Orthodox ethics — and here I draw a radical distinction between the Orthodox teaching on ethics and the teaching of the other churches on this subject, not out of fanaticism but rather because of the essential difference between these teachings — are defined through the Church's understanding of anthropology, which at the same time is inseparable from its concept of the work of salvation. These two interlocking Orthodox visions differ essentially from the view of the other Christian churches, for the work of salvation which God accomplished for the salvation of man has as its aim the deification of man by grace. This is what the Fathers of the Church expressed when they said that God became man so that man might become god.
This concept of the work of salvation has its consequences in Orthodox ethics, differing from the ethical concepts of the other churches. For the ethics of the Orthodox believer are the ethics of the human being called to deification. And once the believer perceives this matter — perception here meaning not intellectual understanding but a deep existential awareness — his ethics become, if the expression be allowed, ethics beyond this world; that is, his ethics become different from the familiar social ethics and grow purer and loftier. These ethics are not governed by social or economic ties or the like, but by the Saviour Lord Himself. They do not aim at establishing relationships for some benefit, but understand dealing with the other as the image of God, His creature, and a place in which God is manifest. And whoever can train themselves to see and love the Christ who cleaves to the other, their dealing with the other becomes a holy dealing and their service to them a holy service.
From this we see how closely Orthodox ethics are bound to dogma. We also see how faith in the Orthodox Church by no means signifies a confession of dogmas, but rather the living of them. This will become clear to us as we come to know the meaning of the word "ethics" and how its meaning developed through history.
The Definition of "Ethics"
The word "Ethics" comes from the Greek word "Ἦθος," which means "custom" or "habit." In time it came to mean the place in which a person dwells, or sometimes the home. The question of "ethics" occupied the ancient philosophers, who tried to explain this phenomenon, finding that human conduct differs from one person to another. The great philosopher Aristotle (d. 347) held, in his "Nicomachean Ethics," that ethics arise from habit; and he also spoke of an ethical character or moral virtue. The philosopher Heraclitus (d. 322) said that character is the god within man — or, in other words, that ethics are that which is divine in human beings.
In the New Testament we do not come upon the use of the word "character" or "ethics" except once; rather we find that the use of the term "habit" or "custom" occurs more often. Thus we find it in:
(Luke 1:9) "according to the custom of the priesthood…" (with Zechariah)
according to "the custom of the feast" (Luke 2:42)
and we meet it as social and national customs, as in (Luke 22:39; John 19:40; Acts 25:16; Hebrews 10:25).
As for the word "ethics," we find it literally in Saint Paul — who here in turn quotes the thinker Menander — in 1 Corinthians 15:33: "Bad company ruins good morals."
But how did the early Christians understand the question of ethics?
The reader of the Christian sources of the early centuries sees that the Fathers and Christian teachers occupied themselves with clarifying this subject and setting forth the new Christian ethics established by the teachings of the Saviour. The most prominent proclaimer of Christian ethics was the contemporary of the Apostles, Saint Clement of Rome (reposed around the year 96). This saint spoke of the ethics of Christians concerning purity and hospitality. And with Saint Clement of Alexandria (reposed around the year 215), he compares and distinguishes between the ethics of the Greeks and the Jews and the ethics of Christians and their way of life; and he holds that God is the principle of ethics.
With the scholar Origen (reposed around 253) we see a new proposition, namely that worldly ethics are also useful for Christians to build their new ethics upon. It is as though he were saying that what is good in society is brought to completion in Christianity. This opinion is shared by the great Saint Gregory of Nyssa (reposed around the year 386), who holds that Christians ought to learn worldly ethics and manners and be acquainted with them, so as to use what is useful of them at the appropriate time.
As for John Chrysostom (d. 407), he binds dogmas to ethics and says that faith without works nullifies the very essence of Christian philosophy, that is, its ethics.
In the ascetic and spiritual literature we see expressions such as "life according to the Spirit," or "life in Christ," or "life according to God," to express the new conduct or the ethics which the believer must take as a way. The Fathers never wrote that ethics are an intellectual matter, but a way of life or of conduct. This is why we hear much today about Christian conduct — that is, that the deeds of a given believer reflect Christ. In effect, Christian ethics are the translation of the dogmas, of the faith, and are therefore a means of evangelism, and in a way a silent one. That is, you evangelise by your deeds.