This study presents an investigation of a major metaphor in the letters of Paul, used over thirty times (more than any other metaphor) to describe some feature of the Christian life. The articles in the major theological dictionaries give Paul"s use of the image bare treatment and are in error on the vital question of Paul"s relation to the LXX. This study aims to fill a gap in the study of Pauline ethical vocabulary, and presents the major ethical themes of the Apostle.