Principles of Conduct: Aspects of Biblical Ethics

by John Murray

Publisher:

Eerdmans

, 1957

Overview

This classic study by theologian John Murray clearly shows the organic unity and continuity of the biblical ethic. Murray addresses ethical questions relating to such topics as marriage, labor, capital punishment, truthfulness, Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, law and grace, and the fear of God. Though the Ten Commandments furnish the core of the biblical ethic, Murray points the reader again and again to all of Scripture as the basic authority in matters of Christian conduct.

Contents

Top Highlights

“The biblical ethic is that manner of life which is consonant with, and demanded by, the biblical revelation. Our attention must be focused upon divine demand, not upon human achievement, upon the revelation of God’s will for man, not upon human behaviour. In the biblical ethic we are concerned with the norms, or canons, or standards of behaviour which are enunciated in the Bible for the creation, direction, and regulation of thought, life, and behaviour consonant with the will of God.” (Page 14)

“We have found already that God’s own rest on the seventh day is not to be construed in terms of cessation from activity but in terms of cessation from one kind of activity, the work of creation. In like manner, the sabbath in man’s week is not to be defined in terms of cessation from activity, but cessation from that kind of activity involved in the labours of the other six days.” (Page 33)

“This incident makes clear that it is proper under certain circumstances to conceal or withhold part of the truth.” (Page 140)

“We should bear in mind that ‘the true’ in the usage of John is not so much the true in contrast with the false, or the real in contrast with the fictitious. It is the absolute as contrasted with the relative, the ultimate as contrasted with the derived, the eternal as contrasted with the temporal, the permanent as contrasted with the temporary, the complete in contrast with the partial, the substantial in contrast with the shadowy.” (Page 123)

“The law, therefore, instead of relieving or relaxing our bondage to sin, intensifies and confirms that bondage. The more the light of the law shines upon and in our depraved hearts, the more the enmity of our minds is roused to opposition, and the more it is made manifest that the mind of the flesh is not subject to the law of God, neither can be.” (Page 185)

Product Details

• Title: Principles of Conduct: Aspects of Biblical Ethics
• Author: John Murray
• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Print Publication Date: 1957
• Logos Release Date: 2016
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subject: Bible. N.T. › Ethics
• ISBNs: 9780802811448, 9780851117041, 0802811442, 085111704X
• Resource ID: LLS:PRNCPLSCNDCTHCS
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T02:24:17Z

About John Murray

John Murray (1898–1975), a native of Scotland, studied at Princeton Theological Seminary under J. Gresham Machen and Geerhardus Vos. He taught systematic theology at Westminster Theological Seminary from 1930 to 1966, and was an early trustee of the Banner of Truth. Besides the material in the four-volume Collected Writings, his primary published works are a commentary on Romans, Redemption Accomplished and Applied, Principles of Conduct, The Imputation of Adam’s Sin, Baptism, and Divorce.