Gospel generosity

Twenty to thirty years after the Apostle John died, there was a letter written to explain what was going on in the spread of the Church. It was a description of the church that was immensely attractive and gives us a glimpse as to how the Church grew so rapidly and caused many to be curious about Christ. It is called: The Epistle to Diognetus, c. AD 130

“For the Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, nor the customs which they observe. For they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life which is marked out by any singularity. The course of conduct which they follow has not been devised by any speculation or deliberation of inquisitive men; nor do they, like some, proclaim themselves the advocates of any merely human doctrines. But, inhabiting Greek as well as barbarian cities, according 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 suffer all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as do all others; they beget children; but they do not destroy their babies. They share their table with all, but not their bed with all. 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 exemplary lives. They love all men and yet are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned; they are put to death and restored to life. They are poor yet make many rich; they are in lack of all things and yet abound in all; they are dishonored and yet in their very dishonor are glorified. They are evil spoken of and yet are justified; they are reviled and bless; they are insulted and repay 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 persecuted by the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for their hatred. To sum it all up in one word—what the soul is to the body, that are Christians in the world.”

When you look read this letter you see four things that mark their life:

1- A Complete Absence of Racism

“Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers.”

The Christians were Jews, Africans, Greeks, and Romans, but they were Christians first, then Jews and Africans second. Christianity gives you a higher sense of identity than your homeland, and a higher loyalty than your race. It gives you the ability to critique your nation and race because your nation and race are not primary, they are secondary. Christians can appreciate other cultures, yet be critical of their own. They no longer aboslutized their nation or race as the best and this cut racism at the root.

2- A High View of Life“they do not destroy their babies.”

Back then, you could kill your babies if they were unwanted or the wrong gender by throwing them in the dung pile out back or taking them down to the river and tossing them in it. Also, in Roman culture it was permissible for you to kill a slave without having to answer for it since they were considered walking tools, or human animals. Christians saw every life, no matter how unwanted or expendable, as absolutely valuable and of incredible worth.

3- They Had an Unusual View of Sex

“They share their table with all, but not their bed with all.”

The third reason that people looked at them so strangely was because they had such an unusual view of sex. The pagan opinion about sex was that it was nothing more than an appetite. When you’re hungry you eat. When you’re thirsty you drink. When you’re feeling amorous you have sex. This was their idea about sex, so they had various sexual practices that fed their “appetites.”

Christians came along with a radically different sex ethics and basically taught that sex was God’s appointed means to show that you belong completely, permanently and exclusively to your spouse. Sex was viewed by the Christian as a celebration, as a complete and permanent demonstration of the closeness of the commitment to one another in the bonds of love. What is so odd about this is that in Rome, the Christians were raised in a time of a pagan sex ethic and when they came to Christ, they found this new way of sexual intimacy and they felt liberated from the bondage of their appetites. Sex became beautiful, incredibly fulfilling and enjoyable because it had meaning, value, healing and emotional content to it. Pagans were getting converted and trying it out and telling all their friends about this new form of liberated sexuality. This ran through the Empire and when people tried it they couldn’t believe how incredible it was. This is a bit different than today isn’t it? We are told that to be liberated, you should treat it as an appetite and nothing more. For those that were raised with that kind of sex ethic, they would tell you it doesn’t work and is not fulfilling.

4- These Christians were Radically Generous

“They share their table with all… They are poor yet make many rich; they are in lack of all things and yet abound in all…”

These early Christians were marked by eye-popping generosity. They were radically generous and people couldn’t believe how giving they were with all things.

They changed the way they looked at their having so little. They were short of everything yet had plenty of everything. This meant they had so little because they gave everything away and yet were happy with what little they had. They were content.

How did Rome, with all its decadence and slavery and immorality, turn Christian within a couple of hundred years? Because of radically generous Christians. And no one could match the beauty of these early Christians. Their lifestyle was startling, gorgeous, beautiful, sparkling and incredibly attractive, even if you hated them.

People would look at them and ask what happened inside of them that made them so quick to give their lives and money away, and to love all, not just kin and clan.