That is, the writers and readers of Scripture constitute one community of faith. To be sure, there is merit in remembering that Paul and his letter-recipients lived in a culture different from our own. We need to acknowledge the distance between now and then, and we need to employ tools to understand “then.”7 But the perspective that stresses difference should not be the governing view we bring to the reading of Paul. If it is, we betray the apostle’s own purpose in writing and forget the very meaning