The Moral Vision of the New Testament: A Contemporary Introduction to New Testament Ethics

by Richard B. Hays

We must not overlook them. We must not wrest nor misinterpret them. We must understand and respect them quite literally. We cannot dismiss them simply by admiring or ridiculing them as the product of a heaven-storming idealism and then placing them in a corner and observing very different rules of life…. The sayings of the Gospel are among those of which it is said that “they shall not pass away.” For they do not merely express the well-meant exaggeration of humanitarianism, nor do they simply constitute a special rule for good or particularly good Christians. They declare the simple command of God which is valid for all men in its basic and primary sense, and which is thus to be kept until further notice. They do not refer to a peak of enthusiasm to which the obedient must finally climb: they refer soberly and realistically to a basis from which they must continually start and to which they must continually return in obedience. They give us the rule, whereas the rest of our discussion can deal only with exceptions.20