Promises, promises, and more broken promises are common social norms that many of us encounter in our daily cluttered multi-tasking busybody-typed lives. Generally speaking, a promise can be defined as a treaty-like accord between one or more parties with the intention of reciprocally benefiting everyone involved.  By the same token, for a promise to actually hold any solid validity, a certain level of acceptance is required along with belief, faith, and mutual respect among all participating.  With all of this in mind, why is promise-keeping so morally important with one another?  

     To begin with, the art of keeping a promise is virtuously just because it builds a solid foundation for which God-given characteristics can be strengthened.  It is this writer’s opinion that the founding principles of Christian ethics are lucidly illustrated in the eight Beatitudes from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, along with the virtues of faith, moral excellence, knowledge, temperance, Godliness, patience, love, and kindness.  Jesus himself proclaims the ultimate promise of eternal life in the New Testament of the Bible.  John 3:14-17 (the King James Version) states, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:  That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved”(Holy Bible ).  A plethora of examples throughout the Bible can be examined and adamantly established that God keeps His promises.  The fall of man, the life of Abraham, the lineage of Abraham, the Major and Minor Prophets of the Old Testament, and the life of Jesus Christ are just a few examples.  Had God not kept His promises, the Bible would not exist as it does, and He would not have sent His Son to die on the cross for our sins.  The proof of His wonders and magnificent works are all around us, but it is up to us to believe in Him.  Therefore, it can be stated that in order for a promise to essentially be fulfilled it requires the elements of the eight Biblical Beatitudes and faith, moral excellence, knowledge, temperance, Godliness, patience, love, and kindness between two or more parties. 

     Moving forward, the question arises that if one of these elements of a promise becomes violated by a party, can we morally go back on our own word.  Revelation 22:13 (the King James Version) states, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last”(Holy Bible ).  To enumerate, God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent.  He is perfect, and cannot violate His own promises.  However, since the fall of man in Genesis 2–3 we as human beings are not perfect.  We are born into sin, and we cannot keep the promises we make.  Romans 3:23-26 (the King James Version) states, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:  Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus”(Holy Bible ).  To clarify, we need to realize that because the ethical relativism of the fall man is battling God’s Word, there are two principles in play here regarding justification of backing out of a promise.  

     Considering this, essentially, this boils down to the ethics of God and humanistic ideologies.  Taking this into account, it is this writer’s belief that it is morally permissible to renege on our word under certain conditions because we are not perfect.  We need the Lord’s guidance constantly in our lives.  We cannot see the entire picture, but He can because He remains steadfast.  We need to grow, and we are not steadfast.  We aim to be steadfast.   Ultimately, the condition of hindsight can render reneging as a morally just act because life is an evolving process.  Soren Kierkegaard said, “Philosophy is perfectly right in saying that life must be understood backwards. But then one forgets the other clause—that it must be lived forwards”(Rosa).  In like manner, is it morally obligatory to break a promise?  Again the answer here is yes, because we are all sinners under God’s ethical principles established by His Holy Word.  Any time we act without consulting God we break promises, and we need to repent before going forward.  Psalm 37:4 (the King James Version) states, “Delight thyself also in the Lord: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart”(Holy Bible ).  Proverbs 3:5-7 (the King James Version) states, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.  Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil”(Holy Bible ).  

     All in all, the morality and ethics of promises relies on the battle of ethical relativism between the fall of man and Christ’s kingdom.  The basic foundation for ethics begins with which train of thought (the fall of man or Christ) that an individual selectively subscribes.  Additionally, the process and variables comprised within life itself challenge the very subscription (the fall of man or Christ) that an individual chooses.  To put it another way, ethical choices and promises themselves are a two way street which operate in similar fashion to Newton’s Third Law of Physics.  “His third law states that for every action (force) in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction”(Nancy Hall ).  For example, when one makes a promise to another this force now gets tugged upon by the evolution process within life itself this making hindsight a perfect state of 20/20 vision.  According to C. Wright Mills, “What we experience in various and specific milieux, I have noted, is often caused by structural changes. Accordingly, to understand the changes of many personal milieux we are required to look beyond them” (Mills, 2013, p. 10). In brief, looking outside the box forces us to ultimately subscribe to the way of thinking of the fall of man or Christ’s kingdom.  The choice is ours to make.  

Works Cited

Holy Bible . Thomas Nelson Publishers , 1997.

Mills, C. Wright. “The Promise .” The Sociological Imagination . New York,NY: Oxford University Press , 2013. 3-24.

Nancy Hall . Newton’s Third Law-Applied to Aerodynamics . 05 May 2015. <https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/airplane/newton3.html>.

Rosa, Evan. Living Life Forwards-Soren Kierkegaard . 13 June 2016. <https://cct.biola.edu/kierkegaard-living-life-forwards/>.