The legacy of the apostles assured that discipleship– daily living of the Truth — would characterize the believer in every age. Faith would continue to be followed by works. A changed way of life, devotion to righteousness, obedience to the commandments of Christ — these were as important as right doctrine.
It is plain from the earliest post-apostolic writings that these principles were understood and practiced. As we would expect, believers were distinguished in the Roman world by the lives they lived.
In the Second Century
“What visitor among you is there who has not proved your most excellent and firm faith, who has not marveled at your prudent and gentle piety in Christ, who has not proclaimed your magnificent practice of hospitality, and who has not blessed your perfect and sure knowledge? For you did all things without respect of persons and walked in the commandments of God. You were obedient to your rulers and showed appropriate honor to those who were older. You instructed the younger to think moderate and reverent thoughts. You gave instructions to the women to perform everything in a blameless and pure conscience and to give proper affection to their own husbands…being altogether virtuous” (Clement: Epistle to the Corinthians).
The Believer and the State
In the second century, as in apostolic times, the relationship of the believer to the state was clear. He was a pilgrim, waiting for the coming of the King, and his kingdom was not of this world. Furthermore, the state was generally antagonistic to Christians; it viewed them with suspicion and at times subjected them to persecution. Indeed, the word ecclesia was used by Christians in the sense of being called out to separation from the world.
The teaching of the Master was plain enough. His disciples were to be a separate people. Like their spiritual father, Abraham, they would be strangers and pilgrims in the earth, looking for “a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”
An incident occurred toward the end of the first century which serves to illustrate that the generations immediately following the apostles held to this premise.
“There still survived of the kindred of the Lord the grandsons of Jude, who according to the flesh was called his brother. These were informed against, as belonging to the family of David, and Evocatus brought them before Domitian Caesar: for that emperor dreaded the advent of Christ, as Herod had done.
“So he asked them whether they were of the family of David; and they confessed they were…Being then asked concerning Christ and His kingdom, what was its nature, and when and where it was to appear, they returned answer that it was not of this world…and would make its appearance at the end of time, when He shall come in glory, and judge the living and dead, and render to everyone according to the course of his life.” Hegesippus (AD 170) (Eusebius: Ecclesiastical History, III, xx).
Be not conformed to this world
Justin Martyr writes: “We who hated and destroyed one another, now, since the coming of Christ, pray for our enemies, and endeavor to persuade those who hate us unjustly to live conformably to the good precepts of Christ, to the end that they may become partakers with us of the same joyful hope” (First Apology, ch. xiv). Tatian (AD 150) confirms, “I do not want to rule, I do not wish to be rich, I reject military command, I have hated fornication” (Address to the Greeks, ch. xi). And Origen (AD 230) testifies that “Christians decline public offices not in order to escape these duties but in order to keep themselves for a more divine and necessary service in the church of God for the salvation of men” and “We do not fight under him [Caesar], although he require it; but we fight on his behalf…by offering our prayers to God” (Against Celsus, Book VIII, chs. lxxiii, lxxiv).
Despise foolish spectacles
There are many witnesses to the fact that believers, as a people apart, avoided “the racecourse and the theatre” and the spectacles of the coliseum, refusing to take part, even as spectators, with the evil practices of their day. “And ease of mind is not to be purchased by zealous pursuit of frivolities, for no one who has his senses will ever prefer what is pleasant to what is good” (Clement of Alexandria: The Instructor, Book III). “We ought to detest these heathen meetings and assemblies, if on no other account than that there God’s name is blasphemed” (Tertullian: De Spectaculis). Athenagoras, late in the second century, comments that “we have renounced such spectacles” (A Plea for Christians, ch. xxxv).
Honorable Professions
Several of the early Christian writers provide advice to believers as to which occupations and circumstances in life were acceptable and which were forbidden to Christians. The lists are similar to restrictions Christadelphians impose upon themselves today. There was no participation in politics, and political positions were avoided. The charioteer and the gladiator were to be rejected from baptism unless they ceased from their occupation. The disciple could not be a teacher if the curriculum included the tenets of paganism. And a believer could not, in the early centuries, serve as a magistrate or in military service. A primary consideration was whether in a given occupation, a believer would be required to compromise his discipleship, which included separation from worldliness and non-violence. Some professions — soldiers, lawyers, magistrates, and even charioteers -required an oath of loyalty to the emperor and to the Roman gods.
Christians and Military Service
Until late in the third century believers avoided military service. This was consistent with the early Christian attitude toward the state.
Tertullian (145-220): “Shall it be held lawful to make an occupation of the sword when the Lord proclaims that he who makes use of the sword shall perish by the sword? And shall the son of peace take part in the battle when it is not proper for him even to go to law?” (On the Crown, ch. xi).
“But now inquiry is made about this point, whether a believer is able to turn himself to military service, and whether the soldier may be admitted unto the faith, even the ordinary soldier or the lower ranks, to whom there is no necessity for taking part in sacrifices or capital punishments? There is no agreement between the divine and the human oath, the standard of Christ and the standard of the devil, the camp of light and the camp of darkness. One soul cannot be under obligation to two, God and Caesar…But how will a Christian war, indeed how will he serve even in peace without a sword, which the Lord has taken away?” (On Idolatry, ch. xix).
Hippolytus (170-236): “A soldier of the government must be told not to execute men…He must be told not to take the military oath…A military governor or a magistrate of a city who wears the purple, either let him desist [resign] or let him be rejected. If a catechumen or a baptized Christian wishes to become a soldier, let him be cast out, for he has despised God” (Apostolic Tradition).
A change of position
As numbers of Gentiles were converted to the faith, the problem of military service became more pertinent. A distinction was made between believers who might wish to join the army and converts who were already soldiers. Toward the end of the third century, exceptions were being made by the churches, and there were Christians in the Roman military service. The early soldier-converts evidently recognized the difficulty of their position, and some of them were executed for refusing to use force or to take part in pagan ceremonies. By the end of the third century, the number of soldiers who were nominally Christian had grown. When Constantine recognized the church in the fourth century, military service became an honorable profession for those who called themselves Christians. Finally the emperor Theodosius II in 416 decreed that only Christians could be in the army. Christianity was now the official religion of the State, but it was steadily going astray from apostolic teaching.
The final compromise
It is not difficult to follow the deterioration in the attitude of the church with regard to its relationship to the state. A fairly consistent stand was taken for more than two hundred years, and then compromise became the pattern. When at last the church was granted recognition by the Roman Emperor, persecution ceased, and a union with the secular estate was achieved.
In the year 313, Constantine issued the Edict of Milan, giving to Christianity equality with the other religions of the Empire. Many would now take on the name of Christ for political and material advantage. “Constantine’s edict, which signalized a great victory for the Church, at the same time opened the floodgates through which a mighty flow of corruption poured into the Church” (B. K. Kuiper, The Church in History).
Conclusion
It was inevitable that the loss of gospel truth would be followed by a deterioration of Christian discipleship. Christianity would become a worldly institution in all respects, and its adherents would no longer be seen as different from the people among whom they lived. There were dissidents: believers who stood apart from these developments; but they would, from now on, be a persecuted minority.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One