“Can the ends justify the means?” is a question people have wrestled — or sometimes, not wrestled — with throughout the world. “The ends justify the means” is seldom called forth for simple situations. Complex, costly, or heartrending circumstances are the crucibles wherein people find themselves debating this quandary.

It’s a continually relevant question, but one with a consistent, constant guiding answer for Christians. Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies Pastor Rutledge “Rut” Etheridge III discusses this in his article “Conscience in a Compromising Age” published by TableTalk magazine in September 2026.

“As Christians, we’re continually tempted by the moral compromises common to all people,” Etheridge writes. “Believers, however, face the additional temptation to sin as a means of serving Christ. The idea sounds ironic, absurd, and evil in the extreme—and it is. But when the pressures of a fallen world bear down on our service to the kingdom of heaven, sinful compromise can feel irresistible, even righteous.”

Etheridge then addresses when the ends absolutely do not justify the means for believers through analyzing the life of Christ in Scripture. And, consistent with the care Geneva professors give their students , he then goes on to encourage the reader how to also find hope for such difficult situations in those same passages. The article deftly meets Tabletalk magazine’s goal “to articulate Christian truth in an accessible manner.”

Tabletalk magazine is available for reading in both digital and paperback versions. Etheridge was previously published in the July 2024 and June 2021 issues of the magazine.