I recently stumbled upon a letter penned in either the late second or early third century that describes the way Christians were perceived by the world around them. I won’t quote all of it, but a few relevant portions…
“Christians are indistinguishable from other men either by nationality, language or customs. They do not inhabit separate cities of their own, or speak a strange dialect, or follow some outlandish way of life… With regard to dress, food and manner of life in general, they follow the customs of whatever city they happen to be living in, whether it is Greek or foreign… They are attacked by the Jews as aliens, they are persecuted by the Greeks, yet no one can explain the reason for this hatred. The world hates the Christians, not because they have done it any wrong, but because they [Christians] are opposed to its [the world’s] enjoyments.”
I love the description that God’s people are hated by the people of the world, not because we hate the people of the world, but because we hate pleasures of the world, which the people of the world have adopted. As the Apostle told us, “love not the (pleasures of the) world” (1 John 2:15). And yet, the Lord Himself “so loved the (people of the) world” (John 3:16). That crucial distinction is the backbone of our interactions in this life.
Beyond that, I was most struck by the way Christians were said to be a people who blended into whatever area in which they lived, while, simultaneously standing out. We don’t have special clothing or language or overtly (public) rituals that make us odd… and that’s what puts us at odds with Jews. Instead, we go about our lives relatively similarly to the way everyone else does. We just don’t engage in the sinful vices everyone else does… and that puts us at odds with gentiles.
The letter is just a glimpse into the Christian world a couple centuries after the kingdom was established, but it shows us a primitive look at what the church’s reputation was, and of the way the early church existed in the world around it. In short, they were not a segment of society, separated by superficial irregularities. They were in their communities. They were friends. They were neighbors. They were co-workers. They weren’t just “everywhere” in the world. They were “anywhere” in the world, because, wherever they were, they were “in Christ.”
And so it is today.
~Matthew