The authors of the New Testament did not hesitate to turn to Leviticus, the preeminent book on holiness in their Bibles, to find instruction and exhortation for godly living. In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul appeals directly to the law of Moses—Leviticus 18:8; Deuteronomy 22:30; 27:20—to establish the sinfulness of incest (a move he makes again in 1 Corinthians 6 with respect to homosexuality). Paul found in Leviticus moral obligations still binding on the Christian. The sexual ethic of the Old Testament was not abrogated like the sacrificial system, but carried forward into the early church.
