God has inscribed a sense of morality on human hearts through the natural law. Scripture must also be the foundation of forming a Christian’s conscience and our moral guide.

God is the sovereign over our lives, us being his creatures, and Lord of the moral order, which he has made known to us through natural law and Scripture.

For Christians, God’s revelation of morality is best reflected in the Ten Commandments, the two great commandments and the beatitudes. They are to help us form our conscience and shape our moral character.

Character is referred to in Christian ethics as a disposition to act in particular ways. Character is a key predictor of human behavior. The spiritual basis of our lives is connected to our personal character and the moral actions we must take in everyday life.

There are scriptural references that suggest that natural law is inscribed on human hearts, such as Romans 2:15. In effect, we are given by God the wisdom and ability to “understand what must be done and what must be avoided,” as St. Thomas Aquinas says.

Yet we still need moral guidelines for our lives, and God has provided them to us in Scripture.

Jesus taught us that it is not what enters a person that defiles us; rather, it is what flows out of that person from their heart, from their actions, from their choices (Matthew 15:10-20). As Martin Luther King Jr. said, it is the content of our character by which we are judged.

Jesus himself affirms the importance of following the Ten Commandments in the dialogue he has with the rich young man in the passage from Matthew 19:16-21.

The interaction begins when the young man asks Jesus, “Teacher, what good must I do to have eternal life?” Jesus tells him, “If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments” (Matthew 19:17).

The beatitudes are important for conscience in that they address basic attitudes we are to have as Christians. If we are to follow Christ in our moral lives, we must do more than just obey the Ten Commandments. Jesus provided us with the moral behaviors he modeled and wants us to model as his followers in the beatitudes.

While God has inscribed a sense of morality on human hearts, the family is crucial for modeling and imparting moral behavior and helping young people to form a conscience and shape their moral character.

Parents have the most vital role in forming the moral character of their children. They must truly lead by example, and this includes regular attendance at worship and facilitating their children’s participation in Christian education programs.

Societal influences and behavior are also important. All Christians should exemplify moral behavior in daily life. Rude and boorish behavior in public settings such as while driving, and at retail stores, graduations and sports events, even youth sports, is often the norm today.

Christians must turn the other cheek, bite their tongues, and resist the temptation to lash out when doing so means modeling behavior inconsistent with how Jesus commanded us to act toward one another. Our spiritual lives cannot be divorced from our daily activities.

God loved us so much that he gave us free will. But we can become fully the beings God wants us to be through the actions we freely choose in our daily lives. We must model Christ.

The broad outlines of how Christians should act are clearly set forth in Scripture. The devil is in the details.