Moral development in the Kingdom

Chris Erdman reminds Christians that morality is a matter of the Kingdom, not the empire:

Often when American Christians talk about morality they have the wider society in view—they wring their hands at the moral slide of our nation over the past decades, they lament the loss of certain benchmarks they believe were needed to hold the moral center in our country. . . . But the New Testament’s moral teachers—our ancient pastors and catechists—don’t have the empire or nation in view at all. Their sights are on the church. Disinterested in the larger empire, they aim to instruct Christians in the manner of life is worthy of those whose identity is bound to Jesus Christ. . . .

And so this moral teaching cherished by the church for two thousand years is aimed not at a nation or empire, but at a small community of people who, because of their worship of God, might live in and amidst whatever empire they find themselves in, offering their own generous participation in its life, while recognizing that they are called and formed to live a moral life that often runs up against the values, assumptions, and moral behaviors of that empire.

Amen!