So we pass off Paul’s intensely practical directions and example as being only about attitude. Or possibly we see in them some fine theological point regarding God’s attitude toward us. In some cultural contexts Paul’s writings are read as telling us not to enjoy secular entertainments or bodily pleasures—or as commanding us to embrace whatever the current prudishness is. We take something out of our contemporary grab bag of ideas and assume that that is what he is saying. However, no sane, practical course of action that results in progress toward pervasive Christlikeness ever seems to emerge
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