Having ruled out the conscience, majority rule, politicians, and philosophers for establishing the standard for moral conduct; we turn to God and His word, the Bible. The Bible contains an objective standard of moral conduct. What does it teach in the realm of moral behavior?
First, the Bible teaches the necessity of accepting personal responsibility for one’s actions. The view often expressed today is people are products of their environment. The place and way one is raised is responsible for bad, immoral conduct. The Bible, however, disagrees with this idea. Adam and Eve were blessed to live in the true paradise on earth. They had everything they needed for life. The weather was pleasant. God came to visit with them in the evenings. No better environment could possibly exist. They had the option of choosing whether to live as God instructed or not. His command was simple enough, do not eat the fruit of one tree. When they chose to eat that forbidden fruit, they attempted to pass the responsibility on to others. When confronted Adam blamed the woman whom God had given him; Eve blamed the serpent. God blamed each of them and punished each of them.
Moses stood before the nation of Israel and gave them a choice. He told them what God promised for faithfulness and for apostasy. The choice of lifestyle was up to them. Moses encouraged them to "choose life" (Deuteronomy 30:19). Paul wrote the Galatian church: "Be not decieved; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." (Galatians 6:7,8). The church in Corinth was surrounded by the worst of society. The city was synonymous with wicked, debased living. If ever there was an environment where it would not be possible to live right, it was Corinth. But the people in the church had stopped living sinful lives through their submission to the Lord (see I Corinthians 6:9-11).
Today the moral teaching of the home is under attack. God’s design for the home involves one man and one woman married for one life time (see Genesis 2:24; Matthew 19:3-12; Romans 7:1-3). After the joining in marriage, comes children. Today Madonna typifies the single parent family movement. The popular entertainer is approvingly discussed in magazines and on television as a mother. She has conceived two children while single with no plans for marriage. This behavior is wrong. God’s design is for children to come into this world in a family with father and a mother. People such as Madonna and the men who fathered her children are guilty of fornication. God’s design for sexual loving is between husband and wife as Paul pointed out to the Corinthians: He wrote, "to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband" (I Corinthians 7:2). Is it possible for people to refrain from sexual fulfillment until marriage? Yes. God does not require us to do what is impossible. How can it be done? Flee from it (I Corinthians 6:16). This is what Joseph did in the home of Potiphar (Genesis 39:12). It is what David should have done (2 Samuel 11:1-4).
—Denny