How the early church related to society

The early Christians who lived before Emperor Constantine understood what it meant to be salt and light and to operate according the principles of God’s kingdom. They stood in stark contrast to the rest of Roman society. Whereas it was common practice for pagans to abandon their unwanted infant children, leaving them to die in the wilderness or trash heaps, or to take strong drugs to abort their unwanted unborn babies, Christians not only disapproved of such practices but even actively rescued abandoned children and took them into their homes. They refused to take part in public celebrations of cruelty and debauchery. The Epistle to Diognetus, a Christian apology written sometime toward the end of the second century, describes the unique role of Christians in society in dramatic terms:[1]

For Christians are no different from other people in terms of their country, language, or customs. Nowhere do they inhabit cities of their own, use a strange dialect, or live life out of the ordinary. They have not discovered this teaching of theirs through reflection or through the thought of meddlesome people, nor do they set forth any human doctrine, as some do. They inhabit both Greek and barbarian cities, according to the lot assigned to each. And they show forth the character of their own citizenship in a marvelous and admittedly paradoxical way by following local customs in what they wear and what they eat and in the rest of their lives. They live in their respective countries, but only as resident aliens; they participate in all things as citizens, and they endure all things as foreigners. Every foreign territory is a homeland for them, every homeland foreign territory. They marry like everyone else and have children, but they do not expose them once they are born. They share their meals but not their sexual partners. They are found in the flesh but do not live according to the flesh. They live on earth but participate in the life of heaven. They are obedient to the laws that have been made, and by their own lives they supersede the laws. They love everyone and are persecuted by all. They are not understood and they are condemned. They are put to death and made alive. They are impoverished and make many rich. They lack all things and abound in everything. They are dishonored and they are exalted in their dishonors. They are slandered and they are acquitted. They are reviled and they bless, mistreated and they bestow honor. They do good and are punished as evil; when they are punished they rejoice as those who have been made alive. They are attacked by Jews as foreigners and persecuted by Greeks. And those who hate them cannot explain the cause of their enmity.[2]

To use Jesus’ analogy, the Christians described in this passage were like a city on a hill that could not be hidden. To society, the way in which they lived seemed paradoxical. They lived peaceably everywhere, following local customs and laws, but refusing to murder their children or participate in licentious behavior. They fulfilled all their civic duties, but remembered that they were foreigners in this world and citizens of the God’s kingdom. Moreover, as representatives of the kingdom of God, they operated according to the principles of submission and service—even if it meant death. Because of their unique message and shining examples, an increasing number of people from across all spectra of society came to have a transforming relationship with Jesus.[3]

Following the example of Jesus, these early believers avoided identifying the Christian faith with political movements and nations. In 66 A.D., possibly just several years after the martyrdom of Peter and Paul in Rome and before the close of the New Testament canon, Jews in and around Jerusalem rebelled against Roman authority, provoked by the sacrilegious actions of the procurator Florus. Jewish Christians refused to join in the rebellion and fled the city before Roman legions under Vespasian and Titus besieged and finally destroyed it in 70 A.D. These Christians followed the teachings of Jesus, who taught that the kingdom of God was established through submission and service, not by subjugation and coercion. They remembered Jesus’ words recorded in the gospel, “Those who live by the sword will die by the sword.”

Throughout the second and third centuries, Christian apologists reasoned with Roman authorities that Christianity taught people to live as peaceable, submissive, and even patriotic citizens, and therefore posed no threat their rule. These Christians understood that God’s kingdom is not established in opposition to earthly kingdoms. Sometime around 150 A.D., Justin Martyr appealed to Emperor Antoninus Pius:

And everywhere we, more readily than all men, endeavor to pay to those appointed by you the taxes both ordinary and extraordinary, as we have been taught by Him; for at that time some came to Him and asked Him, if one ought to pay tribute to Caesar; and He answered, ‘Tell Me, whose image does the coin bear?’ And they said, ‘Caesar's.’ And again He answered them, ‘Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.’ Whence to God alone we render worship, but in other things we gladly serve you, acknowledging you as kings and rulers of men, and praying that with your kingly power you be found to possess also sound judgment.[4]

Again, in 176 A.D. or 177 A.D., Athenagoras wrote to Emperor Marcus Aurelius:

For who are more deserving to obtain the things they ask, than those who, like us, pray for your government, that you may, as is most equitable, receive the kingdom, son from father, and that your empire may receive increase and addition, all men becoming subject to your sway? And this is also for our advantage, that we may lead a peaceable and quiet life, and may ourselves readily perform all that is commanded us.[5]

Tertullian, writing in 197 A.D., described the prayers offered for the empire:

Without ceasing, for all our emperors we offer prayer. We pray for life prolonged; for security to the empire; for protection to the imperial house; for brave armies, a faithful senate, a virtuous people, the world at rest, whatever, as man or Caesar, an emperor would wish.[6] [7]

Even as they grew more numerous, Christians refused to operate according to the principles of subjugation and coercion by seeking political power. Later in the same apology cited above, Tertullian said that Christians were by then numerous enough to topple the Roman government that persecuted them simply by withdrawing from society, but that they instead helped to maintain Roman rule:

We are but of yesterday, and we have filled every place among you—cities, islands, fortresses, towns, marketplaces, the very camp, tribes, companies, palace, senate, forum—we have left nothing to you but the temples of your gods. For what wars should we not be fit, not eager, even with unequal forces, we who so willingly yield ourselves to the sword, if in our religion it were not counted better to be slain than to slay? Without arms even, and raising no insurrectionary banner, but simply in enmity to you, we could carry on the contest with you by an ill-willed severance alone. For if such multitudes of men were to break away from you, and betake themselves to some remote corner of the world, why, the very loss of so many citizens, whatever sort they were, would cover the empire with shame; nay, in the very forsaking, vengeance would be inflicted. Why, you would be horror-struck at the solitude in which you would find yourselves, at such an all-prevailing silence, and that stupor as of a dead world. You would have to seek subjects to govern. You would have more enemies than citizens remaining. For now it is the immense number of Christians which makes your enemies so few—almost all the inhabitants of your various cities being followers of Christ.[8]

These examples shed some light on how Christians in the first three centuries practiced a peaceful type of insurrection, one not directed against the Roman empire but against sin and rebellion in the human heart. They corrected identified their enemy, which was not flesh and blood, but rather evil spiritual powers and sin that held people captive. By following the principles of submission and service they overcame their true enemy while winning over their human persecutors. As Tertullian wrote at the end of his apology, “The oftener we are mown down by you, the more in number we grow; the blood of Christians is seed.”[9]

By living as illuminating examples of God’s righteousness and justice, these Christians helped to preserve society. Again, Tertullian argued that Christians acted as mediators between God and society by the virtue of their lives and their prayers. He wrote: “And, for all that is said, if we compare the calamities of former times, they fall on us more lightly now, since God gave Christians to the world; for from that time virtue put some restraint on the world's wickedness, and men began to pray for the averting of God's wrath.”[10]

[This post is an excerpt of my work-in-progress book on social justice in the Old Testament. Feedback is welcome! More on Learning to Do Right.]

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[1] An apology is a “defense of the faith,” defending Christianity as true and good against its critics.

[2] Epistle to Diognetus 5:1-17, Bart D. Ehrman, The Apostolic Fathers, Vol. 2

[3] Read Paul’s letter to the mixed church at Colosse to see how people from all backgrounds set an example for society. Colossians 3:11 reads “Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.”

[4] Justin Martyr, First Apology, Chapter 17

[5] Athenagoras, A Plea for Christians, Chapter 32

[6] Tertullian, Apology, Chapter 30

[7] 1 Timothy 2:1-2 specifically teaches, “I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made for everyone—for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.”

[8] Tertullian, Apology, Chapter 37

[9] Tertullian, Apology, Chapter 50

[10] Tertullian, Apology, Chapter 40