What should we do or not do? What attitudes, behavior and qualities are good? Can we be good without God? What is the highest good, the purpose of human existence? These are the questions the study of ethics seeks to answer. Unlike many approaches to ethics, this book foundationally turns to Scripture, going only as far as Scripture itself goes. The result is an overview of biblical ethics that not only addresses the life of love and wisdom to be lived out by Christians as virtuous individuals, but also as Christians in community, in society and in a world of God's creation. Key preliminary...

A common objection to belief in the God of the Bible is that a good, kind, and loving deity would never command the wholesale slaughter of nations. Even Christians have a hard time stomaching such a thought, and many avoid reading those difficult Old Testament passages that make us squeamish. Instead, we quickly jump to the enemy-loving, forgiving Jesus of the New Testament. And yet, the question doesn't go away. Did God really command genocide? Is the command to "utterly destroy" morally unjustifiable? Is it literal? Are the issues more complex and nuanced than we realize?

In the...