So I read this the other day (from The Hole in Our Holiness by Kevin DeYoung) and was a little shocked, just because it’s not the sort of thing you hear in a lot of Christian books these days. But of course, it’s true…
The fact of the matter is, if you read through the instructions to the New Testament churches you will find few explicit commands that tell us to take care of the needy in our communities and no explicit commands to do creation care, but there are dozens and dozens of verses that enjoin us, in one way or another, to be holy as God is holy (e.g., 1 Pet. 1:13-16).
Anyone care to weigh in with thoughts on this? What do you make of this “weighting” towards personal holiness in the New Testament letters?
And why do you think it’s in fashion now (in the church in the west) to reverse emphasis?