Water, Faith

and Wood
Stories of the
Early Church’s Witness
for Today

C. Christopher Smith

With a Foreword by
Kevin Rains

Doulos Christou Press

Indianapolis
WATER, FAITH AND WOOD:
Stories of the Early Church’s Witness for Today
Copyright 2003, Doulos Christou Press. All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America.

ISBN: 0-9744796-9-1
LCC No.: 2003096464

FIRST EDITION.

Chapters 15-20 of the Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus were

translated by Kevin Edgecomb. These chapters and their
introduction have been used by permission of the translator. A
full translation of this work is available online at:
http://www.bombaxo.com/

Scriptural passages are the author’s paraphrase of the KJV unless

otherwise marked.

Some passages, marked NRSV, were used from the New Revised
Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of
Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of
Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Doulos Christou Press is an independent, ecumenical press

committed to publishing works related to radical Christian
discipleship.

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 Water, Faith
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and Wood
Bibliography
• • •
Listed below are the primary books that have guided me in the
writing of this book. I have divided them into five categories:
general works on the Early Church, the three categories of Water,
Faith and Wood and finally, a group of books that were influential
in driving me to study the Early Church, and that have thus
provided a framework of sorts for this work.
General
Arnold, Eberhard. The Early Christians in Their Own Words.
Farmington, PA: Plough, 1998.
Bercot, David. Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs. Peabody, MA:
Hendrickson, 1998.
Roberts, Alexander and James Donaldson, eds. The Ante-Nicene
Fathers. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1994. Available from the
Christian Classics Ethereal Library, http://www.ccel.org/
Tixeront, J. Handbook of Patrology. St. Louis: Herder, 1920.
Wace, Henry. A Dictionary of Early Christian Biography. London: John
Murray, 1911. Available from the Christian Classics Ethereal
Library, http://www.ccel.org/
Water
Dix, Gregory, trans. The Treatise on the Apostolic Tradition of St.
Hippolytus of Rome, Bishop and Martyr. Morehouse, 1991.
Alan Kreider. The Change of Conversion and the Origin of Christendom.
Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Int’l Press, 1999.
Foreword vii
Foreword
• • •
This book deeply troubled me. For several days after my initial
reading I went from being slightly irritated to bordering on
desperation. It literally kept me up at night. It crawled under my
skin and burrowed into my mind. A nagging frustration
developed. A soul splinter was lodged and irritated me
constantly. After a couple of days of this frustration I began to
come to an understanding of why this might be. There are likely
several reasons, but the most basic and prevailing one is this: the
gulf between the practices of Christ followers in the first few
centuries and my own practices was enormous. Then to my
horror, I started to actually believe that they were right and I
was wrong! How far we have drifted from our original course
faithfully set for us by the Apostles, martyrs and faithful ones of
the early centuries! My experience and practice of baptism, faith,
and suffering bear almost no resemblance at all to theirs. So, if
they are indeed right and I am indeed wrong, then I have much
work to do, much ground to cover. This book has propelled me
on a journey to close that gulf by leaving my comfortable but
shaky notions of discipleship and starting to walk toward the
much richer theology and practice of those earliest followers. In
this regard, this book is both a compass and map.
It is a compass because it contains large sections of the
actual writings of the most recognized and respected teachers of
those early centuries. These writings can help us get our bearings
viii Water, Faith Notes 201
and Wood

and find True North. But it’s not enough to just know the
coordinates of where we need to be. At some point we must
step out and start walking. It is a map because Chris has given
us practical, useable concepts for following the compass to a
better place.
So, this book is desperately needed in a day when
discipleship has often been trivialized to “fill in the blank”
curriculum. These notions while well intentioned – to get as
many “in” as fast as possible – are misguided. We need more
than a course correction. We need to get back to the starting
place. To do that we must submit ourselves to the wisdom of
earlier generations whose faith was forged in deep suffering
and patient endurance.
Chris has stayed in my home on many occasions. I have
had the opportunity to live for many months in close proximity
with him and his wife. I have observed his life and ministry
closely and been the recipient of his gifts of teaching and
hospitality. We have broken bread and shed tears together. I
am convinced after all that time of two things: he is a man of
the deepest character and profound intellect. Rarely, if ever,
have I observed those two qualities co-existing so naturally and
so fully in one person. What he writes he deeply believes, and
what he believes he puts into practice.
With that, I can wholeheartedly commend this book and
its author to you. They can be trusted and relied upon to lead
us to a place of more fully, more faithfully following the Way.
May you experience the fullest frustration and then the
accurate guidance of which this book is capable.
7
The English word integrity comes from the Latin word which also lies at
the root of the English word integer, which as you may recall from a high
school mathematics class is a whole number.
8
Cf. Mt. 25:32-33.
9
The English word radical comes from the Latin word “radix” which means
roots.
10
This translation is taken from:
http://members.tripod.com/~TrentaGiorni/articoli/us-199802-5a.htm
An alternate translation is quoted in James R. Brockman. Romero: A Life.
Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1989. p. 235.
11
This section has been guided and shaped by John Howard Yoder’s essay:
“Peace without Eschatology?” (in The Royal Priesthood. Scottdale, PA:
Herald Press, 1998. p. 143-167.)
12
“CPT [Christian Peacemaker Teams] seeks to enlist the response of the
whole church in conscientious objection to war, and the development of
nonviolent institutions, skills and training for intervention in conflict
situations.” (Description taken from the CPT mission statement) For more
information on CPT, please visit:
http://www.cpt.org/
13
God in the Dock. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1970. p. 56-57.
Chapter 7: Conclusion
1
This picture of the Spirit dwelling in our brokenness is described beautifully
in Marva Dawn’s book Powers, Weakness and the Tabernacling of God.
2
“Armaments and Eschatology.” Studies in Christian Ethics. Vol. I, no. I
(1988), p. 58.

Kevin Rains
Cincinnati, Ohio
29 June 2003
The Feast of
St. Peter and St. Paul
44 Water, Faith
and Wood
Chapter 2
Faith
• • •
Before launching into a discussion of the faith of the Early Church, it
would serve us well to consider the meaning of the word “faith.”
According to the author of Hebrews, faith is “the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (11:1). The writer then
proceeds to illustrate this definition by telling the stories of faithful
Israelites. The actions of these stories’ main characters are driven
not by the characters’ prowess or by the wisdom of the world, but
rather by a divinely given vision of future reality. For instance, Noah
saw no evidence of the coming flood, yet he obediently followed
God’s instructions to build the ark. Likewise Abraham, seeing no
evidence that God would protect his son, faithfully laid him on the
altar and prepared to sacrifice him. The Early Church also can be
characterized by its faith, its choosing to act according to the reality
of Christ’s resurrection, instead of the fallen reality of the present
world. With the resurrection of Christ as their assurance, they looked
forward to the end of the Scriptural story, the future reconciliation of
God and humanity. However, just like Israel’s ancient heroes, they
did not passively bide their time until God’s promises were fulfilled,
but instead they acted in accordance with those promises. The Early
Church’s trust in God’s faithfulness and power energized them to be
obedient to Christ, even in the midst of worldly opposition. While
the world paraded its opulent pride, the Christians remained humble
and meek. While the world put up its walls of deceit, the Christians
reveled in truth and righteousness. While the world clung greedily
to every penny, the Christians delighted in generosity and mercy.
While the world was quick to avenge a wrong, the Christians made
peace with their enemies by returning good for evil. While the world
persecuted the Church, the Christians remembered that their Lord
had also been persecuted, and they patiently endured with their eyes
Wood
165
Texts
however long they should be continued. Everybody knows what to this day is
the great Lacedaemonian solemnity– the scourging; a sacred rite in which the
Spartan youths are beaten with scourges before the altar, as their parents and
kinsmen stand by and exhort them to stand it bravely out. For it will be always
counted more honorable and glorious that the soul rather than the body has
given itself to stripes. But if so high a value is put on the earthly glory, won by
mental and bodily vigor, that men and women, for the praise of their fellows,
despise the sword, the fire, the cross, the wild beasts, the torture; these surely
are but trifling sufferings to obtain a heavenly glory and a divine reward. If a
bit of glass is so precious, what must the true pearl be worth? Are we not called
on, then, most joyfully to sacrifice as much for the true cause as others do for
the false?
Chapter V.
For now, I leave out of my discussion the motive of glory. All these same
cruel and painful conflicts, a mere vanity that you find among men – in
fact, a sort of mental disease – as trampled under foot. How many ease-
lovers does the pride of arms give to the sword? They actually go down to
meet the very wild beasts in vain ambition; and they fancy themselves
more winsome from the bites and scars of the contest. Some have sold
themselves to fires, to run a certain distance in a burning tunic. Others,
with most enduring shoulders, have walked about under the hunters’
whips. The Lord has given these things a place in the world, O blessed
ones, not without some reason: for what reason, but to energize us now,
and on that day to confound us if we have feared to suffer for the truth,
that we might be saved, what others out of vanity have eagerly sought for
to their ruin?
Chapter VI.
Passing, from examples of enduring constancy like these, let us turn to a
simple consideration of man’s estate in its ordinary conditions, that results
from things which happen to us whether we will them or not, and on which
we must set our minds to bear, that we may get instruction. How often
then have fires consumed the living! How often have wild beasts torn men
in pieces: it may be in their own forests, or it may be in the heart of cities,
when they have chanced to escape from their dens! How many have fallen
by the robber’s sword! How many have suffered at the hands of enemies
the death of the cross, after having been tortured first, yes, and treated
with every sort of abuse! One may even suffer in the cause of a man what
he hesitates to suffer for the cause of God. In reference to this indeed, let
the present time bear testimony, when so many persons of rank have met
with death in a mere human being’s cause, and that though from their
birth and dignities and bodily condition and age such a fate seemed most
unlikely; either suffering at his hands if they have taken part against him,
or from his enemies if they have been his partisans.
 Water, Faith
164
and Wood
– before the day of conflict – to take you from a condition more pleasant in itself,
and has imposed a harder treatment on you that your strength might be greater.
For athletes too are set apart to a more stringent discipline in order that they
may have their physical powers built up. They are kept from luxury, from daintier
meats and from more pleasant drinks. They are pressed, racked, and worn out.
The harder their labors in the preparatory training, the stronger is their hope of
victory. “And they do this,” says the Apostle Paul, “that they may obtain a
corruptible crown” (1 Cor. 9:25). We, fixing our gaze upon the crown eternal,
look upon the prison as our training-ground, that at the goal of final judgment
we may be brought forth well- disciplined by many a trial; since virtue is built
up by hardships, as by fleshly indulgence it is overthrown.
Chapter IV.
From the saying of our Lord we know that the flesh is weak, but the spirit is
willing (Matt. 26:41). Let us not, however, take false comfort from the Lord’s
acknowledgment of the weakness of the flesh. It is important that he first declared
the spirit willing, in order that he might show which of the two ought to be
subject to the other – that the flesh might yield obedience to the spirit; the former
thus getting strength from the latter. Let the spirit influence the flesh about their
common salvation, thinking no longer of the troubles of the prison, but of the
conflict for which they are the preparation. The flesh, perhaps, will dread the
merciless sword and the lofty cross, and the rage of wild beasts, and that
punishment of the flames, of all most terrible, and all the skill of the executioner
in torture. But, on the other side, let the spirit set clearly before both itself and
the flesh, how these things, though exceeding painful, have yet been calmly
endured by many. Indeed, these troubles have even been eagerly desired for
the sake of fame and glory, and this not only in the case of men, but of women
too, that you, O holy women, may be worthy of your sex. It would take me too
long to enumerate one by one the men who at their own self-impulse have put
an end to themselves. As to women, there is a famous case at hand: the violated
Lucretia, in the presence of her kinsfolk, plunged the knife into herself, that she
might have glory for her chastity. Mucius burned his right hand on an altar, that
this deed of his might dwell in fame. The philosophers have been outstripped:
e.g., Heraclitus, who, smeared with cow dung, burned himself; and Empedocles,
who leapt down into the fires of Aetna; and Peregrinus, who not long ago threw
himself on the funeral pile. For women even have despised the flames. Dido did
so, lest, after the death of a husband very dear to her, she should be compelled to
marry again; and so did the wife of Hasdrubal, while Carthage was on fire, that
she might not behold her husband suppliant at Scipio’s feet, rushed with her
children into the conflagration, in which her native city was destroyed. Regulus,
a Roman general, who had been taken prisoner by the Carthaginians, declined
to be exchanged for a large number of Carthaginian captives, choosing rather to
be given back to the enemy. He was crammed into a sort of chest; and, everywhere
pierced by nails driven from the outside, he endured so many crucifixions.
Women have voluntarily sought the wild beasts, and even asps, those serpents
worse than bear or bull, which Cleopatra applied to herself, that she might not
fall into the hands of her enemy. But the fear of death is not so great as the fear of
torture. And so the Athenian courtesan succumbed to the executioner, when,
subjected to torture by the tyrant for having taken part in a conspiracy, still
making no betrayal of her confederates, she at last bit off her tongue and spat it
in the tyrant’s face, that he might be convinced of the uselessness of his torments,
Faith 45
fixed on the resurrection. It is little wonder that the Apostle Paul
was led to conclude that the Gospel was foolishness to the perishing
world (I Cor. 1:18). Similarly, Cyprian proclaims that “The Kingdom
of God is not in the wisdom of the world, nor in eloquence, but in the
faith of the cross and in the virtue of dialogue” (Third Treatise #69).
Cyprian’s words underscore the importance of the faithful
community in the Early Church, for dialogue was the product of the
interaction of the Holy Spirit’s gifts manifested in the community.
Indeed, Paul instructed the Church in Corinth that when they
gathered together each one was to bring something to share according
to his or her gifts – a song, a prayer, a story, a lesson, a prophecy (I
Cor. 14:26-33). Thus, the gathering of the Church was to be defined
by this interaction, or dialogue of all the gifts in the community. The
New Testament Greek word for Church is ekklesia, a term which was
also used in secular Greek culture to describe a political gathering, a
forum. Just as a political forum would dissolve without the
participation of its members, the health of the Church hinged upon
the participation of its members and the utilization of their Spirit-
given gifts. Faith for the Early Church was not an individualized
product that was consumed once a week in the gathering of believers,
but rather was an adventure for the community of believers to
participate in, a task to be undertaken by them. In the following
paragraphs, we will examine how the Early Church’s faith was made
manifest in its communities, or in other words, we will name some
practices that emerged as a result of the Church’s focus on the ultimate
reconciliation of God and humanity and their understanding that
they played a crucial role in bringing forth that reconciliation.
Jesus Christ, the Example
All of the faithful practices of the Early Church can be summarized
by the example that Jesus put forth in his life and teaching. Cyprian
drives this point home: “The example of living is given to us in Christ”
(Third Treatise #39). The Apostle Paul also emphasizes the same point
in his description of the Church as a Body (I Cor. 12): the Church is
not just any body but it is the body of Christ, his embodiment in the
present age. Earlier in the same epistle to the Corinthians, Paul urged
the Church in Corinth to imitate him, as he in turn imitated Christ
(11:1). Thus, the purpose of the Church, at its most basic level, is to
follow and imitate Jesus. Indeed, Christ left his disciples with a single
charge before he ascended into the heavens: make disciples (i.e.,
students or followers) of all nations (Matt. 28:19). This mission of
the Church has not changed over the past 2000 years; despite all our
46 Water, Faith
and Wood
Tertullian, On Prayer
Chapter IV.
The Third Clause [of the Lord’s Prayer].
According to this model [prayer], we continue, “Your will be
done in the heavens and on the earth;“ not that there is some
other power to prevent God’s will being done, and we pray
for the successful achievement of his will; but we pray for his
will to be done in all. For, by figurative interpretation of flesh
and spirit, we are “heaven” and “earth” – even if it is to be
understood simply, still the sense of the petition is the same,
that in us God’s will be done on earth, to make it possible,
for it to be done also in the heavens. What, moreover, does
God will, except that we should walk according to his disci-
pline? We pray, then, that he would supply us with the sub-
stance of his will, and the capacity to do it, that we may be
saved both in the heavens and on earth; because the sum of
his will is the salvation of the people whom he has adopted.
There is, too, that will of God which the Lord accomplished
in preaching, in working, and in enduring, for if he himself
proclaimed that he did not his own, but the Father’s will,
undoubtedly those things which he used to do were the
Father’s will (John 6:38) unto which things, as unto exem-
plars, we are now spurred: to preach, to work, to endure
even unto death. And we need the will of God, that we may
be able to fulfill these duties. Again, in saying, “Your will be
done,” we are even wishing well to ourselves, in that there is
nothing evil in the will of God; even if things that do not
seem good are imposed on us. So, in praying this prayer, we
prepare ourselves for patience. The Lord also, when he had
wished to demonstrate to us, even in his own flesh, the flesh’s
infirmity, by the reality of suffering, said, “Father, remove
this your cup;“ and remembering himself, added, “but not
my will, but yours be done” (Lk. 22:42). He himself was the
Will and the Power of the Father: and yet, for the demon-
stration of the patience that was due, he gave himself up to
the Father’s Will.
Wood
163
Texts
from a prison to, we may say, a place of safety. It is full of darkness, but you
yourselves are light; it has bonds, but God has made you free. Unpleasant smells
are there, but you are an odor of sweetness. The judge is daily looked for, but
you shall judge the judges themselves. Sadness may be there for him who sighs
for the enjoyments of the outside world. The Christian outside the prison has
renounced the world, but in the prison he has renounced a prison too. It is of no
consequence where you are in the world – you who are not of it. And if you have
lost some of life’s sweets, it is the way of business to suffer loss at the present, in
order that your gains afterwards may be larger. Thus far I have said nothing of
the rewards to which God invites the martyrs. Meanwhile let us compare the life
of the world and that of the prison, and see if the spirit does not gain more in the
prison than the flesh loses. Indeed, by the care of the Church and the love of the
brethren, even the flesh does not lose there what is for its good, while the spirit
obtains important advantages besides. You have no occasion to look on strange
gods; you do not run against their images. You have no part in heathen holidays,
even by mere bodily mingling in them; you are not annoyed by the foul fumes of
idolatrous solemnities. You are not pained by the noise of the public shows, nor
by the atrocity, madness or immodesty of their celebrants. Your eyes do not fall
on stews and brothels; you are free from causes of offence, from temptations,
from unholy reminiscences. You are free now from persecution too. The prison
does the same service for the Christian that the desert did for the prophet. Our
Lord himself spent much of his time in seclusion, that he might have greater
liberty to pray, that he might be rid of the world. It was in a mountain solitude,
too, that he showed his glory to the disciples. Let us drop the term “prison”; let
us call it a place of retirement. Though the body is shut in, though the flesh is
confined, all things are open to the spirit. In spirit, then, roam abroad; in spirit
walk about, not setting before you shady paths or long colonnades, but the way
that leads to God. As often as in spirit your footsteps are there, so often you will
not be in bonds. The leg does not feel the chain when the mind is in the heavens.
The mind guides the whole man, and it carries him wherever it wills. But where
your heart shall be, there shall be your treasure (Matt. 6: 21). Let our heart be in
the place, then, where we would have our treasure.
Chapter III.
Grant now, O blessed ones, that even to Christians the prison is unpleasant; yet
we were called to the warfare of the living God in our very response to the
sacramental words. Well, no soldier comes out to the campaign laden with
luxuries, nor does he go to action from his comfortable chamber, but from the
light and narrow tent, where every kind of hardness, roughness and
unpleasantness must be endured. Even in peace, soldiers condition themselves
to war by toils and inconveniences – marching in arms, running over the plain,
working at the ditch, making the testudo, engaging in many arduous labors.
They sweat profusely in order that bodies and minds may not shrink at having
to pass from shade to sunshine, from sunshine to icy cold, from the robe of
peace to the coat of mail, from silence to clamor, from quiet to tumult. Similarly,
O blessed ones, count whatever is hard in this lot of yours as a discipline of your
powers of mind and body. You are about to pass through a noble struggle, in
which the living God acts the part of superintendent, in which the Holy Ghost is
your trainer, in which the prize is an eternal crown of angelic essence, citizenship
in the heavens, and glory everlasting. Therefore your Master, Jesus Christ, who
has anointed you with his Spirit, and led you forth to the arena, has seen it good
 Water, Faith
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and Wood
Tertullian, To the Martyrs
This letter to a group of imprisoned Christians is the earliest known
writing of Tertullian and was written in approximately 197.
Tertullian’s primary purpose was encouraging these brothers and
sisters in the midst of their trials. He reminds them of the glories of
the resurrection that lie just beyond their persecution. This epistle
is important because it paints a picture of the Early Church’s
understanding of imprisonment and martyrdom.
Chapter I.
To those blessed ones designated to be martyrs – along with the provision which
our lady mother the Church from her bountiful breasts, and each brother out of
his private means, makes for your bodily wants in prison – accept also from me
some contribution to your spiritual sustenance. For it is not good that the flesh
be feasted and the spirit starve. Indeed, if that which is weak is to be carefully
looked after, it is but right that that which is still weaker should not be neglected.
Not that I am specially entitled to exhort you; yet not only the trainers and
overseers, but even the unskilled, indeed all who choose, by their cries animate
from afar the most accomplished gladiators, and from the mere throng of
onlookers useful suggestions have sometimes come. First then, O blessed ones,
do not grieve the Holy Spirit (Eph. 4:30), who has entered the prison with you;
for if he had not gone with you there, you would not have been there today.
Give all effort, therefore, to retain him, and thus let him lead you to your Lord.
The prison, indeed, is the devil’s house as well, wherein he keeps his family.
But you have come within its walls for the very purpose of trampling the wicked
one under foot in his chosen abode. You had already utterly overcome him in
battle outside. Let him have no reason, then, to say to himself, “They are now in
my domain; I shall tempt them with vile hatreds, with defections or dissensions
among themselves.” Let him fly from your presence and sulk away into his
own abysses, shrunken and torpid, as though he were an outcharmed or smoked-
out snake. Give him not the success – within his own kingdom – of setting you
at variance with each other, but let him find you armed and fortified with unity;
for peace among you is battle with him. Some, not able to find this peace in the
Church, have sought it from the imprisoned martyrs. And so you ought to have
it dwelling with you, and to cherish and guard it, that you may be able perhaps
to bestow it upon others.
Chapter II.
Other things, equally hindrances of the soul, may have accompanied you as far
as the prison gate, to which your relatives also may have attended you. There
you were severed from the world; how much more from the ordinary course of
worldly life and all its affairs! Nor let this separation from the world alarm you;
for if we reflect that the world is more really the prison, we shall see that you
have gone out of a prison rather than into one. The world has the greater
darkness, blinding men’s hearts. The world imposes the more grievous fetters,
binding men’s very souls. The world breathes out the worst impurities, human
lusts. The world contains the larger number of criminals, even the whole human
race. Then, last of all, it awaits the judgment, not of the proconsul, but of God.
Wherefore, O blessed ones, you may regard yourselves as having been translated
Faith 47
rabbit trails, our rationalizations, our bloody crusades and our greedy
materialism, we still are called to follow the example of Jesus.
Christian leaders from the Apostle Paul to Thomas à Kempis, to
Fenelon, to Kierkegaard, to Richard Foster have reminded us of the
simplicity of our calling: that we have only one purpose in life and
that is to take Christ Jesus as our model for living.
Following the example of Jesus, there were two fundamental
attitudes that shaped the life of the Early Church. The early
Christians, in taking these two attitudes as foundational to their
Christian discipleship, provide for us a model of corporate obedience
to Jesus.
Prayer
Our tendency today is to think of prayer primarily as a
practice rather than an attitude. The Early Church however, although
they did recognize prayer as a practice, saw prayer in a broader
sense as an attitude and specifically the attitude of submission to
God’s will – i.e., to the divinely authored story that is unfolding on
the stage of the world. This attitude is displayed most poignantly in
Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane: “Not my will, but your
will be done” (Lk. 22:42, etc.). It also is a primary facet of the “Lord’s
Prayer,” the prayer that Jesus gave his disciples when they asked
him how they should pray (Lk. 11:1-4): “Your Kingdom (not our
own personal kingdoms) come.” Cyprian likewise reminds the
Church of this attitude: “We must not obey our own will, but that of
God” (Third Treatise #19). The Apostle Paul undoubtedly had this
attitude in mind when he challenged the Church in Thessalonica to
“pray without ceasing” (I Thess. 5:17). Tertullian in his treatise on
the Lord’s Prayer elaborates on this concept of prayer as an attitude
of submission (see excerpt on previous page).
Thus, prayer is not only a reminder of the ultimate
reconciliation of God and humanity, that day when all creation will
be in submission to the will of God, when “every knee shall bow
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Phil. 2:10-11),
but it is also the force that energizes the Church and drives it toward
that reconciliation. However, as Tertullian emphasizes, the only way
in which this reconciliation will be brought about is through the Spirit
and the will of God at work in the obedience of God’s people. There
is no other way for the Kingdom of God to come, except through the
Church’s submission to the work of God as displayed in the life of
Jesus.
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Origen, Against Celsus,
Book VIII, Chapter 73.
Celsus next urges us “to help the king with all our might, and to
labor with him in the maintenance of justice, to fight for him; and
if he requires it, to fight under him, or lead an army along with
him.” To this our answer is, that we do, when the occasion arises,
give help to kings, and indeed we offer a divine help, “putting on
the whole armor of God” (Eph 6:11). And we do this in obedience
to the command of the Apostle Paul, “I exhort, therefore, that first
of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving, be
made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority” (1
Tim. 2:1-2). Additionally, the more any one excels in piety, the
more effective help he renders to kings, and he renders even more
assistance than is given by soldiers, who go forth to fight and slay as
many of the enemy as they can. And to those enemies of our faith
who require us to bear arms for the commonwealth, and to slay
men, we reply: “Do not those who are priests at certain shrines,
and those who wait upon certain ones of your ‘gods,’ keep their
hands free from blood, that they may with unstained hands offer
the appointed sacrifices to your gods; and even when war is upon
you, you never enlist the priests in the army. If that, then, is a noble
custom, how much more so, that while others are engaged in battle,
the Christians too should intercede as the priests and ministers of
God, keeping their hands pure, and wrestling in prayers to God on
behalf of those who are fighting for true justice, and for the king
who reigns righteously, that whatever is opposed to justice may be
destroyed!” And as we – by our prayers – vanquish all the de-
mons that stir up war, and lead to the violation of oaths, and
disturb the peace, we in this service are much more helpful to
the kings than those who go into the field to fight for them.
And we do take our part in public affairs, when along with
righteous prayers we practice self-denying disciplines and
meditations, which teach us to despise pleasures, and not to be
led astray by them. And none fight better for the king [and his
role of preserving justice] than we do.We do not indeed fight
under him, although he demands it; but we fight on his behalf,
forming a special army of piety by offering our prayers to God.
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gains could be reaped from numbers too great for any to be ignorant of them.
Bought with blood, paid for with blood, we owe no money for our head, because
Christ is our Head. It is not fit that Christ should cost us money. How could
martyrdoms, too, take place to the glory of the Lord, if by tribute we should pay
for the liberty of our sect? And so, he who stipulates to have liberty at a price,
opposes the divine appointment. Since, therefore, Caesar has imposed nothing
on us after this fashion of a tributary sect – in fact, such an imposition never can
be made with the Antichrist now close at hand, and gaping for the blood, not
the money of Christians – how can it be pointed out to me that there is the
command, “Render to Caesar the things which are Caesar’s” (Matt. 22:21)? A
soldier, be he an informer or an enemy, extorts money from me by threats,
exacting nothing on Caesar’s behalf. Indeed, he does the very opposite, when
for a bribe he lets me go, Christian as I am, and by the laws of man a criminal. Of
another sort is the denarius which I owe to Caesar, a thing belonging to him,
about which the question then was started, it being a tribute coin due indeed by
those subject to tribute, not by children. Or how shall I render to God the things
that are God’s: certainly, therefore, his own likeness and money inscribed with
his name, that is, in a Christian man? But what do I owe God, as I owe the
denarius to Caesar, but the blood that his own Son shed for me? Now if I owe
God, indeed, a human being and my own blood; but I am now in this juncture,
that a demand is made upon me for the payment of that debt, I am undoubtedly
guilty of cheating God if I do my best to withhold payment. Have I kept the
commandment well, if, rendering to Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, I
refuse to God the things which are God’s?
...
14. But you say, “How shall we assemble together under persecution? How
shall we observe the ordinances of the Lord?” To be sure, just as the Apostles
also did, who were protected by faith, not by money – a faith which, if it can
remove a mountain, can much more remove a soldier. Let wisdom be your
safeguard, not a bribe. For you will not have at once complete security from the
people also, should you buy off the interference of the soldiers. Therefore all
you need for your protection is to have both faith and wisdom: if you do not
make use of these, you may lose even the deliverance which you have purchased
for yourself; while, if you do employ them, you can have no need of any
ransoming. Lastly, if you cannot assemble by day, you have the night, the light
of Christ luminous against its darkness. You cannot run about among them one
after another. Be content with a church of threes. It is better that you sometimes
should not see your crowds, than subject yourselves to a tribute bondage. Keep
Christ’s betrothed virgin pure for him; let no one make gain of her. These things,
my brother, seem to you perhaps harsh and not to be endured; but recall that
God has said, “He who receives it, let him receive it,”(Matt. 19:12), that is, let
him who does not receive it go his way. He who fears to suffer cannot belong to
him who suffered. But the man who does not fear to suffer, he will be perfect in
love – in the love, it is meant, of God: “for perfect love casts out fear” (I John
4:18). “And therefore many are called, but few chosen” (Matt. 22:14). It is not
asked who is ready to follow the broad way, but who the narrow. And therefore
we need the Comforter, who guides us into all truth, and energizes us to all
endurance. And they who have received him will neither stoop to flee from
persecution nor to buy it off, for they have the Lord himself, One who will stand
by us to aid us in suffering, as well as to be our mouth when we are questioned.
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he offered the Apostles money for the Spirit of Christ. Therefore this man also,
who in buying himself has bought the Spirit of Christ, will hear that word, “Your
money perish with you, since you have thought that the grace of God is to be
had at a price” (Acts 8:20)! Yet who will despise him for being what he is, a
denier? For what does the extorter say? Give me money: assuredly that he may
not deliver you up, since he tries to sell you nothing else than that which he is
going to give you for money. When you put that into his hands, it is certainly
your wish not to be delivered up. But not delivered up, were you held up to
public ridicule? While, then, in being unwilling to be delivered up, you are not
willing to be thus exposed. By this unwillingness of yours, you have denied
that you are what you have been unwilling to make public that you are. Indeed,
you say, “While I am unwilling to be held up to the public as a Christian, I have
acknowledged that I am a Christian unwilling to be so held up as one.” Can
Christ therefore claim you, as a witness for him, having steadfastly shown him
forth? He who buys himself off does nothing in that way. Before one it might
doubtlessly be said, you have confessed him; so also, on the account of your
unwillingness to confess Him before many you have denied him. A man’s very
safety will pronounce that he has fallen while getting out of persecution’s way.
Therefore, he also has fallen whose desire has been to escape. The refusal of
martyrdom is denial. How can a Christian be preserved by his wealth, and use
his treasures that he may not suffer, and yet be rich toward God? But it is the
case that Christ was rich in blood for him. Blessed therefore are the poor, because
he says the kingdom of heaven is theirs who have the soul only treasured up
(Matt. 5:3). If we cannot serve both God and mammon, can we be redeemed
both by God and by mammon? For who will serve mammon more than the man
whom mammon has ransomed? Finally, what example do you use to warrant
your averting by money your arrest? When did the Apostles, dealing with the
matter, in any time of persecution, extricate themselves by money? And money
they certainly had from the prices of lands which were laid down at their feet
(Acts 4:34, 35), there being, without a doubt, many of the rich among those who
believed – men, and also women, who were wont, too, to minister to their
comfort. When did Onesimus, or Aquila, or Stephen, give them aid of this kind
when they were persecuted? Paul indeed, when Felix the governor hoped that
he should receive money for him from the disciples (Acts. 24:26), about which
matter he also dealt with the apostle in private, certainly neither paid it himself,
nor did the disciples for him. Those disciples, at any rate, who wept because he
was equally persistent in his determination to go to Jerusalem, and neglectful of
all means to secure himself from the persecutions that had been foretold as
about to occur there, at last say, “Let the will of the Lord be done.” What was
that will? No doubt that he should suffer for the name of the Lord, not that he
should be bought off. For as Christ laid down his life for us, so, too, we should
do for him; and not only for the Lord himself, nay, but likewise for our brethren
on his account. This, too, is the teaching of John when he declares, not that we
should pay for our brethren, but rather that we should die for them. It makes no
difference whether the thing not to be done by you is to buy off a Christian, or to
buy one. And so the will of God accords with this. Look at the condition of
kingdoms and empires – ordained by God, who holds the king’s heart in his
hand. For increasing the treasury, there are daily provided so many appliances:
registerings of property, taxes in kind benevolences, taxes in money. But never
up to this time has anything of the kind been provided by bringing Christians
under some purchase-money for the person and the sect, although enormous
Faith 49
In praying that God’s Kingdom would come, the Church’s
focus is turned outward, away from the selfish desires of the
individual. Prayer then, as Jesus, the Apostles and the Early Church
understood it is decidedly not a tool for self-improvement, for the
building of a multitude of selfish, individual kingdoms .
Understanding humanity’s tendency to selfishly abuse prayer,
Ignatius clarifies the instruction of the Apostle Paul, saying: “pray
without ceasing on behalf of other men” (Letter to the Ephesians X).
Origen likewise emphasizes that our prayerful obedience to God’s
will brings about the fruits of the Kingdom in the world (see excerpt
on previous page, especially the italicized portion). Origen’s
depiction of prayer in this passage is striking because it illustrates
prayer as an attitude, which begins on bended knees in the act of
prayer but continues to permeate all corners of life through the
practice of “self-denying disciplines and meditations.”
The fruit of our prayerful obedience, as Origen describes it,
is the “[vanquishing of] all the demons that stir up war and lead to
the violation of oaths and disturb the peace” (Against Celsus
VIII.LXXIII). Thus, the Kingdom – or the Reign – of God is powerfully
made manifest in our midst. Tertullian also hammers this point
home:”Prayer alone is that which unleashes God. ... [I]t washes away
faults, repels temptations, extinguishes persecutions, consoles the
faint-spirited, cheers the high-spirited, escorts travelers, calms waves,
makes robbers stand aghast, nourishes the poor, governs the rich,
raises up the fallen, arrests the falling, confirms the standing.” (On
Prayer XXIX). These words remind us of Jesus’ proclamation at the
outset of his ministry: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he
has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor; he has sent me
to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and
recovery of sight to the blind, to set the oppressed at liberty, to preach
the acceptable year of the Lord” (Lk. 4:18-19). Thus, in prayerful
submission to God’s will we are participants in the work of Jesus,
servants and ambassadors of God’s Kingdom of reconciliation, who
bring healing and liberty to the world.
Patientia
Thus, as the early Christians prayerfully submitted to the
will of God, they were prepared to carry out their roles in the divine
story. However, in order to discern and carry out these roles, their
minds had to be guided by a second fundamental attitude, which
they referred to as “patientia.” Patientia is indeed the Latin word
that is the source of our English word “patience.” However, I have
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Cyprian,
On the Advantage of Patience, Chapter IV.
But what and how great is the patience in God, that, most patiently
enduring the profane temples and the images of earth, and the
sacrilegious rites instituted by men, in contempt of his majesty and
honour, he makes the day to begin and the light of the sun to arise
upon the good and the evil alike. Furthermore, while he waters the
earth with showers, no one is excluded from his benefits, but he
bestows his undiscriminating rains equally upon the righteous and
the unrighteous . We see that with undistinguishing equality of
patience, at God’s behest, the seasons minister to the guilty and the
guiltless, the religious and the impious – those who give thanks and
the ungrateful. The elements wait on them; the winds blow, the
fountains flow, the abundance of the harvest increases, the fruits of
the vineyard ripen, the trees are loaded with apples, the groves put
on their leaves, the meadows their greenness; and while God is
provoked with frequent, and indeed, with continual offences, he
softens his indignation, and in patience waits for the day of
retribution, once for all determined; and although he has revenge
in his power, he prefers to keep patience for a long while, bearing,
that is to say, mercifully, and putting off, so that, if it might be
possible, the long protracted mischief may at some time be changed,
and man, involved in the contagion of errors and crimes, may even
though late be converted to God, as he himself warns and says, “I
do not will the death of him that dies, so much as that he may
return and live” (Ezek. 18:32). And again, ”Return unto me, says
the Lord” (Mal. 3:7). And again: “Return to the Lord your God;
for he is merciful, and gracious, and patient, and of great pity, and
who inclines his judgment towards the evils inflicted” (Joel 2:13).
Which, moreover, the blessed Apostle referring to, and recalling
the sinner to repentance, sets forward, and says: “Do you despise
the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering, not
knowing that the patience and goodness of God leads you to
repentance? But in accordance with your hardened and impenitent
heart you treasure up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and of
revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to
everyone according to his works” (Rom. 2:4-6). He says that God’s
judgment is just, because it is tardy, because it is long and greatly
deferred so that by the long patience of God humankind may be
benefited for life eternal.
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over, shepherdless, to be preyed upon by all the beasts of the field. And this
never happens more than when in times of persecution the Church is abandoned
by its leaders. If any one recognizes the Spirit also, he will hear him branding
the runaways. But if it does not become the keepers of the flock to flee when the
wolves invade – nay, if that is absolutely unlawful (for he who has declared a
shepherd of this sort a bad one has certainly condemned him; and whatever is
condemned has, without doubt, become unlawful) – on this ground it will not
be the duty of those who have been set over the Church to flee in the time of
persecution. But otherwise, if the flock should flee, the overseer of the flock
would have no call to hold his ground, as his doing so in that case would be –
without good reason – to give to the flock protection, which it would not require
in consequence of its liberty to flee.
12. So far, my brother, as the question proposed by you is concerned, you have
our opinion in answer and encouragement. But he who inquires whether
persecution ought to be shunned by us must now be prepared to consider the
following question also: Whether, if we should not flee from it, we should at
least buy ourselves off from it. Therefore, going further than you expected, I
will also on this point give you my advice, distinctly affirming that persecution,
from which it is evident we must not flee, must in like manner not even be
bought off. The difference lies in the payment; but as flight is a buying off without
money, so buying off is flight with money. Assuredly you have here too the
counseling of fear. Because you fear, you buy yourself off; and so you flee. As to
your feet, you have stood, but in respect of the money you have paid, you have
run away. Why, in this very standing of yours there was a fleeing from
persecution, in the release from persecution that you bought. But the fact that
you should ransom with money a man whom Christ has ransomed with his
blood, how unworthy is it of God and his ways of acting, who spared not his
own Son for you, that he might be made a curse for us, because cursed is he that
hangs on a tree (Rom. 8: 32)? He was led as a sheep to be sacrificed, and just as
a lamb before its shearer, he did not make a sound (Isa. 53:7) but gave his back
to the scourges, his cheeks to the hands of the smiter, and did not turn his face
away from spitting, and, being numbered with the transgressors, was delivered
up to death, indeed, the death of the cross. All this took place that he might
redeem us from our sins. The sun ceded to us the day of our redemption; hell re-
transferred the right it had in us, and our covenant is now in heaven; the
everlasting gates were lifted up, that the King of Glory, the mighty Lord, might
enter in, after having redeemed man from earth, (i.e., from hell) that he might
attain to heaven. What, now, are we to think of the man who strives against that
glorious One, nay slights and defiles his goods, obtained at so great a ransom –
no less, in truth, than his most precious blood? It appears, then, that it is better
to flee than to fall in value, if a man will not lay out for himself as much as he
cost Christ. And the Lord indeed ransomed him from the angelic powers which
rule the world – from the spirits of wickedness, from the darkness of this life,
from eternal judgment, from everlasting death. But you bargain for him with an
informer, or a soldier or some paltry thief of a government official, as if he were
stolen goods whom Christ purchased in the face of the whole world, yes, and
set at liberty. Will you value then, this free man at any price, and possess him at
any price, but the one, as we have said, it cost the Lord – namely, his own blood?
And if not, why then do you purchase Christ in the man in whom he dwells, as
though he were some human property? Simon even tried to do likewise, when
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is a defeated man, be a conqueror? How worthy is the one under Christ’s
command who, as soon as he hears persecution’s trumpet, runs off from the day
of persecution? I also will produce in answer a quotation taken from the world:
“Is it such a sad thing to die” (The Aeneid, xii. 646 )? He must die, in whichever
way, either as conquered or as conqueror. But although he has succumbed in
denying, he has yet faced and battled with the torture. I would rather be one to
be pitied than to be blushed for. More glorious is the soldier pierced with a
javelin in battle, than he who has a safe skin as a fugitive. Do you fear man, O
Christian; you who ought to be feared by the angels, since you are to judge
angels; who ought to be feared by evil spirits, since you have received power
also over evil spirits; who ought to be feared by the whole world, since by you,
too, the world is judged? You are clothed with Christ, you who flee before the
devil, since into Christ you have been baptized. Christ, who is in you, is treated
as of small account when you give yourself back to the devil, by becoming a
fugitive before him. But, seeing it is from the Lord you flee, you taunt all runaways
with the futility of their purpose. A certain bold prophet also fled from the Lord,
he crossed over from Joppa in the direction of Tarsus, as if he could as easily
transport himself away from God. He was found, not in the sea or on the land,
but, in fact, in the belly of a beast, in which he was confined for the space of
three days, unable either to find death or even thus escape from God. How
much better is the conduct of the man who, though he fears the enemy of God,
does not flee from, but rather despises him, relying on the protection of the
Lord; or, if you will, has a greater awe of God, the more that he has stood in his
presence. This one says, “It is the Lord, he is mighty. All things belong to him.
Wherever I am, I am in his hand: let him do as he wills, I go not away. If it be his
pleasure that I die, let him destroy me himself, while I save myself for him. I
would rather bring odium upon him by dying according to his will, than by
escaping through my own anger.”
11. Every servant of God should feel and act this way, even one in an inferior
place, that he may come to have a more important one, if he has made some
upward step by his endurance of persecution. But when persons in authority
themselves – I mean the very deacons, and presbyters, and bishops – take to
flight, how will a layman be able to understand what to do? Thus, too, with the
leaders turning their backs, who of the common rank will hope to persuade men
to stand firm in the battle? Most assuredly a good shepherd lays down his life
for the sheep, according to the word of Moses, when the Lord Christ had not yet
been revealed, but was already shadowed forth in himself: “If you destroy this
people,” he says, “destroy me also along with it” (Ex. 32:32). But Christ,
confirming these foreshadowings himself, adds: “The bad shepherd is he who,
on seeing the wolf, flees, and leaves the sheep to be torn in pieces” (John 10:12).
Why, a shepherd like this would be laid off from the farm; the wages to have
been given him at the time of his discharge will be kept from him as
compensation. Indeed, even from his former savings a restoration of the master’s
loss will be required; for “to him who has more will be given, but from him who
has not shall be taken away even that which he seems to have (Luke 8:18). Thus
Zechariah threatens: “Arise, O sword, against the shepherds, and pluck out the
sheep; and I will turn my hand against the shepherds” (Zech. 13:7). And against
them both, Ezekiel and Jeremiah pronounce with kindred threatenings, for they
not only wickedly eat the sheep – they feeding themselves rather than those
committed to their charge – but they also scatter the flock. Thus, they give it
Faith 51
chosen to retain the Latin term, as a reminder that this attitude was
much broader in meaning in the Early Church than the practices
that come to our minds when we think of patience. Above all,
patientia was understood as an essential part of God’s nature. Today,
we would be quick to affirm that God is love (I Jn. 4:8, 16), but we
have a tendency to forget the Apostle Paul’s definition of love in
which it is described as first and foremost patient (I Cor. 13:4).
Similarly, the Early Church also understood Jesus as providing us
with a model of patience. Tertullian spends a chapter of his treatise
On Patience describing the connection between the beatitudes and
patience. He says, for instance,
When [Jesus] marks “the peacemakers” (Matt. 5:9) with
the [title] of blessedness, and names them as “children
of God,” do the impatient have any affinity with
“peace?” Even a fool may perceive the answer to that
question. When, however, he says, “Rejoice and be
glad, when they curse and persecute you; for very great
is your reward in heaven,” (Matt. 5:11-12) of course it
is not to the impatience of exultation that he makes that
promise; because no one will “exult” in adversities
unless he has first learned to endure them, and no one
will endure them unless he has learned to practice
patience (XI).
This passage reminds us that the attitude of patientia, in the early
Christian communities, was largely comprised of endurance.
Cyprian likewise describes God’s endurance through the sins of
humanity (see excerpt on previous page).
Tertullian also reminds his readers of their calling to endure
through violence, grief, and indeed through all circumstances until
the coming resurrection. While we tend to think of patience as a
mindset, Tertullian notes that although patience begins in the mind,
it also serves as a guide for all our being. In particular, he refers to
endurance through torture as bodily patience. He says: “But when
the Lord pronounces the flesh ‘weak,’ he shows what need there is
of strengthening it – through patience – to meet every preparation
for subverting or punishing faith; that it may bear with all constancy
stripes, fire, cross, beasts, sword; all of which the prophets and
apostles, by enduring, conquered!” Tertullian proceeds to name
Isaiah, Stephen and above all Job, as examples of bodily patience
(On Patience XIV). Cyprian also finds Job to be a paragon of patientia:
Thus Job was searched out and proved, and was raised
up to the very highest pinnacle of praise by the virtue
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of patience. What darts of the devil were sent forth
against him! What tortures were put in use! The loss of
his estate is inflicted, and the privation of numerous
offspring is ordained for him. The master, rich in estate,
and the father, richer in children, is suddenly neither
master nor father! The wasting of wounds is added; and
moreover an eating pest of worms consumes his
festering and wasting limbs. … And yet Job is not broken
down by his severe and repeated conflicts, nor the
blessing of God withheld from being declared in the
midst of those difficulties and trials of his, by the victory
of patience. (On the Advantage of Patience XVIII)
Indeed Job provides us with a stellar example of patientia: patience
under material loss, patience under grief, patience under illness and
patience under the mockery of his wife and friends. Although Job’s
story stands as a stellar model of endurance, patientia for the Early
Church consisted of more than mere endurance.
Perhaps the most challenging aspect of patientia was the
mindset that the disciple of Jesus was to let God be his avenger, and
was not to take revenge upon his enemies. Tertullian spends a chapter
describing how we are to leave vengeance to God. In this chapter, he
argues that when God proclaims “Vengeance is mine” (Rom. 12:19,
Heb. 10:30), we are to understand that it indeed is God’s alone and
not our own (On Patience X). Thus, patientia was a guide for the
early Christians when they faced persecution; it taught them that it
is better to endure the suffering, as Christ and the Apostles did, than
to return evil for evil, even to the point of not cursing their oppressors
(cf. Tertullian On Patience VIII). Patientia could therefore be
summarized as trust in God’s sovereignty and omnipotence in all
situations, even those in which we have to endure physical or
emotional suffering. To have patientia is to proclaim with Job, in the
midst of our suffering: “Blessed be the name of the Lord” (1:21) or “I
know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be
thwarted” (42:2 NRSV). Thus, the stories of the Early Church show
that the attitudes of prayer and patientia shaped the early Christian
communities and defined the practices that were essential to their
gathered life.
Holiness
The first such practice was holiness. The Early Church, above
all else, aimed to be a holy community. However, before we examine
this claim any further, we should make sure we have a firm definition
of holiness: to be holy is to be set apart. It is not uncommon for people
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salvation, just as by enduring persecution he has his salvation made more secure.
Unless – according to the Lord’s will – one either perishes irrationally or is
irrationally saved, he will not be able to speak of persecution as an evil, which,
while it is under the direction of reason, is – despite the evil (that perpetrates it)
– good. So, if persecution is in every way a good, because it has a natural basis,
we on valid grounds state that what is good ought not to be shunned by us,
because it is a sin to refuse what is good; besides that which has been looked
upon by God can no longer indeed be avoided, proceeding as it does from God,
from whose will escape is not possible. Therefore those who think that they
should flee, either reproach God by doing what is evil, if they flee from
persecution as an evil (for no one avoids what is good); or they count themselves
stronger than God: imagining it possible to escape when it is God’s pleasure
that such events should occur.
5. But someone might say: I flee, which I have a right to do, that I may not perish
by my denial of God; it is for God on his part, if he chooses, to bring me – when
I flee – back before the tribunal. First answer me this: Are you sure you will
deny if you do not flee, or are you not sure? For if you are sure, you have denied
already, because by this presupposition, you have given yourself up to denial,
and thus it is vain for you to think of flight, that you may avoid denial, when
you have already denied God in your mind. But if you are doubtful on that
point, why do you not, in the uncertainty of your fear, wavering between the
two different issues, presume that you are able to act a confessor’s part, and so
add to your safety that you may not flee, just as you presuppose denial to send
you off as a fugitive? Thus, the matter stands: we have either both things in our
own power, or they lie wholly with God. If it is ours to confess or to deny, why
do we not expect the nobler thing, that is, that we will confess? If you are not
willing to confess, you are not willing to suffer; and to be unwilling to confess is
to deny. But if the matter is wholly in God’s hand, why do we not leave it to his
will, recognizing his might and power in that. Just as he can bring us back to
trial when we flee, so he is able to screen us when we do not flee; yes, and he
even lives in the very heart of his people. It is strange conduct, is it not, to honor
God in the matter of flight from persecution, because he can bring you back
from your flight to stand before the judgment-seat; but in regard of witness-
bearing, to do him high dishonor by despairing of his power to shield you from
danger? Why do you not, on this the side of constancy and trust in God, say: “I
do my part. I depart not. God, if he chooses, will be my protector”? It seems to
us better to retain our position in submission to the will of God, than to flee at
our own will. Rutilius, a saintly martyr, fled many times from persecution from
place to place, nay, having thought himself to have bought security from danger
with money. He thought he had provided himself with complete security, but
he was unexpectedly seized, and being brought before the magistrate, was put
to the torture and cruelly mangled – a punishment, I believe, for his fleeing.
Thereafter, he was consigned to the flames, and thus paid to the mercy of God
the suffering that he had shunned. What else did the Lord mean to show us by
this example, but that we should not flee from persecution because it avails us
nothing if God disapproves?
...
10. Some, paying no attention to the exhortations of God, are readier to apply to
themselves that Greek verse of worldly wisdom, “He who fled will fight again”
– and perhaps also in the battle to flee again. And when will he who, as a fugitive,
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...
3. Seeing therefore that these [ temptations to reject Christ] occur in persecutions
more than at other times, as there is then among us more proving or rejecting,
more affirming or punishing, it must be that their general occurrence is permitted
(or commanded) by him at whose will they happen even partially – by the One
who says, “I am he who makes peace and creates evil (i.e., war, for that is the
antithesis of peace)” (Isa. 45: 7). But what war has seized our peace other than
that of persecution? If persecution emphatically brings either life or death, either
wounds or healing, you have the author, too, of this: “I will smite and heal; I will
make alive and put to death” (Deut. 32: 39). “I will burn them,” he says, “as
gold is burned; and I will try them,” he says, “as silver is tried,” (Zech. 13:9) for
when the flame of persecution is consuming us, then the steadfastness of our
faith is proved. These persecutions will be the fiery darts of the devil, by which
faith gets a ministry of burning and kindling; yet by the will of God. Who can
doubt these things, other than people with frivolous and frigid faith, which seizes
upon those who with trembling assemble together in the church? For you say –
seeing that we assemble without order, assemble at the same time, and flock in
large numbers to the church – the heathen are led to make inquiry about us, and
we are alarmed lest we awaken their anxieties. Do you not know that God is
Lord of all? And if it is God’s will, then you will suffer persecution; but if it is
not, the heathen will be still. Believe this most surely, if indeed you believe in
that God without whose will not even the sparrow, which a penny can buy, falls
to the ground (Matt. 5:29). But we, I think, are better than many sparrows.
4. Well, if it is evident from whom persecution proceeds, we are able at once to
satisfy your doubts, and to decide from these introductory remarks alone, that
men should not flee it. For if persecution proceeds from God, in no way will it
be our duty to flee from what God has authored. There is a twofold reason for
opposing flight: for what proceeds from God ought not on the one hand to be
avoided, and it cannot be evaded on the other. It ought not to be avoided, because
it is good; for everything on which God has cast his eye must be good. This idea
has perhaps birthed this statement made in Genesis, “And God saw that it was
good.” This expression does not state that God would have been ignorant of its
goodness unless he had seen it, but rather that it was good because it was viewed
by God. There are many events indeed happening by the will of God, and
happening to somebody’s harm. Yet for all that, a thing is therefore good because
it is of God, and thus is divine and reasonable. For what is divine and not
reasonable and good? What is good and yet not divine? But if this seems to be
universally true of mankind’s apprehension, we judge that man’s faculty of
apprehension does not predetermine the nature of things, but rather that the
nature of things determines his power of apprehension. For every thing has a
certain definite reality, and the perceptive power’s role is to perceive it just as it
exists. Now, if that which comes from God is good in its natural state (for there
is nothing from God which is not good, because it is divine and reasonable), but
seems evil only to human perception, the problem lies not with the nature, but
rather with the perceptive faculty. In its real nature chastity is a very good thing,
as is truth and righteousness; and yet these things are distasteful to many. Is
perhaps the real nature of these things sacrificed to the sense of perception?
Thus, persecution also in its own nature is good, because it is a divine and
reasonable appointment; but those to whom it comes as a punishment do not
feel it to be pleasant. You see that even this evil, since it proceeds from God, has
a reasonable ground: if one recants under persecution he is cast out of a state of
Faith 53
to understand holiness as synonymous with righteousness. It is
indeed true that both God and the Church are holy because of
righteousness, but we should not lose sight of the fact that these two
concepts are distinct, and that we are called to live as a people set
apart from the sinful ways of the world . However, we must stress
the distinction here that while God’s people are called to be set apart
from the ways of the world, we are not called to live in isolation from
the world. Holiness should never be misunderstood as isolationism
Since the earliest days of humanity, the people of God have
been marked by their holiness. One of the major themes of the Israelite
history recorded in the Old Testament, is Israel’s cycle of
domestication and holiness. Although the stories of the Old Testament
Law clearly and repeatedly spell out Israel’s call to holiness , the
Hebrew people had a tendency at some times to be more like the
nations around them and at others to be more obedient to God’s call
for them to be a holy nation. For instance, the story in I Samuel 8
about Israel’s rejection of God’s authority in their cry for a human
king can be understood as an historical example of their
domestication. The Church likewise has gone through numerous
cycles of holiness and domestication. The earliest centuries of the
Church tended more toward holiness than domestication, although
there was a definite trend toward domestication that culminated in
the Emperor Constantine’s unification of Church and State. There
are two specific patterns of holiness – ethical holiness and political
holiness – that are found repeatedly in the stories of the Early Church
(and there is admittedly a fair amount of overlap between these two
patterns). The Church tended toward holiness in its ethics because
its practices were shaped by Christ’s love and not by the sinful ways
of the world. It also tended toward holiness in its politics because it
sought the establishment of the Kingdom of God on Earth, and not
the agenda of any worldly government or ideology. The holiness of
the early Christian communities is perhaps best expressed in the
passionate words of Tatian:
I do not wish to be a king; I am not anxious to be rich; I
decline military command; I detest fornication; I am not
impelled by an insatiable greed to go to sea; I do not
contend for the honors of men; I am free from a mad
thirst for fame; I despise death; I am superior to every
kind of disease; grief does not consume my soul. If I am
a slave, I endure servitude. If I am free, I do not flaunt
my good birth. … Die to the world, repudiating the
madness that is in it. Live to God, and by apprehending
him lay aside your old nature (Address XI).
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These patterns of holiness in the Early Church were forged
above all by its attitudes of prayer and patientia. The holiness of God’s
people was an extension of prayer; in committing themselves to the
unfolding story of God’s Kingdom, the early Christians intentionally
distinguished themselves from the world around them. The Didache
begins with the proclamation that “There are two paths, one of life
and one of death, and the difference is great between the two paths.”
Thus, the attitude of prayer was the basis for holiness, as it served as
both an identification with Christ’s way of life and a pointed
separation from the world’s way of death. Tertullian, commenting
on the second clause of the Lord’s prayer, illuminates the connection
between prayer and holiness: “When we say, ‘Hallowed (i.e., holy)
be Thy name,’ we pray this; that it may be hallowed in us who are in
him” (On Prayer III). Patientia likewise prepared the early Christians
for holiness; their trust in the sovereignty of God freed them from
the worldly practices of the culture around them. For instance, they
no longer had to return evil for evil; they trusted that God would
avenge any evil done to them. Similarly, their patient trust freed
them from the fear of illness or death. Jesus instructed the crowds in
the Sermon on the Mount: “Therefore take no thought for tomorrow,
saying, What shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Or with what
shall we be clothed? For the pagans strive after all these things” (Matt.
6:31-32). Why is it that the pagans are worried about these things?
They do so because they are afraid of sickness and death. Thus, the
Church’s patientia, its patient trust in God’s sovereignty,
distinguished it from the cultures of the world.
The ethics of the Early Church therefore were set apart from
the ways of the culture in which they were immersed. Their practices
were shaped at a fundamental level by their refusal to serve any idol.
In an age in which the pagan Greeks were consumed by their worship
of a multitude of gods, the Christians served one God only, and that
God was not one fashioned by human hands. Mathetes writes in his
letter to Diognetus:
Are all these [pagan] gods not deaf? Are they not blind?
Are they not without life? Are they not destitute of
feeling? Are they not incapable of motion? Are they not
all liable to rot? Are they not all corruptible? These things
you call gods; these you serve; these you worship; and
you become altogether like them. For this reason, you
hate the Christians, because they do not deem these to be
gods. But do not you yourselves, who now think and
suppose such to be gods, much more cast contempt upon
them than they do upon you? Do you not mock and insult
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Chapter 7
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Writings from the Early Church
• • •
Tertullian, On Flight in Persecution
This treatise, written sometime around 215, addresses the question
of how Christians should handle persecution. This question was
originally raised by Tertullian’s brother, Fabius, who – according to
the text – was not a follower of Christ. Tertullian’s response focuses
on two facets of the broader question: “Should a Christian flee
persecution?” and “Should a Christian use money to ward off his
persecutors?” His answer to both of these questions is an emphatic
“NO!” A large section of this treatise, which has been omitted in this
edition, addresses the origins of persecution, and the question of how
God, who is good, can allow the evil of persecution.
1. My brother Fabius, you very recently asked – because some news or other was
communicated – whether or not we ought to flee in persecution. I made some
observations on the spot, suited to the place and time, that we should not.
However, I also, owing to the rudeness of some persons, took the subject away
with me half-treated, with the intention of setting it forth more fully by my pen.
Your inquiry had interested me in this question, and the state of our times had
already pressed it upon me. As persecutions increasingly threaten us, so we are
called upon more often to give earnest thought to the question of how faith ought
to receive them. The duty of carefully considering this matter concerns you no
less, who no doubt – by not accepting the Comforter, the guide to all truth – have
also naturally opposed us in regard to other questions. We have therefore applied
a methodical treatment to your question. We must first come to a decision about
how we should think of persecution itself, whether it comes upon us from God
or from the devil, so that we might have less difficulty in getting on firm ground
regarding our duty to meet it; for one’s knowledge of a thing is clearer when it is
known from whom it has its origin.
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Chapter XIII.
Exhortation to Meet Together Frequently for the Worship of God.
Take heed, then, to come together often to give thanks to God, and show his
praise. For when you come frequently together in the same place, the powers
of Satan are destroyed, and his “fiery darts” (Eph. 6:16) of sin fall back, worthless.
For your unity and harmonious faith prove his destruction, and the torment of
his assistants. Nothing is better than Christ’s peace, by which all war, both of
heavenly and earthly spirits, is brought to an end. “For we wrestle not against
blood and flesh, but against principalities and powers, and against the rulers
of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in heavenly places”
(Eph. 6:12).
Chapter XIV.
Exhortations to Faith and Love.
Therefore, none of the tools of the devil shall be hidden from you, if, like Paul,
you perfectly possess that faith and love towards Christ (1 Tim. 1:4) which are
the beginning and the end of life. The beginning of life is faith, and the end is
love. And these two being inseparably connected together, serve to perfect the
servant of God; while all other things that are necessary for a holy life follow
after them. No one making a profession of faith ought to sin, nor one possessed
of love to hate his brother. For he that said, “You shall love the Lord your
God,” also said, “and love your neighbor as yourself” (Lk. 10:27). Those that
profess themselves to be Christ’s are known not only by what they say, but
also by what they practice. “For the tree is known by its fruit” (Matt. 12:33).
Faith 55
them more, when you worship gods made of stone and
earthenware, without appointing any persons to guard
them; but those made of silver and gold you shut up by
night, and appoint watchmen to look after them by day,
lest they be stolen? (II)
It was not enough however for the Christians to avoid the
idols of the Greeks, their obedience to Jesus left no room for any
idols at all. Gluttony, the idolatry of food, and drunkenness, the
idolatry of alcohol – both of which ran rampant in the pagan culture
of the Greeks and Romans – were rejected by the Christians. Cyprian,
in describing the Church, tells his readers that “the believer ought
not to live like the Gentiles,” (Third Treatise #34) and that “too great
a lust of food is not to be desired” (#60). Jesus likewise taught that
his followers should not only avoid excesses of diet, but even that
they should not worry about what they were to eat, as the pagans
were wont to do (Matt. 6:31-33). In contrast to the Greeks, Jesus was
energized by his obedience, saying: “My food is to do the will of
him that sent me, and to finish his work” (John 4:34).
Money and material possessions were another area in which
the early Christians were set apart from the practices of the world.
They were not consumed with greed and those who had an
abundance of wealth were expected to share liberally with those
who did not . They lived as aliens and strangers on Earth, and thus
handled the things of the Earth loosely. Hermas writes in his first
parable: “You know that you, who are the servants of God, dwell in
a strange land; for your city is far away from this one. … If, then, …
you know the city in which you are to dwell, why do you acquire
lands here, and make expensive decorations, and accumulate
dwellings and useless buildings? He who makes such preparations
for this city cannot return again to his own.” Jesus taught that
humanity easily makes idols of their money and possessions, and
he had as little to do with such things as possible. When he sent out
his disciples (Luke 10), he sent them out without money, and warned
them in his teaching that if they were not careful, money would
supplant God as their master: “No man can serve two masters: for
either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will cling to
the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and
mammon” (Matt. 6:24).
Similarly, the early Christians avoided the sexual
indulgences of the pagans. Cyprian refers to fornication as grievous
(Third Treatise #63), and reminds his audience that carnal idolatry
leads to death (#64). Similarly, Mathetes notes that the early
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Christians shared a common table, but not a common bed (Diognetus
V). In regard to sexuality, as in all things, the Early Church set their
sights on Jesus, who though he was tempted in every way just as we
are, was without sin (Hebrews 4:15).
The Early Church, as we have noted, was not only holy in its
ethics; it was also politically holy. Just as the ethical holiness of the
early Christian communities was marked by the rejection of false
gods, its political holiness was marked by the rejection of false
allegiances. Hermas – no doubt alluding to Hebrews 13:14 – reminds
his audience in his first parable, that our home is not here on Earth,
but rather that we seek a City that is to come. When Jesus taught his
disciples to pray, he taught them to pray that God’s Kingdom would
be established on Earth, and he made it clear that God’s Kingdom
was never to be taken as equivalent to any earthly kingdom (cf. Jn.
18:36, Lk. 17:20-21). Tertullian reinforces this latter point by observing
that, in opposition to earthly kingdoms which desire to control and
prolong the present age, “the Kingdom of God, which we pray may
arrive, tends toward the conclusion of the present age” (On Prayer
V). Since the primary allegiance of the Early Church lay with the
coming Kingdom of God, its members were expected not to be
mindless servants of their earthly kingdoms. This political holiness
is summed up eloquently in the words of Tertullian:
Since all zeal in the pursuit of glory and honor is dead
in us, we have no pressing inducement to take part in
your public meetings; nor is there anything more foreign
to us than the affairs of state. We acknowledge one all-
embracing commonwealth – the world (Apology
XXXVIII).
As Tertullian emphasizes, the early Christians did not serve in
governmental offices. Neither did they return evil for evil by fighting
in the King’s army. However, it is important to note that their non-
participation did not equate to passive indifference. Origen drives
home this point by observing that the Church did serve their earthly
Kingdoms, not by fighting its wars or filling its offices, but rather
through prayer and the practice of “self-denying disciplines” (Against
Celsus VIII.73-75). Thus, the Church resting firmly in its belief that
the will of God was more beneficial than the will of the King,
maintained that the best possible service that they could do for their
land was service that was guided by prayer, by lifting the land up to
God and pleading that God’s good and perfect will be done. Prayer,
however, as Origen notes is not a completely passive activity because
it leads the one praying into selfless acts of service. The world is
often quick to action, but their actions are often guided by selfish
Faith
153
Texts
in holy words and in deeds of piety – in order that, while thus worshipping
God truly, and training up as many as they can in the same way, they
may be filled with the word of God and the law of God, and thus be
united with the Supreme God through his Son the Word, who embodies
Wisdom, Truth, and Righteousness, and who unites to God all those who
are resolved to conform their lives in all things to the law of God.
Ignatius, Epistle to the Ephesians
There is little knowledge about when Ignatius’ Epistle to the
Ephesians was written, but it is probably safe to say that it was
written somewhere in the ballpark of 90-100 A.D. Most of Ignatius’
epistles were written to challenge heresy and divisions in the
Church; this one is no exception. The ones propagating the heresy
and division that Ignatius denounced were adherents of a Jewish
gnosticism, who were inclined to separate themselves from the
Christian community. In this excerpt, Ignatius reminds the church
in Ephesus of the importance of gathering together.
Chapter X.
Exhortations to Prayer, Humility, Etc.
[P]ray without ceasing on behalf of other men. For there is hope of repentance
in them that they may attain to God. For “cannot the one who falls rise again,
and he that goes astray return” (Jer. 8:4)? Permit them, then, to be instructed
by you. Be therefore the ministers of God, and the mouth of Christ. For thus
says the Lord, “If you take forth the precious from the vile, you shall be as my
mouth” (Jer. 15:19). Be humble in response to their wrath; oppose their
blasphemies with your earnest prayers; while they go astray, stand steadfast
in the faith. Conquer their harsh temper by gentleness, and their passion by
meekness – for “blessed are the meek” (Matt. 5:4). Remember that Moses was
meek above all men (Num. 12:3); and David too was exceeding meek (Ps.
131:2). Thus, Paul exhorts: “The servant of the Lord must not quarrel, but
must be gentle towards all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing
even his opposers” (2 Tim 2:24-25). Do not seek to avenge yourselves on those
that injure you. Let us make them brothers by our kindness. Say to those that
hate you: “You are our brothers, so that the name of the Lord may be glorified.”
And let us imitate the Lord, “who, when he was reviled, did not revile in
return;” and when he was crucified, he did not object; “when he suffered, he
did not threaten;” (1 Pet. 2:23) but he prayed for his enemies, “Father, forgive
them; they know not what they do” (Lk. 23:34). If any one who is injured
more, displays more patience, blessed is that person. If any one is defrauded,
if any one is despised, for the name of the Lord, he truly is the servant of
Christ. Take heed that no weed of the devil be found among you, for such a
plant is bitter and salty. “Watch and be sober,” in Christ Jesus (1 Pet. 4:7).
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the Christians too should intercede as the priests and ministers of God,
keeping their hands pure, and wrestling in prayers to God on behalf of
those who are fighting for true justice, and for the king who reigns
righteously, that whatever is opposed to justice may be destroyed!” And
as we – by our prayers – vanquish all the demons that stir up war, and
lead to the violation of oaths, and disturb the peace, we in this service are
much more helpful to the kings than those who go into the field to fight
for them. And we do take our part in public affairs, when along with
righteous prayers we practice self-denying disciplines and meditations,
which teach us to despise pleasures, and not to be led astray by them.
And none fight better for the king [and his role of preserving justice] than
we do. We do not indeed fight under him, although he demands it; but
we fight on his behalf, forming a special army of piety by offering our
prayers to God.
Chapter LXXIV.
And if Celsus would have us to lead armies in defense of our country, let
him know that we do this too, but we do this not for the purpose of being
seen by men, or of vainglory. For “in secret,” and in our own hearts, there
are priestly prayers that ascend on behalf of our fellow-citizens. And
Christians are benefactors of their country more than others. For they train
up citizens, and cultivate piety to the Supreme Being; and they promote
those whose lives in the smallest cities have been good and worthy, to a
divine and heavenly city, to whom it may be said, “You have been faithful
in the smallest city, come into a great one,” (Lk. 19:17) where “God stands
in the assembly of the faithful, and judges each one in their midst;” and
he reckons you among them, if you no longer “are a slave to death, or
willing to sacrifice your life (for idolatrous causes) as the princes do.”
Chapter LXXV.
Celsus also urges us to “take office in the government of the country, if
that is required for the maintenance of the laws and the support of
religion.” But we recognize in each state the existence of another national
organization founded by the Word of God, and we exhort those who are
mighty in word and of blameless life to rule over Churches. We reject
those who are ambitious of ruling; but we choose those who, through
excess of modesty, are not easily induced to take a public charge in the
Church of God. And those who rule over us well are under the constraining
influence of the great King, whom we believe to be the Son of God, the
Word. And if those who govern in the Church, and are called rulers of the
divine nation – that is, the Church – rule well, they rule in accordance
with the divine commands, and never suffer themselves to be led astray
by worldly policy. And it is not for the purpose of escaping public duties
that Christians decline public offices, but that they may reserve themselves
for a holier and more necessary service in the Church of God – for the
salvation of men. And this service is at once necessary and right. They
take charge of all – of those that are within, that they may day by day lead
better lives, and of those that are without, that they may come to abound
Faith 57
motives. In contrast, the early Christians, by setting their focus in
prayer on the Kingdom of God, were able to set aside their own
selfish motives and thus genuinely served the best interests of their
neighbors and the world. Mathetes is therefore led to conclude that
the Christians are “the preservers of the world” and that “God has
assigned them this illustrious position, which it is unlawful for them
to forsake” (Diognetus VI).
Mutual Submission
A second faithful practice that played a major role in shaping
the Early Church was mutual submission. All the members of these
communities, from the most mature to the most recently baptized,
were expected to submit to one another in love and to submit to the
guidance of the Holy Spirit within the community. Submission is a
difficult concept to grasp in our fiercely independent age, but in the
Early Church it indicated the Christians’ commitment to serve each
other. No person was exempt from the call to follow Christ’s example
of service. Christ’s ministry on Earth, his incarnation, was itself an
act of submission. He submitted himself to the loving will of God in
taking on human flesh and demonstrating to us the depths of God’s
love. The Apostle Paul, in Philippians 2, tells us that Jesus did not
have to come to Earth, but he chose to do so in order that humanity
might through him be reconciled to God. He also submitted himself
to humanity, by not just becoming human, but by becoming a servant
of all humanity (cf. Phil. 2:7). His submission and servant’s heart
were perhaps best captured in the example he set for his disciples
by washing their feet (John 13:3-15), one of the lowliest chores of the
ancient world.
Mutual submission, for the early Christians, also was
grounded in the attitudes of prayer and patientia. The attitude of
prayerful obedience, as we have noted, was defined by submission
to the will of God. However, in submitting to God’s Kingdom, the
Early Church understood themselves as also submitting to one
another, for the Church was the vehicle by which the will of God
was carried out on Earth. The Early Church understood that as they
submitted to the will of God in prayer they were to likewise to submit
to one another, recognizing the gifts of the Spirit in one another and
allowing the Spirit to work through these gifts toward the building
up of the Kingdom. Thus, their practice of mutual submission would
have been senseless outside the context of prayer – i.e., corporate
obedience to God’s Kingdom. The patient trust of the Early Church
also prepared them to submit to one another. Patientia is the mindset
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of living out of control, of living with the understanding that God is
in control. When we speak of mutual submission, we must remember
that we are speaking of submission to the gifts of the Holy Spirit in
others. Impatience tempts us to take matters into our own hands,
but mutual submission flows out of patience, out of the recognition
that God is sovereign and in control. Implicit in our submission to
one another is a rejection of our selfish desire to impatiently have to
take control of every situation.
The mutual submission of the Early Church is perhaps most
clearly seen in Clement of Rome’s Epistle to the Corinthians (see excerpt
on next page). This passage emphasizes the role of gifts in the
Church’s practice of mutual submission. Every member of the Church
was given gifts for the edification of the body (cf. Eph. 4:7-11), and
every member of the body was expected to submit to gifts that others
had been given. Those who taught were to be learned from; those
who prophesied were to be listened to; the generosity of the wealthy
was to be accepted with gratitude. These gifts were the catalyst of
the community, the heartbeat that pulsed in its midst, guiding its
members into a deeper experience of Christ’s love. We mentioned
earlier the importance of dialogue in the community; such dialogue
was the result of the Spirit’s gifts used in mutual submission to one
another. No one person had every possible gift; therefore interaction
was necessary and everyone had to rely upon the community to
provide for their needs, be they spiritual, physical or emotional.
Submission therefore was a necessity for the health of the body. The
Apostle Paul observes that in one’s physical body: “The eye cannot
say unto the hand, I have no need of you: nor the head to the feet, I
have no need of you” (I Cor. 12:21). Similarly, in the Body of Christ,
each member needs the gifts and skills of every other member. The
analogy of the Body is a wonderful picture of submission: to submit
to another is to recognize one’s need of their gifts and to reject
another’s gift is likewise a refusal to submit.
Koinonia
The centrality of the gifts and of mutual submission in the
Early Church set the stage for a third practice of the faithful
community: koinonia or the fellowship of sharing . The fruit of mutual
submission was sharing; as one person submitted to another’s gift,
the gifted person had a responsibility to share that gift and its fruit
with the person who submitted himself. It is not difficult to see that
koinonia was a practice that followed from the life of Christ, the One
who became human and then gave up his life in order that all
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commandments are observed. Instead of lands, therefore, buy afflicted
souls, as each one of you is able, and visit widows and orphans, and do not
overlook them; and spend your wealth and all your possessions, which
you received from the Lord, upon lands and houses for those in need. For
to this end did the Master make you rich, that you might perform these
services unto him; and it is much better to purchase such lands, possessions,
and houses, as you will find in your own (heavenly) city, when you come
to reside in it. This is a noble and sacred expenditure, which is done neither
with sorrow nor fear, but with joy. Do not practice the expenditure of the
heathen, for it is injurious to you who are the servants of God; but practice
an expenditure of your own, in which you can rejoice; and do not corrupt
nor touch what is another’s nor covet it, for it is an evil thing to covet the
goods of other men; but work your own work, and you will be saved.”
Origen, Against Celsus, Book VIII
Origen’s main apologetic work was Against Celsus, eight books in
response to Celsus’ treatise Demonstration of Truth. This piece
was probably written over the course of the decade between 240
and 250. Celsus was a philosopher of the Platonist school and was
firmly rooted in the nationalistic religion of the Roman emperor.
He does however, in contrast to most pagans of that era, have a
modest understanding of Scripture and the Christian faith, and uses
these bits of knowledge to argue against Christianity. The following
excerpt is Origen’s response to one of Celsus’ most nationalistic
arguments.
Chapter LXXIII.
Celsus next urges us “to help the king with all our might, and to labor
with him in the maintenance of justice, to fight for him; and if he requires
it, to fight under him, or lead an army along with him.” To this our answer
is, that we do, when the occasion arises, give help to kings, and indeed we
offer a divine help, “putting on the whole armor of God” (Eph 6:11). And
we do this in obedience to the command of the Apostle Paul, “I exhort,
therefore, that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and
thanksgiving, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in
authority” (1 Tim. 2:1-2). Additionally, the more any one excels in piety,
the more effective help he renders to kings, and he renders even more
assistance than is given by soldiers, who go forth to fight and slay as many
of the enemy as they can. And to those enemies of our faith who require us
to bear arms for the commonwealth, and to slay men, we reply: “Do not
those who are priests at certain shrines, and those who wait upon certain
ones of your ‘gods,’ keep their hands free from blood, that they may with
unstained hands offer the appointed sacrifices to your gods; and even when
war is upon you, you never enlist the priests in the army. If that, then, is a
noble custom, how much more so, that while others are engaged in battle,
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The Handbook of Patrology gives an apt summary of the work:
“The Shepherd is divided into three parts, which comprise,
respectively, five Visions, twelve Commandments, and ten
Similitudes (or parables). … In reality, Hermas divides his book into
two distinct sections, according to the personage who appears and
speaks to him. In the first four visions that personage is the Church.
She appears to him first in the guise of an aged and feeble woman; in
the following visions she grows constantly younger and more
graceful. From the fifth vision on, a new personage appears and
remains upon the scene until the close of the volume. This is the
Shepherd or Angel of Penance to whose care Hermas has been
entrusted. The Shepherd first dictates to him the twelve
Commandments and next bids him write out the Similitudes or
parables.
Since We Have No Abiding City in This World, We Ought to Seek One to
Come.
He says to me, “You know that you, who are the servants of God, dwell in
a strange land; for your city is far away from this one. If, then,” he continues,
“you know the city in which you are to dwell, why do you acquire lands
here, and make expensive decorations, and accumulate dwellings and
useless buildings? He who makes such preparations for this city cannot
return again to his own. Oh foolish, and unstable, and miserable man! Do
you not understand that all these worldly things belong to another, and are
under the power of another? For the lord of this earthly city will say, ‘I do
not wish you to dwell in my city; depart from this city, because you do not
obey my laws.’ Therefore, although you have fields and houses, and many
other things, when cast out by him, what will you do with your land, and
house, and other possessions that you have accumulated? For the lord of
this country justly says to you, ‘Either obey my laws or depart from my
dominion.’ What, then, do you intend to do, having a law in your own city,
regarding your lands, and the rest of your possessions? Youwill end up
denying your law altogether, and walking according to the law of this earthly
city. Lest it be to your detriment, see to it that you do not deny your law; for
if you deny your law and then desire to return to your city, you will not be
received, because you have denied the law of your city, but you will be
excluded from it. Take care, therefore: as one living in a foreign land, make
no further accumulations for yourself other than that which is sufficient;
and be ready, when the master of this city shall come to cast you out for
disobeying his law, to leave his city, and to depart to your own, and to obey
your own law without being exposed to annoyance, but in great joy. Be
careful then, you who serve the Lord, and have him in your heart, that you
work the works of God, remembering his commandments and the promises
that he promised, and believe that he will bring them to pass if his
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Clement of Rome, Epistle to the Corinthians
Chapter XXXVII. Christ is Our Leader, and We are His Soldiers.
Let us then, brothers and sisters, act the part of soldiers with all energy,
in accordance with Christ’s holy commandments. Let us consider those
who serve under the Roman generals and notice the order, obedience,
and submissiveness with which they perform the things that are
commanded of them. All soldiers are not prefects, nor commanders
of a thousand, nor of a hundred, nor of fifty, nor the like, but each one
in his own rank performs the things commanded by the king and the
generals. The great cannot subsist without the small, nor the small
without the great. There is a kind of mixture in all things, and from
this mixture arises mutual advantage. Let us take our body for an
example (I Cor. 12). The head is nothing without the feet, and the
feet are nothing without the head. Indeed, the very smallest members
of our body are necessary and useful to the whole body. But they all
work harmoniously together, and are under one common rule for the
preservation of the whole body.
Chapter XXXVIII. Let the Members of the Church Submit
Themselves, and No One Exalt Himself Above Another.
Let our whole body, then, be preserved in Christ Jesus; and let everyone
be subject to his neighbor, according to the special gift bestowed upon
him. Let the strong not despise the weak, and let the weak show respect
to the strong. Let the rich man provide for the wants of the poor; and
let the poor man bless God, because he has given him a community
that can provide his needs. Let the wise man display his wisdom, not
by mere words, but through good deeds. Let the humble man not
bear testimony to himself, but let others bear witness to him (cf.
Proverbs 27:2). Let him that is pure in the flesh not grow proud of it
or boast – knowing that it was another who bestowed on him the gift
of purity. Let us consider then, brothers, the matter out of which we
were made, how we came into the world, from utter darkness, as if
emerging from a grave. He who made us and fashioned us, prepared
his bountiful gifts for us before we were born, and introduced us into
His world. Since, therefore, we receive all these things from him, we
ought to give him thanks for everything; to whom be glory forever
and ever. Amen.
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humanity might share in the glorious benefits of eternal life. In
particular, koinonia emerged from the Christ-like attitudes of prayer
and patientia. In submitting ourselves to the will of God in prayer,
we also submit ourselves to follow the example of Jesus. Just as
Jesus gave everything to share his life with us, so we likewise are
called to participate in the sharing fellowship of God’s people.
Patientia also prepared the Early Church for koinonia, particularly
the sharing of material things. One learns through patientia not to
be pained by loss of material possessions. Tertullian elaborates on
this point at length, and he concludes: “He who is greatly disturbed
with the impatience of a loss [of a material possession] sins directly
against God by giving earthly things precedence over heavenly
things” (VII). If one is trained by patience not to be hurt by the loss
of material possessions, how much more willing will that person be
to share resources with a brother or sister in need? Thus, patientia
creates an environment in which koinonia can flourish.
The koinonia of the Early Church was centered on the
Eucharist, the shared meal that served as a reminder of Christ’s gift
to humankind. Mathetes noted the importance of the common table
in the life of the early Christian communities (Diognetus V), and as
John Howard Yoder – one of the most prominent Mennonite thinkers
of the twentieth century – has noted, all the sharing of the Early
Church was “the normal, organic extension from table fellowship”
(Body Politics 17). We see koinonia illustrated in Luke’s accounts of
the Church in Jerusalem just after Pentecost (Acts 2 and 4), and in
chapter 2 this sharing is connected to the daily breaking of bread
together (2:42-44). Likewise, Cyprian reminds his audience that
“Brethren ought to sustain one another” (Third Treatise #9). The early
Christians, following the teaching of the Scriptures, saw themselves
as God’s stewards, as ones who own nothing but are responsible for
administering the riches of God. Indeed, Cyprian warns that “We
must boast in nothing for nothing is our own” (Third treatise #4).
Thus, if the Church’s members were stewards of God’s resources, to
what end were these resources to be used? The answer to this
question seems quite clear: the gifts and resources given by God
were to be used to edify, or build up, God’s people – the Church.
Thus, koinonia not only follows from the Gifts of the Spirit and
mutual submission but also from a radical doctrine of stewardship.
Barnabas emphasizes the connection of koinonia and stewardship:
“You shall share all things with your neighbor; you shall not call
things your own; for if you partake together in things which are
incorruptible, how much more should you do so in those things
which are corruptible” (Epistle XIX)
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Chapter XIV.
The Power of This Twofold Patience, the Spiritual and the Bodily.
Exemplified in the Saints of Old.
With this strength of patience, Isaiah is cut asunder, and does not cease to
speak about the Lord. Stephen is stoned, and prays that his foes would be
pardoned (Acts 7:59-60). Oh, happy also was Job, who met all the violence
of the devil by the exertion of every species of patience! Although the devil
smote him with all his might, Job never strayed from the patience and the
faith which he had plighted to the Lord – neither the driving away of his
cattle nor those riches of his in sheep, nor the sweeping away of his children
in one swoop of ruin, nor, finally, the agony of his own body in (one
universal) wound would deter him. For by all his pains he was not drawn
away from his reverence for God; but he has been set up as an example and
testimony to us, for the thorough accomplishment of patience in flesh as
well as in spirit, in body as well as in mind; in order that we succumb
neither to damages of our worldly goods, nor to losses of those who are
dearest, nor even to bodily afflictions. What a deathbed for the devil did
God erect in the person of that hero! What a banner did he rear over the
enemy of his glory, when, at every bitter message, Job uttered nothing out
of his mouth but thanks to God, while he also denounced his wife, now
quite wearied with ills, and urging him to resort to false remedies! How
did God smile, how was the evil one cut asunder, while Job with mighty
equanimity kept scraping off the unclean overflow of his own ulcer (Job
2:8), while the evil one merrily replaced the sores that broke out on his
pitted flesh! And so, when all the darts of temptations had blunted
themselves against the helmet and shield of his patience, that instrument of
God’s victory not only presently recovered from God the soundness of his
body, but also possessed in redoubled measure what he had lost. And if he
had wished to have his children also restored, he might again have been
called father; but he preferred to have them restored him “in that day.”
Such joy as that – entirely secure in the Lord – he deferred, and in the
meantime, he endured a voluntary bereavement that he might not live
without some exercise of patience.
Shepherd of Hermas, First Parable
The Shepherd (or Pastor) of Hermas was written around 150. The
most reliable accounts depict Hermas as the brother of Pope Pius I
(holding office roughly from 140-155). This work contains a great
number of biographical details, from it we learn that Hermas was a
freed-slave who rapidly became wealthy. The Roberts-Donaldson
introduction to this text says that it was “one of the most popular
books, if not the most popular book, in the Christian Church during
the second, third and fourth centuries.”
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patience. Neither does charity “seek her own”; indeed, she often will offers
up her own, provided that she may benefit her neighbors. “She is not
irritable; “if she were, what would she have left to impatience? Accordingly
he says, “Charity endures all things; tolerates all things; “of course because
she is patient. Justly, then, “she will never fail; “ for all other things will be
cancelled, will have their end. “Tongues, knowledge, prophecies, become
exhausted; but faith, hope, charity, are permanent:” Faith, which Christ’s
patience introduced, hope, which man’s patience waits for, and charity,
which patience accompanies with God as Master.
Chapter XIII.
Of Bodily Patience.
Thus far, we have addressed patience simple and uniform, and as it exists
merely in the mind. However, I also labor after many forms of it in the
body, for the purpose of “winning the Lord.” Bodily patience is a quality
that has been exhibited by the Lord himself as well, if it is true that the
ruling mind easily communicates the gifts of the Spirit with its bodily
habitation. What, therefore, is the business of patience in the body? In the
first place, it is the mortification of the flesh – which is able to appease the
Lord by means of the sacrifice of humiliation – in making an offering to the
Lord of sorrowful appearance, together with scantiness of food, content
with simple diet and the pure drink of water in conjoining fasts to all this;
accustoming herself to sackcloth and ashes. This bodily patience adds a
grace to our prayers for good, a strength to our prayers against evil; this
opens the ears of Christ our God, dissipates severity and elicits leniency.
Thus, that Babylonian king, after being exiled from human form in his seven
years’ squalor and neglect because he had offended the Lord not only
recovered his kingdom through the bodily sacrifice of patience, but – what
is more to be desired by a man – made satisfaction to God (Dan. 4:33-37).
Furthermore, if we set down in order the higher and happier grades of
bodily patience, (we find that) it is she who is entrusted by holiness with
the care of self-control: she keeps the widow (I Tim. 5:3, 9-10, I Cor. 7:39-
40), and sets on the virgin the seal (I Cor. 7:34-35) and raises the self-made
eunuch to the realms of heaven (Matt. 19:12). That which springs from a
virtue of the mind is perfected in the flesh; and, finally, by the patience of
the flesh, does battle under persecution. If the temptation to flight presses
hard upon us, the flesh wars with the inconvenience of flight; if
imprisonment overtakes us, the flesh still was in bonds, the flesh in solitude,
and in that darkness, and in that patience of the world’s misusage. When,
however, it is led forth unto that final proof of happiness (martyrdom),
unto the occasion of the second baptism, unto the act of ascending to the
divine seat, no patience is more needed there than bodily patience. If the
“spirit is willing, but the flesh,” without patience, is “weak,” (Matt. 36:41)
where, save in patience, is the safety of the spirit, and of the flesh itself? But
when the Lord pronounces the flesh “weak,” he shows what need there is
of strengthening it – through patience – in order to meet every preparation
for subverting or punishing faith; that it may bear with all constancy stripes,
fire, cross, beasts, sword; all which prophets and apostles, by enduring,
conquered!
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The sharing of material resources however was not the only
expression of koinonia in the early Church communities. The Apostle
Paul instructed the Church in Corinth to structure its gathering
around the koinonia that emerged from the interaction of the gifts
of the Spirit: “How is it then, brothers and sisters? When you come
together, each one of you has a psalm, a teaching, a tongue, a
revelation, an interpretation. Let all these things be done for the
edification of the body” (I Cor. 14:26). Thus, whatever the Spirit
laid on a person’s heart, whether a song, a Scripture, a story, etc.,
was to be shared with the congregation during the meeting time .
The early Christians also demonstrated koinonia in their
willingness to share each other’s spiritual burdens. Confession of
sins and forgiveness were the fundamental ways in which the Early
Church spiritually supported one another. In the Didache, the Church
is instructed: “When you gather together, confess your sins; do not
come near to pray with an evil conscience” (4:14). Similarly, Cyprian
writes: “When we have been wronged, we must remit and forgive
it” (Third Treatise #22). Forgiveness, stemming from patience, was
an essential element of community for the early Christians. Thus,
Tertullian says:
Who in the world that is prone to impatience will even
once forgive his brother, let alone “seven times,” or
“seventy-seven times” (Matt. 18:21-22)? Who that is
contemplating a suit against his adversary will settle the
matter by agreement, unless he first begins by lopping
off chagrin, hardheartedness and bitterness, which are
in fact the poisonous fruits of impatience? How will you
“forgive, and forgiveness shall be granted” you (Luke
6:37) if the absence of patience makes you tenaciously
hold onto a wrong? (About Patience XII)
“Chagrin, hardheartedness and bitterness,” these are sins that build
up walls between brothers and sisters and eat away at the
fundamental unity of Christ’s body. Patience demands that we bear
the struggles of a brother or sister, even if he or she keeps making
the same mistake. Likewise, our sins are to be borne by others. It is
important for us to remember that the bearing of sins is not possible
without confession. Thus, we begin to see a picture of koinonia in
the spiritual sense: the process begins with the confession of an
individual, continues with the forgiveness of the community (or part
of the community) and these steps might have to be repeated if the
confessing individual falls again into the same sin. Thus, the
community was to endure patiently until this cycle of sin was finally
broken, and the individual set free – a milepost on that person’s
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journey toward repentance. It is this sort of spiritual koinonia that
Jesus was describing when he instructed his disciples to forgive an
errant brother or sister 490 – i.e., seventy times seven – times (Matt.
18:21-22). Of course, 490 was not a magical number beyond which
sins did not have to be forgiven, but rather it served as a figure of
speech indicating that there was to be no limit to the forgiveness that
Christ’s followers would extend.
In all its manifestations – material sharing, worship and the
bearing of spiritual burdens – koinonia was facilitated in the Early
Church by their frequent gatherings. Perhaps we could even say
that one facet of koinonia was the Body’s practice of frequently
sharing time together. Church for them was not a once or twice a
week gathering – rather it was a lifestyle that emerged through regular
gatherings of God’s people. In the story of the earliest Church in
Jerusalem (Acts 2:42-46), we see that these followers of Jesus had a
practice of meeting together daily, and we also notice that their
gatherings contained a good deal of variety: listening to the teaching
of the Apostles, breaking bread together and praying. Ignatius
likewise reminds the Church in Ephesus of the importance of
gathering together frequently:
Take heed, then, to come together often to give thanks
to God, and show his praise. For when you come
frequently together in the same place, the powers of
Satan are destroyed, and his “fiery darts” (Eph. 6:16) of
sin fall back, worthless. For your unity and harmonious
faith prove his destruction, and the torment of his
assistants. Nothing is better than Christ’s peace, by
which all war, both of heavenly and earthly spirits, is
brought to an end. (First Epistle XIII)
Thus, the gathering of the Church was not only a means to the
koinonia of the Body, but was also essential for the Church to carry
out its mission of fighting the spiritual battle against the world’s
powers of darkness. The Early Church understood itself as waging
God’s battle for justice on Earth, but as Origen makes clear, this battle
is waged, not with the weapons of the world, but rather with the
weapons of the Spirit, the foremost of which is prayer.
Compassion
Another tool that the Church has been given for the battle
against injustice is compassion. If prayer is understood as the first
response to injustice, perhaps we will then see that compassion
emerges out of a prayerful life, and indeed that it can be thought of
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as gentle. Again, when he marks “the peacemakers” (Matt. 5:9) with the
same title of blessedness, and names them as “sons of God,” do the impatient
have any affinity with “peace?” Even a fool may perceive the answer to
that question. When, however, he says, “Rejoice and be glad, when they
curse and persecute you; for very great is your reward in heaven,” (Matt.
5:11-12) of course it is not to the impatience of exultation that he makes that
promise; because no one will “exult” in adversities unless he has first learned
to endure them, and no one will endure them unless he has learned to practice
patience.
Chapter XII.
Certain Other Divine Precepts. The Apostolic Description of Charity and
Its Connection with Patience.
Regarding the rule of peace, which is so pleasing to God, who in the world
that is prone to impatience will even once forgive his brother, let alone “seven
times,” or “seventy-seven times” (Matt. 18:21-22)? Who that is contemplating
a suit against his adversary will settle the matter by agreement, unless he
first begins by lopping off chagrin, hardheartedness, and bitterness, which
are in fact the poisonous fruits of impatience? How will you “forgive, and
forgiveness shall be granted” you (Lk. 6:37) if the absence of patience makes
you tenaciously hold onto a wrong? No one who is at variance with his
brother in his mind, will finish offering his “duteous gift at the altar,” unless
he first, with intent to “re-conciliate his brother,” returns to patience (Matt.
5:23-24). If we are in jeopardy when “the sun goes down on our anger,”
(Eph. 4:26) we are not allowed to remain one day without patience. But,
however, since patience leads us into every species of healthy discipline, is
it any wonder that she likewise fosters repentance (accustomed as repentance
is to come to the rescue of those who have fallen). When a marriage falters
does she not wait and yearn, and indeed persuade by her entreaties,
repentance in all who are one day to enter salvation? How great a blessing
she confers on each partner of that marriage! The one she prevents from
becoming an adulterer; the other she transforms. So, too, she is found in
those holy examples of patience in the Lord’s parables. The shepherd’s
patience seeks and finds the straying ewe (Lk. 15:3-6); for impatience would
easily despise one ewe, but patience undertakes the labor of the quest, and
the patient burden-bearer carries home on his shoulders the forsaken sinner.
The prodigal son also receives the father’s patience, and clothes, and food,
and makes excuses for, in the presence of the angry brother’s impatience
(Lk. 15:11-32). He, therefore, who “had perished” is saved, because he entered
on the way of repentance. Repentance does not perish, because it finds
patience (to welcome it). For by whose teachings but those of patience is
charity – the highest sacrament of the faith, the treasure-house of the
Christian name, which the Apostle Paul commends with the whole strength
of the Holy Spirit – trained? “Charity,” he says, “is long suffering.” Thus,
charity applies patience and “is beneficent.” Patience does no evil; it “is not
greedy for power” – that certainly is a peculiar mark of patience. It “does
not savor violence”; charity has drawn her self-restraint from patience; she
“is not puffed up; is not violent,” for violence does not lead us toward
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(Matt. 7:1, Lk. 6:37) does he not require patience? For who will refrain from
judging another, but he who shall be patient in not revenging himself? Who
judges in order to pardon? And if he shall pardon, still he has taken care to
indulge the impatience of a judger, and has taken away the honor of the one
Judge, that is, God. How many mishaps had impatience of this kind been
wont to run into! How often has it repented of its revenge! How often has
its vehemence been found worse than the causes that led to it! Inasmuch as
nothing undertaken with impatience can be effected without impetuosity:
nothing done with impetuosity fails either to stumble, or to fall altogether,
or else to vanish headlong. Moreover, if you avenge yourself too slightly,
you will be mad; if too amply, you will have to bear the burden of the law.
What have I to do with vengeance, the measure of which, through impatience
of pain, I am unable to regulate? Whereas, if I shall rest in patience, I shall
not feel pain; if I shall not feel pain, I shall not desire to avenge myself.
Chapter XI.
Further Reasons for Practicing Patience. Its Connection with the Beatitudes.
After these principal causes of impatience, described here to the best of our
ability, why should we wander out of our way to examine the rest? The
Evil One’s operation is wide and diffusive, hurling a multitude of irritations
upon our spirit – sometimes trifling ones, sometimes very great. But the
trifling ones you may ignore from their very littleness; but the very great
ones you may yield in regard to their overpoweringness. Where the injury
is less, there is no necessity for impatience; but where the injury is greater,
there more necessary is the remedy for the injury – i.e., patience. Let us
strive, therefore, to endure the inflictions of the Evil One, that the counter-
zeal of our patience may mock the zeal of the foe. If, however, we ourselves
– either by imprudence or else voluntarily – draw upon ourselves anything,
let us meet with equal patience the things for which we have to blame
ourselves. Moreover, if we believe that some inflictions are sent on us by the
Lord, to whom should we more exhibit patience than to the Lord? Indeed,
he teaches us to give thanks and rejoice abundantly at being thought worthy
of divine discipline. “The ones I love,” he says, “I discipline” (Prov. 3:11-12,
Heb. 12:5-6, Rev. 3:19). O blessed servant, on whose transformation the
Lord chooses to focus, on whom he picks to direct his discipline, and whom
he does not deceive by disguising his reproofs! On every side, therefore,
we are bound to the duty of exercising patience, from whatever cause, either
by our own errors or else by the snares of the Evil One, we incur the Lord’s
reproofs. Great is the reward that corresponds to that duty – namely,
happiness. For whom has the Lord called happy but the patient one, in
saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”
(Matt. 5:3). No one, assuredly, is “poor in spirit,” unless he is humble. Well,
who is humble, except the one who is patient? For no one can abase himself
without patience, or even in the first place, to bear the act of abasement. He
says: “Blessed are the weepers and mourners” (Matt. 5:4). Who, without
patience, is tolerant of such unhappiness? And so to these patient ones,
“consolation” and “laughter” are promised. “Blessed are the gentle” (Matt.
5:5) under this vision; and surely, the impatient cannot possibly be classed
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as prayer in action. Before we go any further, we must have a clear
understanding of what compassion is. From its Latin roots,
compassion literally means “suffering with.” Jesus, of course, served
as a model of compassion for the Early Church. He chose not to
remain aloof, but instead became a man, immersing himself in the
problems, sorrows and temptations of humanity. The Apostle Paul
describes Jesus’ compassion in this way: “Although he was in the
form of God, he did not exploit his equality with God, but rather
made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a
servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in
this fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross” (Phil. 2:6-8). The stories in the
Gospels show that Jesus also did not shy away from the sick and the
socially marginalized; he brought healing to the sick and the blind,
and he regularly fellowshipped with tax collectors and showed
kindness to prostitutes. These actions however were only an extension
of his teachings. One of the fundamental teachings of the Sermon on
the Mount was “Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy”
(Matt. 5:10). We tend to understand mercy in very abstract,
spiritualized terms, but the Greek word that is translated “merciful”
could just as easily be translated “compassionate.” Jesus taught
compassion, and did not stop there, but also provided us with an
example of a compassionate life.
Compassion, like the other practices of the Early Church that
we have named, was founded upon the attitudes of prayer and
patientia. It was prayer that brought the healing and liberation of
Christ to those in pain and oppression. As those who prayerfully
followed Christ suffered alongside those in pain, the suffering ones
realized the good news that Jesus, through his resurrection, had
conquered the powers of death and suffering. Prayer taught the early
Christians that obedience to Jesus did not magically evaporate all
pain and suffering, but rather conquered that pain and suffering by
the practice of compassion, whereby Christ’s Body took that suffering
upon herself until that final redemption of the world when all
suffering will be eliminated.
The Early Church’s practice of compassion was also
grounded in patientia. As a disciple learned to patiently endure her
sufferings, she was equipped to bear the sufferings of other sisters
and brothers. If one has been prepared by patientia to endure
suffering and hardship, then she will not be afraid to enter into
situations where others are suffering. Mathetes, in his letter to
Diognetus, described the compassion of the early Christians: “they
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share in all things with others” (see excerpt on the next page). Just as
God’s patience was a means to express love to us, our patience is a
means to express our love to God and to others, but we cannot enter
into that ministry of compassion unless we are being discipled
(trained) in the prayer and patientia of Jesus.
Cyprian, with the example of Jesus in mind – for it was he
who was said “The example of living is given to us in Christ” (#39) –
begins his description of the Church in the Third Treatise by reminding
his readers of the “the benefit of good works and mercy” (#1). Indeed
this opening line sets the tone for this piece and thus compassion is a
primary theme of the work. We see Cyprian emphasizing the need
to care for widows and orphans (#113), as well as the sick (#109), and
also the need to “sustain” each other, a point that rings especially
true in our times of distress (#9). Clement of Alexandria likewise
describes compassion in his provocatively titled treatise Who is the
Rich Man that shall be Saved?:
[Jesus has said:] “Give to every one that asks of you” (Luke
6:30). For truly such is God’s delight in giving. And this
saying represents godliness in its highest form: not to wait
to be asked, but to inquire oneself who has need of
receiving your kindness. God has appointed a reward
for your liberal giving – an everlasting habitation! What
an excellent trade! One purchases immortality through
generosity; and, by giving the perishing things of the
world, receives in exchange for these an eternal mansion
in the heavens! Rush to this market, if you are wise, O
rich man! If need be, sail around the whole world (XXXI-
XXXII).
Thus, the koinonia of the Christian community gave birth to
compassion, as the wealthy entered into the suffering of the poor by
sharing their resources to meet the needs of their poor brothers and
sisters. The rich were called to go even so far as not building up an
inheritance for their children; instead their resources were to be given
toward the needs of the poor, and they were expected to trust that
God would take care of their children (Cyprian, On Works and Alms,
18-19). Thus, the Early Church was called to follow the compassionate
example that Jesus provided in his incarnational ministry, rich and
poor alike were called to share life together and to take the burdens
of their brothers and sisters upon themselves.
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Texts
sake he both died and rose again. Since then there is certainty as to the
resurrection of the dead, grief for death is needless, and impatience of grief
is also needless. For why should you grieve, if you believe that your loved
one has not perished? Why should you bear impatiently the temporary
withdrawal of one whom you believe will return? That which you think to
be death is merely departure. He who goes before us is not to be lamented,
though by all means to be longed for. That longing must also be tempered
with patience. For why should you bear without moderation the fact that
one is gone away whom you will presently follow? Besides, impatience in
matters of this kind bodes ill for our hope, and illuminates an insincerity in
our faith. And we wound Christ when we do not accept with patience his
summoning anyone out of this world, as if they were to be pitied. “I desire,”
says the Apostle Paul, “to die now, and to be with Christ” (Phil 1:23). How
far better a desire does he exhibit! If, then, we grieve impatiently over those
who have attained the desire of the Christians, we show our own
unwillingness to attain it.
Chapter X.
Of Revenge.
There is, too, another chief spur of impatience, the lust of revenge, which
deals with the business either of glory or else of malice. But glory, on the
one hand, is everywhere vain (Gal. 5:26, Phil. 2:3) and malice, on the other,
is always odious to the Lord. In this case indeed most of all, when, being
provoked by a neighbor’s malice, it constitutes itself superior in following
out revenge, and by repaying wickedness for wickedness doubles that which
has once been done. Revenge, in the estimation of the world, seems a solace
of pain; in the estimation of truth, on the contrary, it is convicted of hatred.
For what difference is there between provoker and provoked, except that
the former is detected as prior in evil-doing, and the latter as posterior? Yet
each stands accused of hurting a man in the eye of the Lord, who both
prohibits and condemns every wickedness. In evil-doing there is no account
taken of order, nor does place separate what similarity conjoins. And Jesus’
teaching is absolute, that evil is not to be repaid with evil (Rom. 12:17).
Similar deeds reap similar rewards. How shall we observe that principle, if
in our loathing of sin we shall not loathe revenge? What honor, moreover,
shall we be offering to the Lord God, if we arrogantly grant to ourselves the
distribution of vengeance? We are corrupt, earthen vessels (Isa. 64:6-8, 2
Cor. 4:7). With our own servants, if they assume to themselves the right of
vengeance on their fellow-servants, we are gravely offended; while those
who make us the offering of their patience we not only approve as mindful
of humility, of servitude, affectionately jealous of the right of their lord’s
honor; but we make for them a larger reward than they would have expected
for themselves. Is there any risk of a different result in the case of a Lord
who is so just in his verdicts and so powerful in executing them? Why,
then, do we believe him a Judge, if not an Avenger too? He promises that
he will be the one who responds for us, saying, “Vengeance belongs to me,
and I will avenge,” (Rom. 12:19; Heb. 10:30) that is, leave patience to me,
and I will reward patience. For when he says, “Judge not, lest you be judged,”
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Chapter VIII.
Of Patience Under Personal Violence and Malediction.
We who carry about our very soul, our very body, exposed in this world to
injury from all, and exhibit patience under that injury; should we be hurt at
the loss of less important things? Far be it from a servant of Christ that the
patience which has been prepared for greater temptations should forsake
him in trivial ones. If one attempts to provoke you by manual violence, the
instruction of the Lord is at hand: “To him,” he says, “who smites you on
one cheek, turn the other cheek likewise” (Matt. 5:39). Let outrage be made
weary by your patience. Whatever that blow may be, in addition to pain
and rudeness, it shall receive a heavier one from the Lord. You wound that
outrage once more by enduring: for the one who strikes will be beaten by
him for whose sake you endure. If your tongue’s bitterness breaks out in
slander or reproach, remember the saying, “When they curse you, rejoice”
(Matt. 5:11-12, Lk. 6:22-23). The Lord himself was “cursed” in the eye of the
law; and yet is he the only Blessed One. Let us as his servants, therefore,
follow our Lord closely; and be cursed patiently, that we may be able to be
blessed. If I hear with too little equanimity some wanton or wicked word
uttered against me, I must of necessity either myself retaliate the bitterness,
or else I shall be filled with mute impatience. When, then, on being cursed,
I smite with my tongue, how shall I be found to have followed the doctrine
of the Lord, in which it has been delivered that “a man is defiled, not by the
defilements of eating and drinking vessels, but by the things which are sent
forth out of his mouth” (Mark 7:15). Again, it is said “punishment awaits
us for every vain and needless word” (Matt. 12:36). It follows that, from
whatever the Lord keeps us, the same he admonishes us to bear patiently
from another. I will add a few comments touching on the pleasure of
patience. For every injury, whether inflicted by tongue or hand, when it has
lighted upon patience, will be dismissed with the same fate as a weapon
launched against a rock of the most steadfast hardness. For it will wholly
fall then and there with fruitless labor, and sometimes will recoil and spend
its rage on him who sent it out, with retorted impetus. No doubt the reason
why any one hurts you is that you may be pained because the hurter’s
enjoyment consists in the pain of the hurt. When, then, you have upset his
enjoyment by not being pained, he must necessarily be pained by the loss
of his enjoyment. Then you not only go away unhurt, which even by itself
is enough for you; but you are gratified, in the bargain, by your adversary’s
disappointment, and revenged by his pain. This is the utility and the pleasure
of patience.
Chapter IX.
Of Patience Under Bereavement.
We cannot even excuse that species of impatience under the loss of our dear
ones, where some assertion of a right to grief might raise its head. For we
must set the consideration of the Apostle Paul’s declaration before us: “Be
not overwhelmed with sadness at the falling asleep of anyone, as the pagans
do who are without hope” (1 Thess. 4:13). And this instruction is just; for
believing in the resurrection of Christ we believe also in our own, for whose
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Mathetes, Letter to Diognetus
Chapter V. The Manners of the Christians.
The Christians are distinguished from other men neither by
country, nor by language, nor by the customs that they ob-
serve; for they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ
a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life that is marked by any
singularity. Their course of conduct has not been devised by
any speculation or deliberation of inquisitive men; nor do they,
like some others, proclaim themselves the advocates of any
merely human doctrines. But, inhabiting Greek as well as bar-
barian cities, as the lot of each of them has determined, and
following the customs of the natives in respect to clothing,
food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct, they display to us
their wonderful and confessedly striking method of life. They
dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As
citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet endure
all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as
their native country, and every birth-land as a land of strang-
ers.They marry, as do all others; they beget children; but they
do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but
not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live
after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are
citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the
same time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all men,
and are persecuted by all.They are unknown and condemned;
they are put to death, and restored to life. They are poor, yet
they make many rich; they are lacking all things, and yet
abound in all; they are dishonored, and yet in their very dis-
honor are glorified. They are spoken of as evil, and yet are
justified; they are reviled, and bless; they are insulted and re-
pay the insult with honor; they do good, yet are punished as
evildoers. When punished, they rejoice as if quickened into
life; they are assailed by the Jews as foreigners and are perse-
cuted by the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to
assign any reason for their hatred.
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Lessons for churches today
Thus, the stories of the Early Church reflect that they
carried out their mission through the practices not only of
compassion, but also of koinonia, mutual submission and
holiness, all of which were grounded in the attitudes of prayer
and patientia. In so doing, they have provided us with a model
of what it means to be the people of God. In the following
paragraphs, I will describe five lessons that churches at the
beginning of the twenty-first century can learn from the early
Christian communities.
The Call to Holiness
The Church in the United States today has lost sight of
its distinctive nature, of its calling as a “peculiar people” (Titus
2:14 KJV, I Peter 2:9 KJV). As we described above, the broad
story of God’s people can be understood in terms of cycles of
domestication and holiness. The unification of Church and State,
brought to a head by the Emperor Constantine provides us with
perhaps the most striking example of the Church’s domestication.
However, in the sixth century, St. Benedict reacted to that
domestication and launched a movement grounded in
communities of obedience that were called to holiness. Since the
time of St. Benedict, the Church has gone through a number of
cycles of domestication and holiness. For approximately the last
century, the Church in the United States has to a large extent
been domesticated to American culture. This enculturation is
symbolized by the American flags that hang in church
sanctuaries, as well as the “God Bless America” or “The Power
of Pride” bumper stickers on the cars in the parking lot .
Today, the people of God are being called to return to
holiness. The stories of the early Christian communities, as well
as other stories of Christian holiness like those of St. Benedict,
will guide us on our journey. Before we can begin this journey,
however, we must recognize the many ways in which the
idolatrous powers of our culture hold us in bondage. First, we
have been domesticated by consumerism; we are more concerned
about buying things to make ourselves feel good and to “keep
up with” (or outdo) our neighbors, than we are about denying
ourselves and truly loving our neighbors. Secondly, we have
succumbed to the nationalistic pride of American imperialism;
how can we claim to love our neighbors around the world, while
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Chapter VII.
Texts
The Causes of Impatience, and Their Correspondent Precepts.
Now, however, while we run through the causes of impatience, all the other
teachings also will answer in their own places. If our spirit is aroused by the
loss of property, it is cooled by the Lord’s Scriptures, in almost every place,
to a condemning of the world; nor is there any more powerful exhortation
to contempt of money submitted to us, than the fact that the Lord himself is
found amid no riches. He always justifies the poor, and condemns the rich
beforehand. Thus, he ministered “loss” to patience and “contempt” to
opulence as their due – demonstrating, by means of his own repudiation of
riches, that hurts done to them also are not to be much regarded. Of the
things, therefore, which we have not the smallest need to seek after – because
the Lord did not seek after them either – we ought to endure without heart-
sickness the cutting down or taking away of them from our lives.
“Covetousness,” the Spirit of the Lord has pronounced through the Apostle
“a root of all evils” (1 Tim. 6: 10). Let us not interpret that covetousness as
consisting merely in the longing for what is another’s: for even what seems
to be ours is another’s. For nothing is ours, since all things are God’s, and
even our lives belong to him. And so, if, when suffering from a loss, we feel
impatient, grieving for what we have lost from the things that are not our
own, we will be detected as bordering on covetousness: we seek what is
another’s when we cannot accept losing what is another’s. He who is greatly
disturbed with the impatience of a loss sins directly against God by giving
earthly things precedence over heavenly things. Thus, he greatly shocks
the Spirit, which he has received from the Lord, for the sake of a worldly
matter. Willingly, therefore, let us lose earthly things; let us keep heavenly
things. May I sacrifice everything in order that I may make patience my
gain! In truth, I do not know whether the one who has not made up his
mind to endure with constancy the loss of something – either by theft or by
force, or even by carelessness – would himself readily or heartily lay hand
on his own property for the cause of almsgiving. For what person that never
endures loss from another, draws the sword on his own body? Patience in
losses is an exercise in generosity and communicating. What person who
does not fear to lose, does not find it irksome to give. Otherwise how will
one, when he has two coats, give the one of them to the naked (Lk. 3:11),
unless he is likely to offer his cloak to one who takes away his coat (Matt.
5:40, Lk. 6:29)? How will we make friends for ourselves with mammon (Lk.
16:9), if we love it so much as not to put up with its loss? We will perish
together with the lost mammon. Why do we go about gathering here on
earth, where it is our business to lose? To exhibit impatience at all losses is
the Gentiles’ business, who give money the precedence perhaps over their
soul; for they do so when, in the greediness of their wealth, they encounter
the gainful perils of commerce on the sea; when, for money’s sake, even in
the forum, there is nothing which damnation (itself) would fear which they
hesitate to venture; when they hire themselves for the gladiator’s games;
when, after the manner of wild beasts, they play the bandit along the
highway. But according to the broadness by which we are distinguished
from them, it becomes us to lay down not our soul for money, but money for
our soul, whether spontaneously in giving or patiently in losing.
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Chapter III.
Jesus Christ in His Incarnation and Work is a More Imitable Example of
God’s Patience.
And this sort of the divine patience – since it is, as it were, at a distance –
may perhaps be esteemed “something too high for us,” but how can it be
when it, in a certain way, has been grasped by hand among men openly on
the earth? God allows himself to be conceived in a mother’s womb, and
awaits the time for birth; and when he is born, bears the delay of growing
up; and when grown up, is not eager to be recognized, but furthermore
belittles himself, and is baptized by his own servant. he repels the assaults
of the tempter with words alone; and from being “Lord” he becomes
“Master,” teaching mankind to escape death, since he was trained to exercise
the absolute forbearance of offended patience. He did not resist; he did not
cry aloud; nor did any hear his voice in the streets. He did not break the
bruised reed; the smoking flax He did not quench: for the prophet – no, for
the manifestation of God himself, who placed his own Spirit, together with
patience in its entirety, in his Son – had not falsely spoken. Everyone who
desired to cleave to him was received. He did not despise anyone’s table or
roof; indeed, he himself ministered to the washing of the disciples’ feet. He
repelled neither sinners nor publicans. He did not even turn his wrath on
that city that had refused to receive him did (Lk. 9:51-56), when even the
disciples had wished that the heavenly fires should be hurled upon such a
vile town. He cared for the ungrateful; he yielded to his ensnarers. This
might have been a small matter, if he had not had in his company even his
own betrayer, and he steadfastly abstained from pointing him out. Moreover,
while he is being betrayed, while he is being led “as a sheep to the slaughter,”
(for “He no more opens his mouth than a lamb under the power of the
shearer,”). He to whom – had he willed it – legions of angels would at one
word have presented themselves from the heavens, did not approve of the
avenging sword of even one disciple. The patience of the Lord was wounded
in (the wound of) Malchus. And so too, he cursed for the time to come the
works of the sword; and, by the restoration of health, made satisfaction to
him whom himself had not hurt, through Patience, the mother of Mercy. I
pass by in silence the fact that he is crucified, for this was the end for which
he had come; yet did his death need also to be accompanied by all sorts of
opposition? No, but, when about to depart, he wished to be sated with the
pleasure of patience. He is spit upon, scourged, derided, foully clad, and
even more foully crowned. Wondrous is the faith of equanimity! He, who
had set before him the concealing of himself in man’s shape, imitated no
part of man’s impatience! Thus, from patience even more than from any
other trait, ought the Pharisees to have recognized the Lord. No human
would achieve patience of this kind. Such mighty evidences – the very
magnitude of which proves to be among the pagans indeed a cause for
rejection of the faith, but among us its reason and training – prove manifestly
enough (not just by the Lord’s sermons, in commanding patience, but
likewise by his sufferings and endurance) to them to whom it is given to
believe, that patience is God’s nature.
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we support the conquering of their lands, the killing of their children
and the littering of their countrysides with atrocities like napalm,
landmines and depleted uranium? We also have become prisoners
of our appetites just like the pagans – be it the sexual appetite of
pornography or the literal appetite fueled by the ever-present
advertising of food and beverages. The time has come for us to be set
free from these chains that the world uses to bind us up and render
us impotent. Our assent to Christ’s lordship can no longer come in
words only; our behavior and attitudes must be obviously different
than those of our pagan neighbors.
Furthermore, we must learn from the political holiness of
the Early Church. The Scriptures make it clear that all human
governments are by nature oppressive (see I Samuel 8, Rom. 12:20-
13:14, in which Paul implies that the governing authorities are enemies
especially the framing verses 12:17-21 and 13:8), so we thus should
be careful not to associate ourselves too closely with any particular
government. Instead, our call is to serve the common good of our
cities and nations in prayer and in our practices of obedience to Jesus
(compassion, koinonia, mutual submission, holiness), and in so doing
we follow the pattern of the Early Church.
Depth of Community
A second lesson that we can learn from the Early Church is
the importance of deep church communities. For the Church to
partake meaningfully in God’s work in the world it must be united
as a community. Ezekiel 36:22-24 points out that God’s name is made
holy by the gathering of a people:
Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord
GOD; I do not do these things for your sake, O house
of Israel, but for my holy name’s sake, which you have
profaned among the heathen, everywhere you went.
And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned
among the heathen, which you have profaned in the
midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am
the LORD, says the Lord GOD, when I shall be
sanctified in you before their eyes. For I will take you
from among the heathen, and gather you out of all
countries, and will bring you into your own land .
Thus, in the second clause of the Lord’s prayer “Make your name
holy,” * there is an implicit hope that God would again gather a holy
* This imperative phrasing better reflects the original Greek than
declarative phrasings like “Hallowed be thy name” or “Your name is holy.”
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people from among the nations. The Early Church understood
themselves as this holy people that God had called out from among
the pagans. They also understood that God’s reign was most clearly
demonstrated in the holiness of the gathered people of God. In our
age that is saturated with individualism, the Church needs to
remember that being the community of God’s people, a united people
who are set apart from the ways of the world, is an essential part of
our mission in the world. In particular, we need especially to learn
from the Early Church’s faithful practices of mutual submission and
koinonia.
In these individualistic days, submission is a dirty word;
especially in the United States, we think we have the right to “the
pursuit of happiness” and thus view submission as a threat to our
own self-fulfillment. We need to learn to be able to serve our brothers
and sisters in humility and not only to serve but also to be served by
them. If a sister has demonstrated the gift of teaching, we need to
learn to submit to that gift of teaching and learn from her. Likewise
if a brother has the gift of prophecy, we need to submit to that gift
and to listen to his vision for our community and carefully examine
where we fit as individuals in the way that God is leading our
community. In my church community, the Spirit has been leading
us through a number of prophetic voices to examine how we can
move into closer proximity with our brothers and sisters in order to
worship and work on a more intimate level with them. It has been a
very moving experience to see people being submissive to that leading
and considering how they can arrange their lives in response to it.
Similarly, our communities need to learn from the koinonia
of the Early Church. Just as we need to learn to use our gifts and to
submit to the gifts of others, we also need to share our resources
with one another and to graciously accept the generosity of others.
Oftentimes we are too enthralled with building our own little empires
– a bigger television, bigger house, bigger yard, bigger boat, etc. –
that we forget our calling to participate in the koinonia of God’s
kingdom. The biblical concept of stewardship reminds us that our
resources are not our own, but rather are God’s and are to be used
for the furthering of God’s kingdom. Whether it is sharing a
lawnmower or a meal, we need to find new and creative ways to
share life and resources with our brothers and sisters. My wife and
I have been blessed by the numerous friends and family members
who have shared clothes, toys and supplies with us as we eagerly
await the coming of our first baby. Pride comes with our
individualism, and we are often not ready to accept gifts from others
or to share sacrificially of our resources with others. Similarly, we
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Prayer is alone that which unleashes God. But Christ has willed that it be
operative for no evil; he had conferred on it all its virtue in the cause of
good. And so it knows nothing except how to recall the souls of the departed
from the very path of death, to transform the weak, to restore the sick, to
purge the possessed, to open prison-bars, to loose the bonds of the innocent.
Likewise it washes away faults, repels temptations, extinguishes
persecutions, consoles the faint-spirited, cheers the high-spirited, escorts
travelers, calms waves, makes robbers stand aghast, nourishes the poor,
governs the rich, raises up the fallen, arrests the falling, confirms the standing.
Prayer is the wall of faith: her arms and missiles aimed at the foe who keeps
watch over us on all sides. And, so we never walk unarmed: by day or by
night. Under the arms of prayer we guard the standard of our General, and
await in prayer the angel’s trumpet (1 Cor. 15:52, 1 Thess. 4:16). The angels,
likewise, all pray; every creature prays; cattle and wild beasts pray and bend
their knees; and when they issue from their lairs, they look up heavenward
with no idle mouth, making their breath resonate after their own manner.
Indeed, the birds too, rising out of the nest, raise themselves up heavenward,
and, instead of hands, expand the cross of their wings, and say something
that seems like prayer. What more can be said on the office of prayer? Even
the Lord himself prayed; to whom be honor and virtue unto the end of the
ages!
Tertullian, On Patientia.
Tertullian’s On Patientia was written around 200. It is perhaps the
richest description that we have of patientia in the Early Church.
Patientia is depicted as a fundamental characteristic of God’s nature.
Thus, as we pursue godliness, Tertullian argues, we should strive for
patientia. Henry Wace notes that this pursuit is much easier said
than done; he observes that Tertullian prepared this work as “a
sermon preached to himself [as] much as to others.”
Chapter II.
God Himself is an Example of Patience.
For Christians, even if we put on the equanimity of a dog… we still have no
incentive for exercising patience; but the divine arrangement of a living and
heavenly discipline, that holds up before us God himself in the very first
place as an example of patience. He scatters his blessing of light equally
over the just and the unjust; he allows the benefits of the seasons, the services
of the sun and rain and snow, indeed all the blessings of nature, to fall upon
the worthy and the unworthy; he bears with the most ungrateful nations,
worshipping as they do the toys of the arts and the works of their own hands,
persecuting his Name together with his family; he bears with luxury, greed,
iniquity, and all sorts of evil, waxing insolent daily. Thus, by his own patience
he disparages himself; for the reason why many do not believe in the Lord is
that they have gone so long without seeing that he is angry with the world.
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Chapter X.
We May Add Prayers of Our Own to the Lord’s Prayer.
Since, however, the Lord, the Foreseer of human necessities (cf. Matt. 6:8),
said separately, after delivering his Rule of Prayer, “Ask, and you shall
receive” (Matt. 7:7, Lk. 11:9) and since there are petitions which are made
according to the circumstances of each individual; our additional wants
have the right – after beginning with the legitimate and customary prayers
as a foundation, as it were – of forming an outer structure of petitions, yet
we must remember the Master’s teachings.
Chapter XXVIII.
Of the Spiritual Sacrifice, Which Prayer is.
For this is the spiritual sacrifice that has abolished the bloody sacrifices.
“To what purpose,” he says, “Do you bring me the multitude of your
sacrifices? I have had enough of the slaughter of rams, and I do not desire
the fat of rams, and the blood of bulls and of goats. For who has required
these from your hands” (Isa. 1:11)? What, then, God has required, the
Gospel teaches. “An hour will come,” he says, “when the true worshippers
shall worship the Father in spirit and truth. For God is a Spirit, and
accordingly requires his worshippers to be such” (John 4: 23-24). We are
the true adorers and the true priests, who, praying in spirit (1 Cor. 14:15,
Eph. 6:18), sacrifice, in spirit, through prayer. This prayer is a sacrifice
proper and acceptable to God, which assuredly he has required, and which
he has provided for himself! This sacrifice, devoted from the whole heart,
fed on faith, tended by truth, entirely innocent, pure in chastity, garlanded
with love, we ought to escort with the procession of good works, amid
psalms and hymns, unto God’s altar, to obtain all things from God for us.
Chapter XXIX.
Of the Power of Prayer.
For what has God – who commands our prayers – ever denied to a prayer
coming from “spirit and truth?” What mighty specimens of its efficacy do
we read, and hear, and believe! Old-world prayer, indeed, used to free
from fires (Dan. 3), and from beasts (Dan. 6), and from famine (1 Kings 18),
and yet it had not then received its form from Christ. But how much more
effective is Christian prayer! It does not station the angel of dew in mid-
fires (Apocryphal reference), nor muzzle lions, nor transfer to the hungry
the rustics’ bread (2 Kings. 4:42-44). It has no delegated grace to avert any
sense of suffering, but it supplies the suffering, and the feeling, and the
grieving, with endurance. It amplifies grace by virtue, that faith may know
what she obtains from the Lord, understanding what – for God’s name’s
sake – she suffers. But in days gone by, prayer also used to call down
plagues, scatter the armies of foes, and withhold the wholesome influences
of the rain showers. Now, however, the prayer of righteousness deters all
God’s anger, keeps watch on behalf of personal enemies, and makes
supplication on behalf of persecutors. Is it any wonder if the prayer that
was once able to procure its fires knows how to extort the rains of heaven?
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need to be willing to share our spiritual burdens, and confess our
sins to our brothers and sisters. Once again, our individualistic pride
is a hindrance to this sort of sharing.
May the Early Church serve as a guide for us as we explore
what it means to be the holy people of God. May their example
inspire us to submit to one another and may we learn new ways to
grow deeper into the sharing fellowship of koinonia.
Prayer as Central to the Mission and Identity of the Church
Furthermore, the stories of the Early Church remind us that
prayer is central to our mission as the Church. Prayer is the tool that
God uses to guide us into obedience. When we hear of a problem,
whether a brother, a sister or a neighbor in need or whether something
catastrophic like a hurricane or a war has hit the world, our first
response is generally: What can we, or what can I, do? However,
rather than just jumping in and doing something that seems good,
prayer should be our first course of action. Certainly, some situations
require immediate attention, but in those situations, we should be
praying even as we are moving to help. Prayer is a demonstration of
our humility. It is a way of saying that we are helpless and need
God’s direction. In reality, however, prayer seems to often come to
us as an afterthought: “Lord, bless this course of action that I have
decided to take.” Our problems with prayer can be traced in large
part back to our problems with submission, for prayer is the means
by which we submit ourselves to God.
By their submission to God in all things, the early Christians
provide us with a model of what the Apostle Paul meant when he
wrote to the Thessalonians: “Pray without ceasing” (I Thess. 5:17).
Continual prayer was the catalyst that energized the Early Church;
indeed, in his Epistle to the Ephesians, Ignatius clarifies the Apostle
Paul’s dictum: “Pray without ceasing on behalf of other men” (X).
In these words of Ignatius, we are reminded that prayer is not to be
used for our own ends, for the building up of our own kingdom, but
rather for the building up of God’s kingdom in the midst of the
community of believers. While most churches today recognize the
importance of prayer, it does not always hold a central position in
the mission and identity of the community. We are prone to forget
Tertullian’s proclamation that in the Lord’s Prayer – which indeed
was given as a model for all our prayers – we find “an epitome of the
whole gospel” (On Prayer I). There cannot be any part of the Christian
faith that is not pervaded by prayer.
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The Power of Prayer
In addition to the centrality of prayer, our churches would
do well to remember the power that the Early Church found in prayer.
This power is characterized by the words of Origen: “And as we – by
our prayers – vanquish all the demons that stir up war, and lead to
the violation of oaths and disturb the peace we in this service are
much more helpful to the kings than those who go into the field to
fight for them” (Against Celsus VIII.73). Do we really believe that
God is capable of vanquishing the demons that stir up war and disturb
the peace? In the present age of technology, we seem to have lost
most of our faith in God’s power to bring healing to a broken world.
Our tendency is to turn first to our technological solutions, and then
if those fail to turn to God as a last resort. It is much easier for us to
turn to the technological solutions because they allow us the illusion
of remaining in control; we can buy prescriptions, pay for the surgery,
build a fence and install a security system to keep the “evils” of the
world out of our lives.
Marva Dawn, in her wonderful book, Powers, Weakness, and
the Tabernacling of God , reminds us that the Scriptural picture of
Christian discipleship centers on the Spirit of God dwelling (or
tabernacling) in our weakness. When we come to God in all our
weakness and brokenness, God is pleased to dwell in full power in
our midst. Thus, a major problem in the Church today is that we are
afraid to come to God in our weakness. As wonderful as our
technology may be, it often has the collective effect of persuading us
to be invulnerable. We feel that have no need to worry because
technology will take care of us, and thus we gradually end up trusting
technology instead of trusting God.
The connection between repentance and baptism is an
obvious one to us, but perhaps we need to be reminded more often
that the humility of repentance should pervade all phases of our life
in Christ. Our responsibility in the journey of Christian discipleship
is merely to come to God in all of our brokenness and need. John
Stott, in his excellent commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, has
said that the first four beatitudes – poverty of Spirit, mourning,
meekness (humility) and hunger and thirst for righteousness –
describe our relationship to God . If the gathered life of our
communities were to be characterized by these facets of humility, we
would undoubtedly learn much about the power of God made
manifest in prayer. Then, and only then, could we assent to the
poignant words of Tertullian: “Prayer alone is that which unleashes
God. … It washes away faults, repels temptations, extinguishes
persecutions, consoles the faint-spirited, cheers the high-spirited,
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debt (Matt. 18:21-35). For the fact also, that the same servant, after liberated
by his lord, does not equally spare his own debtor; and, being on that account
impeached before his lord, is given over to the tormentor to pay the last
penny of it. Thus every guilt, however small, corresponds with our
profession that “we also remit to our debtors.” Indeed elsewhere, too, in
conformity with this form of prayer, he says, “Remit, and it shall be remitted
you” (Lk. 6:37). And when Peter had put the question whether remission
was to be granted to a brother seven times, “No,” he said, “seventy-seven
times” (Matt. 18:21-22) in order to reshape the Law for the better – because
in Genesis vengeance was assigned “seven times” in the case of Cain, but in
that of Lamech “seventy-seven times” (Gen. 4:15, 24).
Chapter VIII.
The Seventh and Final Clause.
For the completeness of such a brief prayer he added – in order that we
should pray not only for the remitting of sins, but for the complete avoidance
of sinful acts: “Lead us not into temptation.” That is, allow us not to be led
into it, by him of course who tempts; but far be the thought from our minds
that the Lord should seem to tempt, as if he either were ignorant of the faith
of any, or else were eager to overthrow it. Ignorance and malice are
characteristics of the devil. For God had commanded even Abraham to make
a sacrifice of his son, for the sake not of tempting, but proving, his faith, in
order that through him he might make an example of the command that he
would eventually give: that we should hold no pledges of affection dearer
than God. He himself, when tempted by the devil, demonstrated who it is
that presides over and is the originator of temptation (cf. Matt. 4:10, Lk. 4:8).
He confirms this passage by subsequent ones, saying, “Pray that you are
not tempted” (Lk. 22:40, Matt. 26:41, Mark 14:31) yet they were tempted, as
they showed by deserting their Lord, because they had given way to sleep
rather than prayer. The final clause, therefore, is consonant, and interprets
the sense of “Lead us not into temptation; “for this sense is, “But keep us
away from the Evil One.”
Chapter IX.
Recapitulation.
In this prayer, a summary of so few words, how many utterances of the
prophets, the Gospels, the Apostles; how many discourses, examples,
parables of the Lord, are touched on! How many duties are simultaneously
discharged! The honor of God in the “Father;“ the testimony of faith in the
“Name;“ the offering of obedience in the “Will;“ the commemoration of hope
in the “Kingdom;” the petition for life in the “Bread;” the full
acknowledgment of debts in the prayer for their “Forgiveness;” the anxious
dread of temptation in the request for “Protection.” Why are we surprised?
God alone could teach how we should pray to him. The religious rite of
prayer therefore, ordained by himself, and animated, even at the moment
when it was issuing out of the Divine mouth, by his own Spirit, ascends, by
its own prerogative, into heaven, commending to the Father what the Son
has taught.
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Lord “How long, Lord, do You not avenge our blood on the inhabitants of
the earth? “ (Rev. 6:10). For, of course, their avenging is regulated by the
end of the age. No, Lord, your kingdom come with all speed – this is the
prayer of Christians, the confusion of the heathen, the exultation of angels,
for the sake of which we suffer, no, rather, for the sake of which we pray!
Chapter VI.
The Fifth Clause.
But how gracefully has the Divine Wisdom arranged the order of the prayer;
so that after the heavenly things – that is, after the “Name” of God, the
“Will” of God, and the “Kingdom” of God – it should also give earthly
necessities room for a petition! For the Lord has also issued his edict, “Seek
first the kingdom, and then even these shall be added” (Matt. 6:33).
However, we may also understand, “Give us this day our daily bread,”
spiritually. For Christ is our Bread; because Christ is Life, and bread is life.
“I am,” he says, “the Bread of Life” (John 6:35) and, a little above that: “The
Bread is the Word of the living God, who came down from the heavens”
(John 6:33). Then we find, too, that his body is symbolized in bread: “This
is my body” (Matt. 26:26). And so, in petitioning for “daily bread,” we ask
for eternity in Christ, and indivisibility from his body. But, because that
word is admissible in a physical sense too, it cannot be used in this way
without also the religious remembrance of spiritual Discipline. Indeed the
Lord commands that bread be prayed for, which is the only food necessary
for believers – for “the pagans seek after all other things” (Matt. 6:32). He
both embodies by examples, and repeatedly handles in parables a similar
lesson when he says, “Does a father take away bread from his children,
and hand it to dogs? “ and again, “Does a father give his son a stone when
he asks for bread” (Matt. 7:9, Lk. 11:11)? For thus he shows what it is that
sons expect from their father. Indeed, even the one who knocked at night
asked for “bread” (Lk. 11:5-9). Moreover, Jesus justly added, “Give us this
day,” since he had also said, “Take no careful thought about tomorrow:
about what you are to eat” (Matt. 6:34). He also spoke on this subject in the
parable of the man who considered enlarging his barns for his forthcoming
harvest, but that very night he dies (Lk. 12:16-20).
Chapter VII.
The Sixth Clause.
It was suitable that, after contemplating the generosity of God, we should
likewise address his forgiveness. For what will food profit us, if we are
really consigned to it, as it were a bull destined to be slaughtered? The
Lord knew himself to be the only guiltless One, and so he teaches us to
petition “to have our debts remitted us.” A petition for pardon is a full
confession because the one who begs for pardon fully admits his guilt.
Thus, too, penitence is demonstrated acceptable to God who desires it rather
than the death of the sinner (Ex. 18:23, 32, 33:11). Moreover, debt is, in the
Scriptures, a figure of guilt because it is due to the sentence of judgment
and is exacted by it. It also does not evade the justice of exaction, unless the
exaction is forgiven, just as the lord forgave to that slave in the parable his
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escorts travelers, calms waves, makes robbers stand aghast,
nourishes the poor, governs the rich, raises up the fallen, arrests the
falling, confirms the standing” (On Prayer XXIX). If we come in all
humility, God will work in power through us, but it is important for
us to remember that God is working toward the ends of the Kingdom
and not toward our own human ends. It is easy for us to desire to
wield God’s power for our own ends, but we must remember that
the model of prayer that we were given instructs us to pray “Your
Kingdom come.”
Patientia
If we come to God in all humility, praying that the Kingdom of God
would come “on Earth as it is in Heaven,” God will undoubtedly
move powerfully in and through our communities. We will enjoy a
bumper crop of the fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23), and we will
start to see signs that the mission of Jesus is being carried out in our
midst: the sick will be healed, the blind will see, and the oppressed
ones will be set free (cf. Luke 4:18-19). However, we must remember
that God’s work will unfold according to the divine timing and not
according to our own wishes. Thus, one final lesson that our churches
need to learn from the Early Church is that of patientia. The culture
of the world, and particularly that of present day America, is centered
around impatience. One does not have to go very far to find
examples of our impatience; in fact, we are often inclined to use
“convenience” as a euphemism for our impatience. There are
convenience stores on practically every corner, and even many of
our home appliances have their origins in convenience, especially
ones like the microwave and the dishwasher. Fast food restaurants,
the modern icons of convenience, are just as abundant as convenience
stores. Out on the highways, the average speed is almost always in
excess of the posted speed limit. All these phenomena are, to some
degree, symptoms of our impatience.
Our churches are, generally speaking, no less impatient than
the society that surrounds them. As we alluded to in the previous
section on the power of prayer, we tend not to believe that God can
or will move powerfully in difficult situations. Practically speaking,
we reject the omnipotence of God when we impatiently rush to take
matters into our own hands. Our unwillingness to let God be the
Judge and Avenger is one of the fruits of our churches’ impatience.
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The patientia of Jesus that was so fundamental for the Early Church
taught them that it was better to suffer than to inflict harm. Many
churches in the United States have clearly demonstrated their
impatience by supporting the government’s current war in Iraq.
Maybe the government is justified in going to war and maybe it is
not, but regardless the Church has been called to be a nation of
peacemakers, a people who demonstrates God’s love for humanity
by loving their enemies, and not returning evil for evil. It seems that
the Church is particularly adept at making excuses for why we will
not follow our calling, and this is particularly true with regard to
our calling to return good for evil. This teaching of Jesus is generally
relegated to the realm of the individual if it is recognized at all. One
major problem is that we are unwilling to recognize the Church as a
nation among all the other nations of the world, a nation founded
and formed by the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles. Our excuses
and justifications are grounded not only in our impatience and
disbelief but also in our fear of suffering.
Our fear of suffering stems in large part from our reliance
upon technology and from our present lack of persecution. As we
learn to come to God in brokenness and to trust in Divine
omnipotence, we will be taught patientia. This process of learning
patientia will certainly be a painful one, but we have not been left
alone in these struggles. We have a host of faithful witnesses that
have gone before us, not least of which was Jesus himself, whose
stories serve to inspire and encourage us. We also have been given
a new family, a community of brothers and sisters who enter with
us into this painful journey of discipleship, and who will carry our
burdens when they become too much for us to bear. In the following
section of this book, we will examine the role of persecution in the
Early Church, how it shaped their patientia, and how we can learn
from their example in these days that are almost persecution-free
for churches in the United States and the Western world.
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be hallowed in us who are in him, as well in all others for whom the grace of
God is still waiting (Isa. 30:18). This is our prayer in order that we may
obey this precept, too, in “praying for all,” (1 Tim. 2:1) even for our personal
enemies (Matt. 5:44). And therefore with suspended utterance, not saying,
“Hallowed be it in us, “we say, “in all.”
Chapter IV.
The Third Clause.
According to this model, we continue, “Your will be done in the heavens
and on the earth;“ not that there is some other power to prevent God’s will
being done, and we pray for the successful achievement of his will; but we
pray for his will to be done in all. For, by figurative interpretation of flesh
and spirit, we are “heaven” and “earth” – even if it is to be understood
simply, still the sense of the petition is the same, that in us God’s will be
done on earth, to make it possible, for it to be done also in the heavens.
What, moreover, does God will, except that we should walk according to
his discipline? We pray, then, that he would supply us with the substance
of his will, and the capacity to do it, that we may be saved both in the
heavens and on earth; because the sum of his will is the salvation of the
people whom he has adopted. There is, too, that will of God which the Lord
accomplished in preaching, in working, and in enduring, for if he himself
proclaimed that he did not his own, but the Father’s will, undoubtedly those
things which he used to do were the Father’s will (John 6:38) unto which
things, as unto exemplars, we are now spurred: to preach, to work, to endure
even unto death. And we need the will of God, that we may be able to fulfill
these duties. Again, in saying, “Your will be done,” we are even wishing
well to ourselves, in that there is nothing evil in the will of God; even if
things that do not seem good are imposed on us. So, in praying this prayer,
we prepare ourselves for patience. The Lord also, when he had wished to
demonstrate to us, even in his own flesh, the flesh’s infirmity, by the reality
of suffering, said, “Father, remove your cup;“ and remembering himself,
added, “but not my will, but yours be done” (Lk. 22:42). He himself was the
Will and the Power of the Father: and yet, for the demonstration of the
patience that was due, he gave himself up to the Father’s Will.
Chapter V.
The Fourth Clause.
“Your kingdom come” has also reference to that which “Your will be done”
refers – that is, in us. For when does God not reign, in whose hand is the
heart of all kings (Prov. 21:1)? But whatever we wish for ourselves we
promise that he will provide, and to him we attribute the things we expect
from him. And so, if the manifestation of the Lord’s kingdom pertains to
the will of God and to our anxious expectation, how do some pray for some
prolonging of this age, when the kingdom of God, which we pray may
arrive, tends toward the conclusion of the age? Our wish is, that our reign
be hastened, not our servitude extended. Even if it had not been prescribed
in the Prayer that we should ask for the dawn of the kingdom, we should,
unbidden, have sent forth that cry, hastening toward the realization of our
hope. The souls of the martyrs beneath the altar cry in jealousy unto the