Theology and Ethics in Hebrews

“A careful reading of Hebrews shows why it is that separating theology and ethics in the New Testament is an exercise in futility rather than fertility. It is true that one can talk about the two separately with profit, but if one actually wants to describe the New Testament thought world in some reasonably holistic way, such a way of parsing things out is inadequate. The two things are so intertwined that even one as exalted as Christ, one as divine as the Son is believed to be in Hebrews, one as appropriately worshiped as the Son of Man is asserted to be, can nevertheless become the ethical paradigm of faith and faithfulness for the audience of this magnificent sermon. Going back and forth between exposition and exhortation, we find Christ in both sorts of materials and in both theological and ethical categories.”

Ben Witherington III, The Indelible Image: The Theological and Ethical Thought World of the New Testament, Volume One: The Individual Witnesses (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2009), 461.