RSTU 104

CHRISTIAN
MORALITY
What is Christian Morality?
✘ it defines virtuous behavior and
wrong behavior from
a Christian perspective.

✘ is the application of God's laws

regarding a person's private and
public behavior. ... In his or her
seeking to live a moral life,
a Christian tries to obey the rules for
his or her personal behavior that have
been decreed by God and recorded in
the Bible.
✘ Do you realize your
own worth and dignity
lies in who you are as a
child of God, regardless
of what you do or how
much money you have?
✘ In a recent informal survey of
undergraduate students at Regent
University in Virginia,
✘ 27 percent of students asked
expressed anxiety when considering
their vocation. “Scared,” “uneasy,”
“unsure,” “confused,” and
“apprehensive” were common
words in describing the way they
felt about their future vocation.
✘ One reason why so
many Christians fail to
discover their vocation
is because they don’t
fully understand what
it means to be made in
the image of God.
 What does it
means to be
created in God’s
Image and
likeness?
✘ It is in Christ, "the image
of the invisible
God," that man has been
created "in the image
and likeness" of the
Creator.
Every person is created
in the image of God, full
of dignity, with unique
talents and gifts to use
for the glory of God in
their work.
✘ It is in Christ, Redeemer
and Savior, that the
divine image, disfigured
in man by the first sin,
has been restored to its
original beauty and
ennobled by the grace of
God.
 Genesis 1:26-27 declares that human
beings are made in the image of God:

✘ Then God said, “Let us make

man in our image, according
to our likeness; and let them
rule over the fish of the sea
and over the birds of the sky
and over the cattle and over all
the earth….” God created man
in His own image, in the image
of God He created him; male
and female He created them.
✘ Genesis 9:5-6, God
reminds Noah that man is
made in God’s image:

✘ Whoever sheds man’s

blood, by man his blood
shall be shed, for in the
image of God He made
man.
✘ Man is endowed with "a
spiritual and immortal"
soul, the human person is
"the only creature on earth
that God has willed for its
own sake." From his
conception, he is destined for
eternal beatitude.
✘ By his reason, he is capable
of understanding the order
of things established by the
Creator.
✘ By free will, he is
capable of directing
himself toward his true
good. He finds his
perfection "in seeking
and loving what is true
and good."
✘ By virtue of his soul and
his spiritual powers of
intellect and will, man is
endowed with freedom,
an "outstanding
manifestation of the
divine image."
✘ By his reason, man
recognizes the voice
of God which urges
him "to do what is
good and avoid what
is evil.
✘ Everyone is obliged to
follow this law, which
makes itself heard in
conscience and is fulfilled
in the love of God and of
neighbor. Living a moral
life bears witness to the
dignity of the person.
✘ Being made in the image of
God provides the basis for our
vocation. If we are made in the
image of God, we share his
characteristics. For example,
because God is creative, we
can be creative in our studies.
✘ Everyone is obliged to
follow this law, which
makes itself heard in
conscience and is fulfilled
in the love of God and of
neighbor. Living a moral
life bears witness to the
dignity of the person.
Keep this in mind

✘ “Human persons are willed

by God; they are imprinted
with God's image. Their
dignity does not come from
the work they do, but from
the persons they are.”- Pope
John Paul II