Moral Development and the law of love

Moral Development and the law of love January 16, 2025

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Summary

Is the law really something that is within us? Does compassion play a role? The answer is yes, but with limitations.

What does having the law within us mean? The statements in the Bible aren’t specific. We know it’s God’s law. God’s law is not Jewish law. God’s law precedes Jewish law.

Having the law within could mean the Noahide law of Noah’s day, or possibly the Ten Commandments. It could also be something less specific, such as knowing when we cause harm to others or neglect helping them. We know when we hurt others by their reactions, our empathy, and our compassion.

But do we know harmful actions in advance of hurting others? This relates to our understanding of consequences of our actions. If we know consequences then we know about potential harm to others. Children under six have very little idea about this. It’s something that develops over time.

Love is law image composition by Dorian Scott Cole, from the following images: The Gate of Justice, at the Dublin Castle, sculpted by John van Nost the Younger and erected in 1750. Picture by Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg), CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons. Heart and law emoji | AI Emoji Generator. White robe man, representing agape love, by ChatGPT.
Love is law image composition by Dorian Scott Cole, from the following images:
The Gate of Justice, at the Dublin Castle, sculpted by John van Nost the Younger and erected in 1750. Picture by Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg), CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Heart and law emoji | AI Emoji Generator. White robe man, representing agape love, by ChatGPT.

The Apostle Paul tried to help people understand that they were free to assess things and decide for themselves whether something was right or wrong. He also understood human nature. Give people a law and they will find ways around it.

There can never be enough laws to keep people from hurting each other, and people will find ways to do it anyway.

Let people decide for themselves and they will do stupid stuff. But doing stupid stuff is how we learn about the consequences of our actions, going beyond empathy and compassion.

Reference verses:

Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female slaves, in those days I will pour out my spirit.” Joel 2:28 (NRSV)

“I baptize you with water for repentance, but the one who is coming after me [Jesus] is more powerful than I, and I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. – Matthew 3:11

“But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Fellow Jews and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.

Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’”
Acts 2: 16-21

Apostle Paul: “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.  For this, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” – Romans 13:8-10

God’s Spirit poured out on all flesh: Joel 2:28, Matthew 3:11, Luke 24:49, John 7:39, John 16:13, Acts 2:17, Romans 8:9, 1 Corinthians 12:7-11, Galatians 3:14, 1 John 2:20.

In this article deep dive

  1. Moral Development:

o          Moral understanding evolves with experience, age, and social influences. While the compassion offers guidance, and love provides the internal moral compass to act rightly, experience is essential to higher development.

  1. Freedom and Responsibility:

o          Paul highlighted that while all things might be permissible, not all are beneficial. Love and empathy must guide behavior to avoid harm to oneself or others.

  1. Controversies and Context:

o          The early Church grappled with applying the Law to diverse communities, ultimately concluding that non-Jews were not bound by Jewish law but should adhere to principles of love and avoid specific harmful practices.

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End Summary

Deep Dive

Consequences and moral development

Do we all have a Spirit driven way of recognizing harm we might do to others? Or is this wishful thinking? Certainly psychopaths lack that type of human insight, or just don’t care. Actually they may have a mental concept of empathy and compassion and act on that, but lack the associated feelings that compel most of us.

Children are examples of inborn compassion. They exhibit a sense of fairness. When one person is left out, they feel bad and want to make that person whole again. Whole means the situation is rectified so the damage is undone. It’s a human desire that is also encoded into our laws.

Most of us seem to have a sense of empathy and compassion, but we may not always understand why something hurts others.

Children lack insight into why things might hurt others. It’s not because they don’t have empathy and compassion. It’s because they don’t understand the consequences of their actions on others.

Children look at rules as things made to be broken. This perspective might get reinforced by parental statements of, “You’re too young. We’ll let you do that when you get older.” Or things like smoking and drinking that parents do, but don’t let children do. Children will break rules because they don’t see reasons for them, and can’t appreciate or value the consequences of breaking them.

With our own children, they would argue endlessly about what they wanted to do. We suspected they would all become lawyers. We simply had to say our parental opinion had to govern. We had the knowledge and experience to know potential harm and their ability to avoid it.

Young adults especially are risk takers. They don’t appreciate the consequences of their actions, so they do things that might hurt themselves or others. At this writing, in a couple of colleges people have lured men to the campus, accused them of being sexual predators, and beat them up. These young adults are facing criminal prosecution, probably as adults.

It’s difficult to defend such actions. People of this age know they are breaking laws and causing harm to others. This is certainly the essence of the law. But should they be given a break because of their age? Hard to say.

Studies of moral development by Jean Piaget, Lawrence Kohlberg, Carol Gilligan, and others, have shown several factors involved in moral development. Parental influence is instructive and perhaps paramount for some children. But then peers become the stronger influence in their lives.

Some think this is because parental authority and presence in children’s lives has been eroded since the 1950s. But most people begin testing ideas of right and wrong in their teens and are influenced by others’ ideas. Culture and religion are also influential.

In social psychology, I understand moral development as learning from experience and others. This incorporates judgment, decision-making, and behavior, and examines factors such as emotions, motivations, and biases.

People don’t fully develop their moral and ethical system until around age 27. So people are often lacking in their ability to understand the impact of their behavior on others. We have to give them the latitude to develop. God gave me a lot of latitude. But I’m still not going to grow up.

As adults we most likely have the law within. For example, we know that luring another person’s mate into adultery and divorce is bad. Our empathy and compassion tell us so.

Children have empathy and compassion, but don’t appreciate the consequences of their actions. They don’t understand why something is wrong and why not to do it. Therefore rules can be broken because they are just hot air.

“Those who discovered for us the Law of Love were greater scientists than any of our modern scientists.” Gandhi believed that love and nonviolence were as powerful as the laws of physics.
– Mohandas K. Gandhi (AKA Mahatma Ghandi)

Is everything okay to do?

To me it looks like the Apostle Paul wrestled with saying that no laws applied to non-Jews. Saying so could be a recipe for lawlessness and endless harm to both the individual and those they hurt.

He was informed of one case where a man was having sex with his stepmother (1 Corinthians 5:1-11). This set Paul’s soul on fire. As Paul sometimes did, like railing against women not wearing hats in church, and sex between same sexes, he went a bit overboard.

He wrote to them saying, “… now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother or sister who is sexually immoral or greedy or an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler. Do not even eat with such a one.”

Hmm. Jesus ate with these people. Paul was judging and even said so. Sexual activity and many other things were beyond Paul’s ability to ignore.

Things change over time. Slavery, divorce, drinking, observing the Sabbath, and sexual relationships have all been left between the individual and God. We’re not to judge. Left to our judgment, people have even condemned dancing and music. Yet these were common in the Bible. If we are appointed to judge, we’re busybodies that poke our nose in where it doesn’t belong.

“The law of love is the ultimate law because it is the negation of law.” Tillich believed that love was the ultimate law because it was absolute and concerned everything concrete.
– Theologian Paul Tillich

Everything is permissible … but don’t go there

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 6, ““All things are permitted for me,” but not all things are beneficial. “All things are permitted for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything.” He repeated a similar thing in 1 Corinthians 10:23.

He continued with this: “Do you not know that whoever is united to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For it is said, “The two shall be one flesh.” But anyone united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. … do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you ….”

It would be nice if things were as simple as the Apostle Paul saw them. Over 2000 years, we’ve gained insight into many things.

What we can say about sex is that people who do risky behavior, end up regretting it. Risky behavior isn’t the typical early sexual encounters, it’s in a class by itself.

We can say for certain, If we hurt ourselves or other people, it’s wrong. Plus you might get thrown in jail.

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Conclusion

“The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creatures that cannot.” – Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)

We ate from the Tree of Good and Evil, so God gives us the freedom to learn. Learning is painful. Yet if we had to do it again, we would choose to learn. We’re endlessly curious.

We’re all just a bunch of kids loose in a schoolyard, doing things we shouldn’t and through that learning why we shouldn’t. Like we do with our own children, God tolerates us, pats us on the head, and let’s us continue learning.

We don’t have to make all the mistakes. We can learn from others experience.

People develop morals or ethics at their own pace. If we judge them, then we are judged for our missing the mark. All of us fail to live up to expectations.

What do you think the consequences should be for the students who invited men to campus, accused them of being sexual predators, and then beat them up. It’s a revealing and learning conversation.

We might want to keep in mind that thorough studies on criminality show there is no connection between the threat of punishment, severity of punishment, and stopping crime. In fact, studies show that prison is a higher educational facility for criminal behavior, so incarceration rates increase 5 to 14% among those sent to prison.

Additionally, being convicted of a felony hands a lifetime “Don’t hire me” sign around their neck, even if they are in their early twenties. Yet in the US we throw more people in prison than in any other country. Tough on crime advocates win out even when crime rates are falling, which they’ve done for decades.

I have no recommendation other than to lean hard on home release so people can work and support their families, rehabilitation, inclusion in constructive activities, assistance in getting a job that supports a family, counseling, supervision, and community guidance. But I’m not a criminologist. I do know that drug courts have worked wonders.

“Right action tends to be defined in terms of general individual rights and standards that have been critically examined and agreed upon by the whole society.” – Lawrence Kohlberg

Probability Space

What probability spaces can we open in our minds to be more understanding of others moral development?

(A probability space is where all the elements necessary for something to happen are present and it’s almost inevitable. All it takes is intention.)

Potential Space

If you think creatively and allow your mind to wander and explore, how do you think spirituality, in or out of church, can further moral development? We are both not to do things that hurt others, and help others from being harmed (commission, omission). Can we sensitize ourselves to the plight of others enough to compel action to help them? How would we do this?

(A potential space is a virtual space in our minds where entirely new things can take shape.)More: Is Music A Form Of Prayer?

Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. This helps me improve my work.
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–           Dorian

Our answer is God. God’s answer is us. Together we make the world better.

Restore and recreate. Take time to celebrate life. Laugh, sing, and dance regularly, even every day. Happy. This is why we dance to celebrate life: Reindeer actually running and dancing.

 

Building a Community of Action

New Way Forward community

Can we make positive change in our world and end a lot of suffering?

Helen Keller, who was both blind and deaf, said: “Although the world is full of suffering, it’s also full of the overcoming of it.”

The human spirit yearns for a world without suffering, but it’s through facing challenges that we progress. The world isn’t perfect, but together we can create a future with less hardship. Famine, discrimination, gun violence, and injurious economic and educational disparities are complex problems, yet understanding their root causes empowers us to find solutions.

Launching in first quarter 2025, the New Way Forward community will connect individuals seeking practical solutions and creating lasting change. We’ll focus on understanding problems and their solutions, and how to effectively create change.

Join us in building a brighter tomorrow! New Way Forward on Facebook.

Civic service opportunities

Do Unto Others Kindness Campaign, and civic engagement.

UCC service opportunities.

PC USA programs and services.

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Join or support Zero Hour and amplify the voices of youth organizing for climate action.

Peoples Hub. Resistance, Resilience, Restoration, Re-imagination. Online Popular Education. For movement workers to learn, connect, collaborate, and strategize – in and across the disability justice and solidarity economy movements.

Stakeholder Capitalism – a video podcast series from the World Economic Forum. Can capitalism be made to work for all of us – and to improve rather than destroy the state of the planet?

 

General service and aid opportunities (on One Spirit Resources Website). To add your service opportunity to the One Spirit Resources list, contact the author (me) through Facebook Messenger. Note that I only friend people I know.

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Education Opportunities for new generations

Becoming an Entrepreneur – MITx online

Evaluating Social Programs – MITx online

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Bible scripture verses are New American Standard Version (NASB), unless noted.

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Author and books

Appease the Volcano: What does God require from people? The voices of the ancients from many religions echo much of the same things: It starts with law, then mercy and forgiveness, then love. Love is a major emphasis in all major religions and replaces law.

The Prophetic Pattern: Ancient and Modern Prophecy: How to distinguish the intent of various types of prophecies and oracles, both ancient and modern.

Preparing For the Future Of Work and Education: Analysis of the kinds of jobs that AI and Robotics will displace, and the educational requirements for them. AI will replace or augment thirty percent of jobs. This is an in-depth analysis citing many authoritative sources.

Author Website: Dorian Scott Cole

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