Friends, Ever wonder how Christians were known, and how they lived in the earliest days? The Epistle to Diognetus was written approximately A.D. 130 by an anonymous writer, who describes the Christians of the 2nd century in chapter 5: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/richardson/fathers.x.i.ii.html They live in their own countries, but only as aliens. They have a share in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners. Every foreign land is their fatherland, and yet for them every fatherland is a foreign land. They marry, like everyone else, and they beget children, but they do not cast out their offspring. They share their board with each other, but not their marriage bed. It is true that they are "in the flesh," but they do not live "according to the flesh."They busy themselves on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven.They obey the established laws, but in their own lives they go far beyond what the laws require.They love all men, and by all men are persecuted. They are unknown, and still they are condemned; they are put to death, and yet they are brought to life. They are poor, and yet they make many rich; they are completely destitute, and yet they enjoy complete abundance. They are dishonored, and in their very dishonor are glorified; they are defamed, and are vindicated. They are reviled, and yet they bless; when they are affronted, they still pay due respect. When they do good, they are punished as evildoers; undergoing punishment, they rejoice because they are brought to life. Our example is a shame to their memory. May God bless us with the spirit to live like our progenitors in the faith. Any other accounts of early Christians you know of?
Philip Schaff, a German historian in the 19th century, wrote this of the earliest days of the Truth: The period from the death of the apostle John to the end of the persecutions, or to the accession of Constantine, the first Christian emperor, is the classic age of the ecclesia pressa, of heathen persecution, and of Christian martyrdom and heroism, of cheerful sacrifice of possessions and life itself for the inheritance of heaven. It furnishes a continuous commentary on the Saviour’s words: "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves; I came not to send peace on earth, but a sword." No merely human religion could have stood such an ordeal of fire for three hundred years. The final victory of Christianity over Judaism and heathenism, and the mightiest empire of the ancient world, a victory gained without physical force, but by the moral power of patience and perseverance, of faith and love, is one of the sublimest spectacles in history, and one of the strongest evidences of the divinity and indestructible life of our religion. Be inspired, Christians! Remember our brothers & sisters of the past. Live like them to the glory of God.
I've always liked this quote from Julian the apostate: Why do we not observe that it is their [the Christians'] benevolence to strangers, their care for the graves of the dead, and the pretended holiness of their lives that have done most to increase atheism [unbelief of the pagan gods]?… For it is disgraceful that, when no Jew ever has to beg, and the impious Galileans [Christians] support not only their own poor but ours as well, all men see that our people lack aid from us What a testimony that Christians were known to care for not their own poor but all the poor too
On pacifism: The old law vindicated itself by the vengeance of the sword, and plucked out eye for eye, and requited injury with punishment; but the new law pointed to clemency, and changed the former savagery of swords and lances into tranquility, and refashioned the former infliction of war upon rivals and foes of the law into the peaceful acts of ploughing and cultivating the earth. And so the observance of the new law and of spiritual circumcision has shone forth in acts of peaceful obedience.—Tertullian We, who had been filled with war and mutual slaughter and every wickedness, have each one–all the world over–changed the instruments of war, the swords into ploughs and the spears into farming implements, and we cultivate piety, righteousness, love for men, faith, and the hope which is from the Father Himself through the Crucified One.—St. Justin Martyr