FINALLY WHOLE

'To affirm the resurrection of the dead is to confess that the God who made us will finally make us whole - spirit, soul and body (1 Thess. 5:23).' 

Richard B Hays, First Corinthians, p.279. 

MOTIVE CHECKING

'First Corinthians 13 ought to encourage us to step back from even our most cherished projects and ask, "Why am I doing this?" If we cannot honestly say, "I am doing this for love and in love," then the legitimacy of the whole enterprise must come under serious doubt. This test applies, of course, not just to explicitly religious practices but to to everything we do: business, academics, politics.'

Richard B Hays, First Corinthians, p.232.   

HERMENEUTICAL HUMILITY

'...the principle of hermeneutical honesty: we should never pretend to understand more than we do.'
Richard B Hays, First Corinthians, p.190. 

JESUS

'Jesus is not only friend of sinners but also prophetic nemesis of the wicked.' 

Richard B Hays in Jason B Hood, Imitating God in Christ: Recapturing a Biblical Pattern, p.14. 

THE CHURCH & HOMOSEXUALITY

'The homosexual Christians in our midst may teach us something about our true conditon as people living between the cross and the final redemption of our bodies.

In the midst of a culture that worships self-gratification, and in a church that often preaches a false Jesus who panders to our desires, those who seek the narrow way of obedience have a powerful word to speak.'

Richard B Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament, p.402.

 

SEX

'The Bible undercuts our cultural obsession with sexual fulfillment. Scripture (along with many subsequent generations of faithful Christians) bears witness that lives of freedom, joy, and service are possible without sexual relations. Indeed, however odd it may seem to contemporary sensibilities, some New Testament passages (Matt. 19:10-12, 1 Cor. 7) clearly commend the celibate life as a way of faithfulness. In the view of the world that emerges from the pages of Scripture, sex appears as a matter of secondary importance. To be sure, the power of sexual drives must be acknowledged and subjected to constraints, either through marriage or through disciplined abstinence. But never within the canonical perspective does sexuality become the basis for defining a person's identity or for finding meaning and fulfilment in life. The things that matter are justice, mercy and faith (Matt. 23:23). The love of God is far more important than any human love. Sexual fulfilment finds its place, at best, as a subsidiary good within this larger picture.'

Richard B Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament, p.390.



SIN & HOMOSEXUALITY

'...the Bible's sober anthropology rejects the apparently commonsense assumption that only freely chosen acts care morally culpable. Quite the reverse: the very nature of sin is that it is not freely chosen. That is what it means to live "in the flesh" in a fallen creation. We are in bondage to sin but still held accountable to God's righteous judgment of our actions. In the light of this theological anthropology, it cannot be maintained that a homosexual orientation is morally neutral because it is involuntary.'

Richard B Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament, p.390.

HOMOSEXUALITY

'...in Romans 1 Paul portrays homosexual behavior as a "sacrament" (so to speak) of the antireligion of human beings who refuse to honor God as Creator. When human beings engage in homosexual activity, they enact an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual reality: the rejection of the Creator's design. Thus, Paul's choice of homosexuality as an illustration of human depravity is not merely random: it serves his rhetorical purposes by providing a vivid image of humanity's rejection of the sovereignty of God the Creator.'

Richard B Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament: A Contemporary Introduction to New Testament Ethics, p.386.

SEXUALITY

'Sex education in the church might begin by seeking to cultivate a deep awareness on the indwelling presence of God. An authentic reverence for the reality of the Holy Spirit's presence in our bodies might facilitate the recovery of the Bible's powerful categories of holiness and purity as meaningful norms for our sexual practices.'

Richard B Hays, First Corinthians, p.108.