Ethics and Curveballs: At the Table with Dr. David Jones

When did you first discover your love for the sport of baseball?

I was actually born and raised up in the Northeast. I’ve lived around here for most of my life, but the one thing that I’ve retained from my childhood and my upbringing is a love of baseball, and in particular, a love for the Red Sox — which, of course, pray for me, because we’re not usually that good. We’re always fighting the evil empire of the Yankees.

So, it started out when I was a child, and now I’ve got five kids of my own. With them growing up, they all played baseball and softball, and so I got to coach all of their teams or serve as an assistant coach. I figured out, not too long ago, that between my five kids, I think I coached or assistant coached 44 different baseball and softball teams as they were growing up. And so, I guess you could say, baseball has been a big part of the entire Jones family.

Why is the Red Sox your favorite team?

The Red Sox were the closest team to where I was born and raised, up in the great state of New Hampshire, and so I kind of just hung on to that. I’m not really sure why I attach myself to them. I logically shouldn’t have because they’re usually not very good. But I think it’s one of those things that you latch onto when you’re a kid and take with you as you grow up.

How does the study of ethics connect to everyday matters of life, like baseball?

The book I wrote, “Every Good Thing,” was an effort on my part to answer the question: How does ethics and thinking morally relate to every area of our life? When I teach the basic ethics course, one of the things I tell the students in the first lecture or two is that a good definition of Christian ethics is simply that it’s applied theology. It’s trying to answer the question, “What difference does my relationship with Jesus Christ make for my life, 24/7?” or “How do I bring the word of God to bear on everything that I am and all that I do?”

I think sometimes we tend to think about Christianity as being primarily about Sunday, or we think of doctrine as informing our beliefs about God and about church, and maybe evangelism and missions, but oftentimes I think we miss the fact that Christianity involves every good thing. It relates to all that we are and all that we do, including things like baseball, things like parenting or marriage or how you think about money or how Christians should interact with the culture.

I would say, there’s really no area of life where God’s word doesn’t relate or apply, and so essentially, that is what Christian ethics is. It’s trying to investigate and answer the question: What difference does Jesus make for my involvement in fill-in-the-blank? And whatever that fill-in is, well, that’s an area for investigation of Christian ethics.

Why do you enjoy hard ethical questions?

I think sometimes people miss the fact that the word of God really does address every area of our being. And so, it could be a hard ethical question that’s just incredibly complex. Maybe it’s something that involves a new technology, like the ethics of social media, or something that’s come up in the culture with scientific developments, such as, what are the ethics of in vitro fertilization?

I think sometimes people miss the fact that the word of God really does address every area of our being.

Or maybe it’s a hard question just because it involves people who are close to us, and it could be a relatively easy area of morality, like truth telling. But if it’s somebody you know, in your family, who’s asking a question about confessing a lie that they told at their workplace — well, it’s obvious what they should do — but it might be challenging and hard to actually pull it off because the confession might cost them their employment.

And so I’ve always enjoyed trying to explain to people, trying to teach and unfold to them, “This is what the word of God says about your situation, about your context,” and in so doing, show that the word of God really is sufficient for Christian life and practice, as Peter says in 2 Peter 1.

One of the ethical questions people ask you is, “What should I say to the homeless man on the street corner?” What is your answer?

I’ve done a lot of work in the area of material ethics, or the ethics of wealth and poverty. And one of the questions that I get asked with some frequency is, “How should we think about poverty?” and “How should we think about the material aspects of our culture and our lives?”

Thinking about the larger context, a thing that I’ve taught and tried to get across to believers is that when you see that homeless person there on the street, it’s easy to think, “That guy doesn’t really deserve my help, and I’m where I am because of what I’ve accomplished in life.” If our hearts tell us that message, that’s what I would call being middle class in spirit. That’s when we think, “I have what I have because of what I’ve done.” But Jesus says, in Matthew 5, that we’re supposed to be poor in spirit.

The heart attitude I’ve tried to get across to people as I’ve interacted with questions like this in the past is, yes, realize you know that there’s probably nothing that you can do to help that man out before the light turns green, but your heart should be right and want to help him, even if he is a person who doesn’t deserve help. That’s exactly why you should actually want to help him, because our Father in heaven helped us even though we didn’t deserve it. If we can cultivate that heart attitude and be poor in spirit, I think then, at least, we’re going to be right internally and relationally with our Father in heaven and towards the homeless person.

What would you tell someone who wants to go deeper into ethics?

The thing that I try to communicate to the students who take my classes is that ethics is not some dry discussion of philosophical concepts or right and wrong. Nor is it some type of legalistic discussion of simply gutting out and keeping God’s commands. Christian ethics is applying the word of God to our lives. I think most Christians want to know, “What difference does the gospel make for my life 24/7?”

And with that more robust understanding of what Christian ethics actually is, I think most people say, “Okay, then, I do want to go deeper into ethics, and I want to know what the word of God actually says and how it relates to me when I’m at my secular job, when I watch a news broadcast, or when I’m surfing the internet and reading about what’s going on in the world, all the problems and recent conflicts. I want to know, what difference does the Bible make, and how can I make a difference? How can I bring the gospel to bear on these issues in my life and the public square? How can I be an agent that is spreading God’s kingdom?”

I would tell the person that wants to go deeper, come and study ethics with us here at Southeastern, because we dive into all those things, and we show you how Christianity is not just a Sunday-only event; it really matters 24/7. And God wants to use you. He wants to use his followers as tools in his hands to spread his influence throughout the world, and so by all means, come and dive deeper into Christian ethics with us here at Southeastern.

Why study ethics at Southeastern?

Most Bible colleges and seminaries will have somebody who teaches ethics — oftentimes it’s somebody who might teach theology and ethics and philosophy altogether. But here at Southeastern, we’ve been blessed to have three or four full-time ethicists. We probably have more programs, more degrees, more study opportunities in ethics than any other evangelical seminary in the world. For the person out there who has an interest in the field of Christian ethics, Southeastern is the go-to institution to come and study at. So look us up, check us out, and come and study with us.