I’ve just started reading Principles of Biomedical Ethics, by Beauchamp and Childress, and have been introduced to the ethical concept of supererogation. A rough definition might be “exceeding one’s obligations”. [Be warned: it's not a word to use in conversation.]
I’ve been reflecting on the place of supererogation in christian thinking. As our example is God Himself, and as we are called to “Be holy, as I am holy”, it seems that supererogation is irrelevant for the christian.
But then we think about Jesus’ words (Matt 5:47):
And if you greet only your brothers and sisters,* what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
He’s clearly applying a supererogation-like idea here, but there is a difference. Jesus invites his disciples to supererogate the common morality, using the comparison with the unspiritual to show the insufficiency of meeting an imagined minimum.
We are called to “Be holy, as I am holy”. This clearly precludes supererogation of the true moral standard, but mandates the supererogation of every other.
