As I get deeper into the understanding of how the early church operated, I am beginning to understand that they operated as a family, not as a "modern day church". The deeper understanding of early Christian church must be put through the eyes of a Mediterranean Family System (MFS).
Sharing common meals and having all things in common was much more than just sitting around tables eating and sharing what happened during the week. It was a lifestyle or social struture that affected all other parts of their life. They became family. They became brothers and sisters.
Here are a couple of the values of the "ancient" church and how they operated as a family. First, they viewed each other as siblings... You did the following to each other much as a MFS would operate. MFS Siblings shared certain values that in today' western individualistic minutest would seem foreign and counter productive.
1. Refraining from avenging a wrong suffered at the hand of another community member
2. Equitable distribution of the communities resources to meet the pressing needs of fellow Christians
3. Honoring, rather than seeking honor from, one's siblings in the faith
4. Manumitting, or at least in other ways treating as a "beloved brother", a slave who had become a Christian brother.
in Paul's writings, family loyalty or "faith family" loyalty is one of his primary themes. He continually pulls his readers into an understanding that we are now a "family of believers". Not a group or gathering, but rather a MFS gathering of believers.
The value of being family was one of the most important themes carried through the New Testament writings. We must change our thinking in the West if we are going to understand why the church was so affective and effective in the first 3 centuries of it's history.
Below is a copy of how Christians had so rocked the pagan world. The MFS of Christianity was bugging the pagans so bad that they realized that they too had better change or loose control of their systems.
The religion of the Greeks does not yet prosper as I would wish, on account of those who profess it. But the gifts of the gods are great and splendid, better than any prayer or any hope . . . Indeed, a little while ago no one would have dared even to pray for a such change, and so complete a one in so short a space of time [i.e., the arrival of Julian himself, a reforming traditionalist, on the throne]. Why then do we think that this is sufficient and do not observe how the kindness of Christians to strangers, their care for the burial of their dead, and the sobriety of their lifestyle has done the most to advance their cause?
Each of these things, I think, ought really to be practiced by us. It is not sufficient for you alone to practice them, but so must all the priests in Galatia [in modern Turkey] without exception. Either make these men good by shaming them, persuade them to become so or fire them . . . Secondly, exhort the priests neither to approach a theater nor to drink in a tavern, nor to profess any base or infamous trade. Honor those who obey and expel those who disobey.
Julian the Apostate, Letter to Arsacius
The Emperor Julian, who reigned around the year 360, like all Emperors, was Pontifex Maximus, Chief Priest of the State Religion.
If you are interested in a good book to read about all of this stuff. I suggest the following.
The Ancient Church As Family
by Dr. Joseph H. Hellerman
He does a great job in helping us understand the MFS mindset and how it differs from Postmodern and Modern Western Individualism.
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