In 115 AD, Ignatius, the Bishop of Antioch, was in chains on his way to Rome to be fed to lions in the Coliseum. On his way, he wrote several letters to different churches which provide an amazing glimpse into the life and values of the early church. One of those letters was to a fellow bishop named Polycarp. He encouraged Polycarp with the following description of God's church:
"Labor together with one another: struggle together, run together, suffer together, die together, rise together."
Amen. May it yet be so today.
Dedicated to the living conversation of past and future saints.
About Me
- Jackson
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States
- I am a graduate student in Historical Theology at Marquette University. I love Christ, I love the saints, and I love the church.
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3 comments:
Nice quote Jackson, I was recently thinking about how for over a thousand years there was only one Christian church. Granted it wasn't always perfect, and yet for thousands years only one that's pretty incredible. I remember my pastor saying once that 1054 (the year the east and west split) must have really hurt the heart of God. Of course I think sometimes some of the splits were necessary but I think we should always look at it as unfortunate. I think too many evangelicals take church splitting and variety for granted, I hear many non Christians ask how can you all be Christians and have so many different churches, I am beginning to think there is more truth in that critique than we often want to admit.
I love this quote...I'm stealing it! Thanks for sharing!
Jackie, this is truly one of the most difficult questions I think we have to face as a church. Because a majority of the Fathers felt that the unity of the church was one of its strongest witnesses to the fractured world; Scripture also speaks to Christ as coming to heal divisions (see Gal 3:28), the fruit of which was supposed to be the church. This we do not see today as you said.
I think that one of the problems is that the church grew rather comfortable in the world. Once this happened, it ceased to be a matter of survival or of spread the message quickly because Christ is coming back soon. When that is the mentality, the petty differences pale in comparison to what binds people together. When comfort sets in, things like worship styles (or even color of church carpet) seem ridiculously important.
It pains me (and as Matt says, it pains God) that we are so divided. I think that all people of all denominations need to work toward seeing what unites us and not what divides us. As John Wesley said somewhere, "Do you love the Lord? Then you are one with me."
Of course this raises another set of problems, but those problems might be something we should be willing to endure if those who love Christ could come together as one.
Any other thoughts out there to this hard question?
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