Living as God's Holy People: Holiness and Community in Paul

At the heart of Paul's practical theology is God's call of Israel to be holy as God is holy. But his conviction is that the call to be God's holy people now encompasses all, Jews and Gentiles, who follow Jesus the Messiah. This new community of God is to embody the holiness of God wherever they live just as Israel was to embody it. This is a central theological concern in all of Paul's epistles. His ethics are always theological ethics; his theology is always practical theology.