are to be “renewed in mind” and “think the way Christ thought”
to direct their behavior.o In similar fashion, the anonymous author of the Letter to the
Hebrews seeks to deepen the readers’ commitment to faith by
showing how it must pass through suffering and a manner of
life that imitates that of Jesus. Like Jesus, they are to “learn
obedience from the things they suffer”; the experience of
obedience is “enduring for the sake of an education.”o The Letter of James stresses the need for having “the deeds of
faith” rather than merely belief, calling faith without deeds the
same as a dead body. James spells out the idea that “friendship
with God” demands a new way of using possessions, of
speaking, and of living as a community of cooperation rather
than competition.o Even within the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, words of moral
instruction are placed in the mouth of Jesus—above all, in
the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5–7) or Sermon on the Plain
(Luke 6): The kingdom of God proclaimed by Jesus demands a
change of moral outlook and behavior.• We find early-2nd-century writers continuing this emphasis on moral
instruction in the letters they address to communities.
o The First Letter of Clement, written from Rome by an elder
around 95 C.E., addresses the Christian community in Corinth,
where rivalry and factionalism were rampant. It uses classic
Greco-Roman philosophical themes concerning harmony as
an antidote to the envy that the author perceives as the root of
disorder in the church.
o We have already met Polycarp of Smyrna as a martyr. As
bishop, he wrote a Letter to the Philippians (in Macedonia)
around 130 C.E. This composition likewise focuses completely
on moral instruction, drawing heavily on the letters of Paul,
including the Pastoral Letters.