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A Contemporary Introduction II

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RICHARD B. HAYS
 Contents

Preface, xi
Introduction: The Task of New Testament Ethics, 1
New Testament Ethics A~ a Problem, 1

The FourfoldTaskof New Testament Ethics, 3

Possible Objections, 7

PART ONE
The Descriptive Task: Visions oftheMorai Life in theNew Testament, '3

1. Paul: The Koinonia of His Sufferings, 16

Is Paul's Ethic Theologically Grounded?, 16
The Theological Framework for Pauline Ethics, 19
Paul's Moral Logic: Warrants, Norms, and Power, 36
Appendix: Paul on the Relation between Men and Women, 46

2. Developments of the Pauline Tradition, 60

Witnesses to the Legacy of Paul, 60
Ephesians: Cosmic Ecclesiology, 62
1 Timothy: How to Behave in the Household of God, 66

3. The Gospel of Mark: Taking Up the Gross, 73

Finding "Ethics" in the Storyof jesus: Reflections on Method, 73
Mark's Christology: A Storyof the Crucified Messiah, 75
Discipleship: Following the Crucified Messiah, 80
 viii I Contents
Eschatological Expectation in Mark: "Keep Awake," 85
Mark's Narrative World As Context for Action, 88
4. The Gospel of Matthew:
Training for the Kingdom of Heaven, 93
Matthew's Christology: Jesus As Teacher, 94
Training for the Kingdom, 96 ,
Matthew's Eschatology: "I am with you always, to the end of
the age," 104
Historical Setting: Matthew As Ecclesiastical Diplomat, 107
Matthew's Narrative World As Context for Action, 109
5. Luke-Acts: Liberation through the Power of the Spirit, 112
Luke's Christology: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me," 114
The Church in the Power of the Spirit, 120
Luke's Eschatology: "Why do you stand looking up toward
heaven>,' 129
Luke's Narrative World As Context for Action, 133
6. The Gospel and Epistles ofjohn: Loving One Another, 138
John's Christology: The Man from Heaven, 140
Loving One Another: The Friends of Jesus, 142
[ohannine Eschatology: "Vie know that we have passed from death
to life," 48
John's Narrative World As Context for Action, 153
7. Excursus: The Role of "the Historical Jesus"
in New Testament Ethics, 158
Why Not Begin with Jesus?, 158
Methods for the Quest, 161
The Life and Teachings of jesus: A Proposed Reconstruction,
Implications for Christian Ethics, 166
8. Revelation: Resisting the Beast, 169
Apocalyptic Symbolism: The Interpretive Choice, 170
The Lamb That Was Slaughtered, '73
The Vocation of the Saints, 176
A New Heaven and a New Earth, 179
The Narrative World of the Apocalypse As Context for Action, 181
PART TWO
The Synthetic Task: Finding Coherence in theMoral Vision ofthe New Testament, 187
9. Diverse Voices in the New Testament Canon, 187
Cacophony or Polyphony?, 187
Contents / ix
10. Three Focal Images: Community, Cross, New Creation, 193
Community, 196
Cross, 197
New Creation, 198
Why Love and Liberation Are Not Sufficient, 200
PART THREE
The Hermeneutical Task: The Use oftheNew Testament in Christian Ethics, 207
11. How Do Ethicists Use Scripture? Diagnostic Questions, 207
Modes of Appeal to Scripture, 208
Other Sources of Authority, 209
The Enactment of the Word, 212
A Diagnostic Checklist, 212
12. Five Representative Hermeneutical Strategies, 21 5
Reinhold Niebuhr: Christian Realism, 21 5
Karl Barth: Obedience to the Command of God, 225
John Howard Yoder: Following the Way of Jesus, 239
Stanley Hauerwas: Character Shaped by Tradition, 253
Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza: A Feminist Critical Hermeneutic of
Liberation, 266
'3· How Shall We Use the Texts? Normative Proposals, 29
'
Summary and Normative Reflections, 291
Moral Judgment AsMetaphor-Making, 298
The Church As Embodied Metaphor, 304
The Role of the Old Testament in New Testament Ethics, 306
Summary: Proposed Guidelines for New Testament Ethics, 309
162
PART FOUR
The Pragmatic Task: LivIng Under theWord-Test Cases, 3
'3
1+ Violence in Defense of Justice, 317
KeyText: Matthew 5')8-48, 3
'9
Synthesis: Violence in Canonical Context, 329
Hermeneutics: Responding to the New Testament's Witness Against
Violence, 339
Living the Text: The Church As Community of Peace, 343
'5· Divorce and Remarriage, 347
Reading the Texts, 349
Synthesis: Divorce and Remarriage in Canonical Context, 36 1
Hermeneutics: Responding to the New Testament's Witness Against
piyorce,366
 x I Contents

· · tl 1" t· The Church As Community Making the Love of

L lVll1g te ex.
God Visible, 374

16. Homosexuality,379
Reading the Texts, 381
Synthesis: Homosexuality in Canonical Context, 389
Hermeneutics: Responding to the New Testament's Witness Against
Homosexuality, 394
Living the Text: The Church As Community Suffering with the
Creation, 400

'7' Anti-Judaism and Ethnic Conflict, 407

Reading the Texts, 409
Synthesis: Israel in Canonical Context, 428
Hermeneutics: Responding to the New Testament's Witness Preface
Concerning Israel, 434
Living the Text:The Church As Community Overcoming Ethnic
Division, 438

18. Abortion, 444

Reading the Texts, 446
This book has grown out of years of wrestling, together with many students and col-
Svnthesis: Abortion in Canonical Context, 449
leagues in ministry, with the question of how the N_ew Testament might inform our
Hermeneutics: Responding to the New Testament's Silence on
perennially inadequate efforts to respond faithfully to God's calling of the church
Abortion, 449
Living the Text: The Church As Community of Life, 457 to a common life of discipleship. The readings and arguments set forth in these
pages are offered not as definitive pronouncements on the moral issues that vex our
Conclusion, 462 time but as provisional discernments about how the witnesses of the New Testa-
Sharing Possessions:A Challenge to the Church, 464 ment speak to our situation.
Pressing On Toward the Goal: The Vision of New Testament Ethics, 469 No one can publish such a book without being acutely aware of the dangers at-
tending the enterprise: the possibilities for misreading, abuse, serving one's own in-
Works Cited, 47' terests, and premature closure are ever present. I would invite the reader, therefore,
Permissions, 485 to the same task to which I try to invite students in the classroom: the task of criti-
Index of Scripture and Other AncientWritings. 486 cal, reflective conversation in which we stand together under the judgment and guid-
Author Index, 497 ance of Scripture. My hope is not that this book will settle all disputes but that it
will facilitate a clearer discussion about how to read the New Testament and how to
topic Index, 502
live in imaginative obedience to its moral vision. I invite those who may disagree
with me on particular issues to join me in the discipline oflistening closely to the
New Testament witnesses and to offer their own readings for the edification of the
church. I have no doubt that I, as well as others, will learn much from the ensuing
conversation.
It has not been easy for me to let this book go. Scholars are disposed, by incli-
nation and training, to close every possible loophole, cite every relevant book and
article, consider every alternative line of argument, and-most important-defer
judgment indefinitely. Given the broad scope of this book and the endless sea of
secondary literature on the problems discussed here, I am painfully aware of how

Conclusion
We come to the conclusion of this book, though hardly to the end of the debate
over the issues it addresses. In the foregoing pages, I have sought to present a coher-
ent model for approaching New Testament ethics as a theological discipline
consequently, for appropriating the ethical witness of the New Testament in the life
of the church. I have proposed that such appropriation necessarily entails a com-
plex fourfold task: reading the individual witnesses closely, reflecting synthetically
about the common elements in their moral visions, considering the hermeneutical
procedures that we employ in bringing the texts to bear upon OUf own situation,
and performing the texts in Christian community. In order to illustrate how this.
procedure might work in practice, I have offered a series of discernments about five
test cases: violence, divorce, homosexuality, anti-Judaism, and abortion.
The model I have proposed is not an exact method that can yield foolproof sci-
entific results. It is nothing more nor less than a framework for discernment, a set of
proposed guidelines for the church's ongoing task of seeking to understand and
obey the will of God. Such discernment can take place only under the guidance of
the Holy Spirit; thus, integral to the model itself is the insistence that all particular
moral discernments-all readings of the Word-must be subject to the testing
confirming witness of the community. This book is certainly no exception to that
proviso: the conclusions reached here are offered as one performance of the
native task of New Testament ethics- offered to the church at large for discussion
and reflection. They constitute, therefore, an invitation to the community for re-
newed encounter with the witness of the New Testament itself. If I am correct in
arguing that moral discernment requires the church to engage in the art of
metaphor-making, bringing the New Testament into conjunction with our com:"
Conclusion / 46,
rnunity's life in fresh and illuminating ways, it follows inevitably that other readers
will produce performances of the Word that not only differ from my own but that
will teach us aspects of the truth that we would never have seen apart from such en-
actments. Similarly, my own performance in the foregoing pages ought to be un-
derstood not as a collection of definitive pronouncements but as one person's effort
to articulate a disciplined reading of the New Testament witness concerning issues
of urgent concern for our time. This book is offered in the hope of opening, not ter-
minating, conversation about the problems I have treated here.
I reiterate also a point made at the beginning of Part IV: the five test cases ad-
dressed here are not alleged to represent the central moral concerns of the New
Testament, nor do they fully reflect my own judgment about the most pressing eth-
ical issues facing the church at the end of the twentieth century, Rather, the range
of problems posed in Part IV serves to illustrate how my proposed categories work
with different patterns of evidence within the New Testament. The rationale for
the selection is methodological rather than substantive.
One consequence of this selection procedure is that the conclusions drawn in
Part IV represent very different levels of conviction. My proposals on the question of
abortion, which is not treated directly by the New Testament, should be read as sug-
gestions that attempt to develop indirect implications of the New Testament narra-
tives. On the other hand, I understand my proposals concerning renunciation of
violence to be integrally related to the center of the gospel story, and I would urge
that this is the sort of issue over which Christians should lay down their lives; I
would seek passionately to persuade those who think otherwise-the historic major-
ity of Christians-that they are living as "enemies of the cross of Christ" (Phil. 3"8,
where the reference is not to unbelievers but to believers who do not seek to live ac-
cording to the apostolic typos, the paradigm of the cross). Even in this case, however,
my argument does not constitute a claim that just war theorists should be excommu-
nicated from the church. (None of us participates in the community of God's people
save by God's mercy.) Rather, my argument seeks to draw a firm line that will facili-
tate authentic moral disagreement within the church and challenge the community
to be confronted more urgently by the New Testament witness on this matter.
The goal of this entire project is to encourage the church in its efforts to be-
come a Scripture-shaped community, to allow its life to be more fitly conformed to
the stories narrated in the New Testament. I proposed at the beginning of Part IV
that, if our moral concerns were shaped in accordance with the New Testament vi-
sion of Christian discipleship, we should direct our energy and attention to four
fundamental issues: (1) the renunciation of violence, (2) the sharing of possessions,
(3) the overcoming of ethnic divisions, particularly the division between Jew and
Gentile, and (4) the unity of men and women in Christ. I have dealt in some detail
with the first and third of these issues and have offered several passing observations
about the fourth.' I want to conclude this book, then, by offering some brief reflec-
tions about the sharing of possessions, which has not received an emphasis in this
study commensurate with its importance in the New Testament. These reflections

will lead on to some final remarks aboutthe task-and limitations-of New
ment ethics.
Sharing Possesions: AChallenge to the Church
There is always the danger that, in our complex hermeneutical deliberations about
New Testament ethics, we might construct an elaborate system of rationalizatinjjj
that simply justify the way we already live our lives. On no other topic is this danger
so acute as on the issue of sharing possessions. Therefore, we cannot bring
treatment of New Testament ethics to a conclusion without attending-if
briefly-to the New Testament's teaching on this issue."
The challenge of the New Testament is clear: from Matthew to Revelation,
New Testament writers bear witness passionately about the economic imperatives
of discipleship. Without undertaking a full-scale descriptive reading of the indivirl.
ual texts, we can see even on the most cursory survey that the New Testament
ers manifest a pervasive concern for just use of money and for sharing with the
needy. Let us recall a few representative highlights of the Nevil Testament's teach-
ing on this question.
In Matthew's Gospel, jesus teaches his disciples to relinquish anxiety about
their own economic security and to seek first God's justice (Matt. 6;25-34); they are
taught to pray for the provision of their daily needs and to forgive those who may
owe them debts (Matt. 6;n-12, cf. 18;23-35). When the twelve disciples are sent out
on a mission to Israel, they are to take no money with them and to receive no pay~
ment for their ministry (Matt. 10;8-9). Most tellingly, in the great Matthean
of the last judgment (25;31-46), the sheep are separated from the goats on the basis
of their treatment of those who are hungry, naked, sick, and in prison. Clearly,
Matthew authentic discipleship entails using one's resources to help those in need..
Mark tells the story of jesus' challenge to the rich man who wants to know how
to inherit eternal life: "Go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and
you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me." The man, stunned by
this radical demand, goes away grieving, "for he had many possessions" (Mark
10:17-22). This becomes the occasion for Jesus' more general declaration that it is
"easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich
to enter the kingdom of God" (10;23-27).3 By way of contrast, jesus praises the poor
widow who puts her last two coins into the temple treasury (10;4'-44)'
Luke, as noted in the descriptive sketch of his moral vision in Chapter 5, pro-
claims God's liberating power on behalf of the poor and hungry (Luke "52-53,
4,,8-19) and highlights the vision for a new community of believers who share all
possessions in common so that there are no poor among them, in fulfillment of
the Deuteronomic command. This new community is portrayed as manifesting the
power of the message of the resurrection (Acts 2;42-47, +32-35). Accordingly,
the concrete economic cost of discipleship receives consistent emphasis in Luke's
Conclusion I 465
story: Jesus proclaims bluntly, "None of you can become my disciple if you do not
give up all your possessions" (Luke 14'25-35). The person who stores up provisions
for himself is a fool (Luke 12;16-21), whereas jesus' followers are exhorted to sell
their possessions and give alms (Luke 12;33). Zacchaeus exemplifies authentic re-
sponse to the coming of the kingdom of God by declaring that he will give half his
goods to the poor (Luke '9:'-10).
Paul exhorts his churches to contribute to a collection for the poor among the
saints in Jerusalem. Pointing to the story of God's provision of manna in the wilder-
ness, which could not be hoarded and stored up for the future (2 Cor. 8"3-15, quot-
ing Exoel. 16,,8): he urges that there should be "a fair balance" Usot;;s) between
those who have abundance and those who are in need. Such a practice of sharing
is the minimal expression of conformity to Christ's example of self-emptying,
which ought to lead the community to "look not to [their] own interests, but to the
interests of others" (Phil. 2;4) and therefore to act sacrificially.
According to 1 Timothy, those who are not shaped by "the sound words of OUf
Lord jesus Christ" are likely to fall into the trap of self-destructive greed;
Those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and
harmiul desires that plunge people into min and destruction. For the love of money is a
root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away {rom
the faith and pierced themselves with many pains. (1 TiM _ 6:9-10)
Members of the community of faith are called instead to be "rich in good works"
(6,,8).
In language reminiscent of Amos and Isaiah, the letter of James denounces the
rich, whose gold-and silver will rust (cf Matt. 6;19-21) and bear witness against
them on the day of judgment. Their oppression of poor laborers will not escape
God's notice: "You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fat-
tened your hearts in a day of slaughter" (james 5;1-6). By contrast, God has "chosen
the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has
promised to those who love him" (james 2;5).
Even the johannine literature, notable for its lack of specific ethical teaching,
exhorts the community of faith to practice economic sharing:
How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister
in need and yet refuses help? Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth
and action. (1 JOHN 3:17-18)
To fulfill the new commandment of jesus ("Love one another") necessarily entails
the sharing of possessions with the poorer members of the community.
Finally, Revelation draws a striking contrast between the church at Smyrna, liv-
ing in affliction and poverty (2;9), and the church at Laodicea, which prides itself
On its wealth (3'17). To the fonner, the prophetic word of the risen Christ offers
consolation; to the latter, threatening to spit them out of his mouth, he says, "You
do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked." Economic
 466 I Conclusion
power and prosperity are consistently associated in this prophetic book
power of the Beast that tries to delude the saints. At the fall of Babylon, the
city, in Revelation 18, "the merchants of the earth" weep and mourn, because
have lost their market for luxury items and because "in one hour all this
been laid waste" (,8:11-'7a).
Thus, while the particular mandates and forms of expression may vary, the
Testament witnesses speak loudly in chorus: the accumulation of wealth is antlltlet_
ical to serving God's kingdom, and Jesus' disciples are called at least to share
goods generously with those in need, and perhaps even to give everything
order to follow him more freely.'
The focal images of community, cross, and new creation bring this material
gether into a compelling unified picture.
Community. The imperative of sharing material goods is addressed to the
munity as a whole. The New Testament writers are not concerned merely with
individuals might seek eternal hfe; rather, they are concerned with how the
as a whole might embody the economics of the kingdom of God. This communal
dimension is explicit in the Acts narratives about the earliest community, in
directives for his churches to participate in the collection for the poor among
saints as an expression of their koinonia in Christ, in 1 John's exhortation to
as the authentic expression ofloving one another within the church) and in
tion's prophetic address to the churches of Smyrna and Laodicea corporately.
where the corporate dimension of the economic imperative is less explicit,
Matthew, it is implicit in the larger conception of discipleship: Matthew
community of Jesus' followers as a city set on a hill, a polis that manifests the
teousness ~fGod. Thus, the good works (Matt. 5:16, cf. 25:3'~46) of the communi
are a sign to the world of God's glory.
Cross. Relinquishment of material goods is closely linked to the way of
cross. This is directly stated in Luke '4:25-33, which begins with Jesus' call to
the cross" and ends with his challenge to his disciples to give up all their
sessions. Paul also grounds his economic appeal to the Corinthians in the
sacrificial example of Jesus (2 Cor. 8:9). The passage in , John that cornmanos
helping the brother or sister in need (i John 3'17-,8) is immediately prefaced
direct allusion to the cross: "We know love by this, that he laid down his
us-and we ought to lay down our lives for one another" (i John 3'16).
ing of "laying down our lives" is then immediately specified in terms of
sharing. In this matter, as in others, the imperative of self-sacrificial love is rooted.i
the paradigm of Jesus's death on the cross.'
New Creation. The practices of sharing that characterize the New Testament
church are to be understood as eschatological signs, demonstrating that the trans-
forming power of God's kingdom has broken in upon the old age. Those who sf:
first the kingdom of God (Matt. 6:33) will, as a necessary consequence, put
Conclusion I 467
order's economic concerns in a secondary place. In Luke's Gospel, the mandate for
sharing is premised directly on the promise of the coming kingdom:
Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
Sell your possessions, and give alms. Alake purses for yourselves that do not wearout, an
unfailing treasure in heaven,where no thief comesnearand no moth destroys.
, (LUKE I:l':32~33)
The message of such texts is not only that heavenly rewards relativize present eco-
nomic anxieties but also that the kingdom impinges upon the present in such a way
that we are frced to act with a generosity that figures forth God's good future. That
claim is most powerfully made manifest) of course, in Luke's description of the
Jerusalem church, where the power of the apostles' testimony to the resurrection of
Jesus is confirmed by church members' practice of selling their property and shar-
ing the proceeds so that "there was not a needy person among them" (Acts 4'32-35).
The link between the kery'gma of the resurrection and the community's sharing of
goods is direct and material. The author of 1 John makes a similar point when he
writes) "We know that we have passed from death to life because we love one an-
other" (1 John r14a).-a love that is necessarily to be expressed, as we have seen,
through sharing the world's goods (3'17). Thus, the church that lives in the time be-
tween the times-while still subject to mundane obligations such as paying taxes to
Caesar (Mark '2:13-'7, Rom. '3'1-7)-wil! also embody in its economic practices
the sharing that prefigures the joy and justice of the world to come.
How are we to respond to the New Testament's challenge? A full discussion of the
hermeneutical and pragmatic issues would require a lengthy discussion indeed.
For the present, then, we must be content with a few basic observations:
'> The New Testament's direct commands and general rules about possessions are
embedded in a canonical context that complicates simple literal application.
As Luke Johnson has demonstrated, even within Luke-Acts the rule that disci-
ples of Jesus must give up all their possessions (Luke '4:33) is set alongside other
teachings and narratives that pose different models of faithful response to the
gospel.' Zacchaeus, for example, is commended for his repentant response
("Today salvation has come to this house" [Lukc '9:9a D, even though he gives
up considerably less than everything. Even the church in Jerusalem (Acts 2 and
. 4) is characterized by generous sharing of possessions rather than radical renun-
ciation. The point is that we cannot derive simple or univocal rules for eco-
nomic practice from the New Testament.
"" Very little direct appeal is made in the New Testament texts to principles of
equality and justice, though such principles may be implicit in some passages,
such as 2 Corinthians 8:13~'5' For the most part, the texts call the church to acts
of sacrificial service far beyond what simple justice would require.
 468 J Conclusion
>- The New Testament texts address us on this issue primarily through
medium of narrative. The various stories and parables of the Gospels and
narrative of Acts provide us with the fundamental paradigms to which we
respond faithfully. The particular exhortations and warnings about
found in the New Testament epistolary literature make sense only within the
symbolic world narrated in these stories. On this matter, then, our basic
tation must be provided by the narrative texts, and our hermeneutical applica..,
tion of the New Testament will involve retelling these stories in such a way
we find our place within them; in other words, we will bring our communin-,
metaphorically into conjunction with Acts 4-to cite one particularly
tant example-and ask ourselves, "How can we order our economic practlc,,,
in the church in such a way that we give testimony with power to the resurrec,
tion ofJesus?"
>- To ask that question in a serious and sustained way will require of us not only
imaginative reflection but also costly change. No matter how much hermeneu-
tical squirming we may do, it is impossible to escape the implications of
New Testament's address to us: imaginative obedience to God will require of us
a sharing of possessions far more radical than the church has ordinarily sup-
posed. 10 be sure, there have been many communities of Christians through-
out history that perform the texts in impressive ways, sacrificing their own
interests and sharing their goods with the poor. But such embodiments of
text are typically seen - at least in mainstream Protestantism - as the exception
rather than the authentic norm of Christian faith and practice. For the
to heed the New Testament's challenge on the question of possessions would
require nothing less than a new Reformation.
'10 bring the matter close to home, perhaps a word about myself, the author
book, would be in order. As a tenured professor in a major U.S. university, I live a
life of comfortable affluence and relative economic security. I participate in a
church and support it financially, contribute money to good causes, and do the oc-
casional service stint in a homeless shelter. But-let there be no mistake-such
modest forms of economic discipleship fall far short of thc New Testament
and most of the churches I have known have been formed by the forces of
capitalism as least as much as by the teaching of jesus. I remain among the wealthy
of the world, and the churches in which I have participated for the last twenty years
have made only fitful and tepid attempts to respond to the New Testament's imper-
atives concerning the sharing of possessions. I say "for the last twenty years" be-
cause from 1971 to 1976 my wife and I participated in Metanoia Fellowship, a
church community in Massachusetts that practiced radical economic
through a common purse, seeking to have "all things in common." The ultimate
demise of that particular communal-discipleship initiative in no way vitiates the
gitimacy of its vision or excuses our subsequent failure to seek other communal ex-
pressions of the New Testament vision for sharing possessions.
Conclusion J 469
Pressing On Toward theGoal: TheVislnn ofNew Testament Ethics
The purpose of the foregoing autobiographical remarks is simply to provide the
necessary backdrop for some final remarks about the task of New Testament ethics.
First, the ethic envisioned by the New Testament writers is not an impossible
ideal. If we fail to live in obedient responsiveness to their moral vision, that is be-
cause of a failure of the imagination-or perhaps a lack of courage-on Our part. I
include myself fully in this indictment, and I throw no stones at those who do not
live according to the norms articulated in the other parts of this book. The difficulty
of living in conformity with the New Testament vision does not, however, let us off
the hook: my experience of struggle and failure to respond to the New Testament's
challenge concerning possessions does not authorize me to disregard the New Tes-
tament's summons, or to pretend that the New Testament does not mean what it
says, or to devise -less costly standards for myself and for the church.
Second, with regard to the question of possessions, as with most of the other is-
sues considered in this book, there is no single set of rules that can be promulgatecl
for the community of faith. The New Testament is not a rulebook, not a cookie cut-
ter for forming identical people or identical communities. Instead, the New Testa-
ment texts cal1 LIS to respond in imaginative freedom, under the guidance of the
Holy Spirit, to form communities that will embody the truth of the Word, demon-
strating metaphorically the power of God's grace in our midst.
Third, such imaginative performances of obedience to the Word will prove
costly: indeed, they may cost us not less than everything. That is what following
Jesus requires.
Fourth, the whole vision for New Testament ethics developed in this book calls
for a fundamental transformation of the church. To do New Testament ethics as I
have proposed requires far more than the reconceptualization of an academic disci-
pline; it requires the recovery of the church's identity as the eschatological people
of God, prefiguring God's healing transformation of the world." The church must
be a community living in conformity to the paradigm of the cross and thereby stand-
ing as a sign of the new creation promised by God. Insofar as the church seeks to
enact an obedient response to this vision, its reading of the New Testament texts
Vi/ill come more sharply into focus. For example, if we really want to understand
the New Testament's challenging mandate concerning possessions, we must begin
by being obedient to the light we have been given. For me and for my community,
this would entail some immediate practical and sacrificial changes in what we do
with our money.
Fifth, lest all of this sound utopian, we must never forget that the eschatological
reservation, the "not yet," is an integral part of the New Testament's understanding
of new creation. To acknowledge that the kingdom is not fully realized in our midst
is not to compromise the New Testament's moral vision; it is, rather, to respect it.
We cannot suppose that all Our lives can be lived in the first enthusiasm of Pente-
cost; our ethical decisions and our actions must be performed over the long haul in
 470 Conclusion

the midst of a creation that still groans awaiting redemption. To acknowledge this
truth will enable us in the church to admit our own fallibility and sinfulness, to
patiently with the dissonance between the eschatological vision and the present re-
ality of our lives. If I have not yet found or formed a community in which posses-
sions are shared freely and generously, in which there is no needy person, I should
not be surprised or despairing. And yet, we continue to hope, pray, and work for
something better, for a community more closely conformed to the will of God as
disclosed in Scripture. Paul strikes the balance just right:

I want to know Christ and the power o{his resurrection and the koinonia of his sufferings
by becoming like him in his death, i{ somehow I may attain the resurrection of the dead.
Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to
make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider
that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and strain-
ing iorward to what lies ahead, 1 press on toward the goal. (PHI L. 'PO-14<1, AA)

No complacency, no despair, no nostalgia: we reach forward, press on, knowing

that we can trust God's grace because Christ jesus has already claimed us. With
this knO\vledge, we present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God, hoping and ex-
pecting that he will continue to transform the community of the church so that our
moral discernments may indeed be true:

Do not be confonned to this age, but be naneknmed by the renewing ofyour minds, so
you may discern what is the will ofGod-what is good and acceptable and perfect.
(RO!lL IL2, AA)

That is the task of New Testament ethics.

NOTES
1. See the endnote to Part IV's introductory text for an explanation of my decision not to pursue an extended
discussion of the fourth issue in this book.
2. For a full treatment of this issue-a treatment with which I am in substantial agreement-s-see Wheeler

1995·
3. These stories arc also told, with only minor modifications, by Matthew and Luke.
4. For discussion of this passage, sec Hays 1989,88-9J
5. The texts cited here are only a representative sample. I have not tried to mention all the pertinent pas-
sages, nor have I flagged the texts that seem to represent a divergent perspective (e.g., Mark 4:7). Of course, a
full descriptive survey would have to take such passages into account
6. An interesting additional note: if James 5:6 alludes-as I believe it does-to the death of Jesus, then it is
the rich (not, e.g., "the Jews") who are blamed for the murder of [csus. The shadow of the cross looms over the
image of the wealthy who "have lived on the earth in luxury and pleasure."
7. L. T. Johnson 1981.
8. This is not to imply that the church has totally lost an awareness of this identity; I am simply calling for a
more intentional reclaiming of the NT's identity description for God's people.