CHRISTIANS IN THE
WORLD
(An
Example of a Writing of An Apologist)
We cannot distinguish Christians from the
rest of the human race by country or language or customs. They do not live
in cities of their own; they do not use a peculiar form of speech; they do
not follow an eccentric manner of life. This doctrine of theirs has not been
discovered by the ingenuity of deep thought of inquisitive men, nor do they
put forward a merely human teaching, as some people do.
Yet although they live in Greek and
barbarian cities alike, as each man's lot has been cast, and follow the
customs of the country in clothing and food and other matters of daily
living, at the same time they give proof of the remarkable and admittedly
extraordinary constitution of their own commonwealth. They live in their own
countries but only as aliens.
They have a share in everything as
foreigners. Every foreign land is their fatherland, and yet, for them, every
fatherland is a foreign land. They marry, like everyone else, and they beget
children but they do not cast out their offspring. They share their
board with each other, but not their marriage bed.
It is true that they are "in the
flesh", but they do not live "according to the flesh." They
busy themselves on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven. They obey the
established laws, but, in their own lives, they go far beyond what the laws
require.
They love all men, and by all men are
persecuted. . .they are defamed, and are vindicated. They are reviled, and
yet they bless. . .
To put it simply; what the soul is in the
body, that Christians are in the world. The soul is dispersed through all
the members of the body, and Christians are scattered through all the cities
of the world. The soul dwells in the body, but does not belong to the body,
and Christians dwell in the world, but do not belong to the world. The soul,
when faring badly as to food and drink, grows better; so, too, Christians,
when punished, day by day increase more and more. It is to no less a post
than this that God has ordered them, and they must not try to evade
it.
Letter to Diognetus, 5.6
(04-09-03)
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