Ethics in the New Testament: What are they? Are they relevant to the world of the 20th century? These are the questions that shape the text of Love Commands in the New Testament. The early Christians were not in conflict with the non-Christian world on ethical grounds: "Indeed," writes Pheme Perkins, "both Jesus and the New Testament writers draw heavily on the ethical traditions of the Old Testament, of common wisdom traditions, and of the hellenistic ethical codes."

What then is the "critical edge" to New Testament ethics that makes them Christian? Love Commands in the New Testament offers students a guide to the study of that question, as well as Perkins' own analysis of it.