking of the covenant of works. Thus man became blind and ignorant; God had to speak to him in order to instruct him and bring him back to a right knowledge of God and his will. Naturally, the first and primary duty is for man to repent, to turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God. God commands all men everywhere to repent. A repentance that is genuine and credible by having good works. Repentance is man's duty; he is held responsible to repent, though in his fallen state, he cannot repent or convert himself unless God convert him. The first duty of every human being is to God who created us. Everyone and every thing belongs to him. Therefore, our duty is to worship him, to glorify him, to praise him, to honour him, to follow in his ways by obeying him, and in general to reflect his character in our lives so that others will be led to do the same thing. In Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit, it becomes possible to fulfil this, even though as sinful human beings in our own power we cannot. Our duty to God is to do what we know is right because it is right and for no other reason.
Some people, who don't like to do what they know is right, make a great fuss about the difficulty of knowing what is right and what isn't. But this is only because they really don't want to do what is right so much as to do what they like, and so deceive themselves into thinking that they don't know.
It is also true that we lose the power to see clearly and to distinguish easily between right and wrong by getting into the habit of doing wrong and so getting accustomed to it. Things that we do continually, even when they are very wrong, begin to seem all right after awhile, especially if we see other people doing
Man was created by God as the crown of all his creation, in God's image and after His likeness with a reasonable soul, to rule on God's behalf over all creation. Man forfeited this high privilege on account of his sin and the breaking of the covenant of works. Thus man became blind and ignorant; God had to speak to him in order to instruct him and bring him back to a right knowledge of God and his will. Naturally, the first and primary duty is for man to repent, to turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God. God commands all men everywhere to repent. A repentance that is genuine and credible by having good works. Repentance is man's duty; he is held responsible to repent, though in his fallen state, he cannot repent or convert himself unless God convert him. The first duty of every human being is to God who created us. Everyone and every thing belongs to him. Therefore, our duty is to worship him, to glorify him, to praise him, to honour him, to follow in his ways by obeying him, and in general to reflect his character in our lives so that others will be led to do the same thing. In Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit, it becomes possible to fulfil this, even though as sinful human beings in our own power we cannot. Our duty to God is to do what we know is right because it is right and for no other reason.
Some people, who don't like to do what they know is right, make a great fuss about the difficulty of knowing what is right and what isn't. But this is only because they really don't want to do what is right so much as to do what they like, and so deceive themselves into thinking that they don't know.
It is also true that we lose the power to see clearly and to distinguish easily between right and wrong by getting into the habit of doing wrong and so getting accustomed to it. Things that we do continually, even when they are very wrong, begin to seem all right after awhile, especially if we see other people doing