Wednesday, January 20, 2010

20b - The Birth of the Church

Paul insisted that he had to serve as a model in all things, particularly in the matters of independence and industriousness. So even though Priscilla and her pious simple husband, as well as the entire Christian congregation begged him to give up his work at the loom, and devote himself entirely to the mission Christ had called him to, they begged in vain. Paul continued to work at his loom like a day laborer.

“My daily work is part of my mission,” he said.

He also wanted to remain independent for his own sake. He certainly wouldn’t allow the Gentiles of Corinth to support him, for there was still much to criticize and correct in them. So each evening, after a hard day of labor at the loom, and after a meager supper, he preached to his flock of Jews and Gentiles in the house of Justus.


Although the new “synagogue” was independent of the old one, having its own head, its own officers, and its own worshippers, including Stephanas and his large “family,” there was still a connection between the two synagogues, for both observed the same Sabbath and the same festivals. On Friday evenings, both buildings were bright with Sabbath candles. And on Sabbath mornings the Scroll was read in both. The only difference was that in one, Paul preached on Christ.

The common feasts, which used to be held in Priscilla’s home, were transferred to the new synagogue, due to the increase of numbers. There were already some prominent citizens among the Christians of Corinth. In addition to Crispus, Stephanas, and Justus, there was one Erastus, an official in the city administration. There were also a number of freedmen and slaves, all baptized by Paul’s assistants, Silas, Timothy, Aquila, and Priscilla.

Though Paul preached that justification lay in faith, not works, he also knew that works were the flesh and blood of faith. It wasn’t enough to feel oneself united with Christ. One must imitate him as well. Therefore he began to teach his Gentile converts the Ten Commandments and to educate them in the behavior of faith.

As part of this system of education, he enjoined the Gentles to contribute to the community fund for the care of widows, orphans, the sick and needy according to their means, a practice previously known only among the Jews. This work couldn’t be done on the Sabbath, for handling money was forbidden on that day. It was also considered a desecration of the spirit of common feasts to transact any business on that night, even though the Sabbath was technically over. Therefore Paul instituted a new procedure and had the members of his congregation assemble on the day following the Sabbath, that is, the first day of the week, the day of creation.

So every Sunday the Christian congregation gathered in the synagogue of Justus, and every member brought whatever he was able to spare as a donation. Even the slaves donated what little they could. Then Paul would preach practical things in regards to charity, love, and decency.

Thus the Christians found themselves observing two Sabbaths, the Jewish Sabbath, and the Sabbath of their own congregation. The second Sabbath they named “the lord’s day” because on that day Christ rose from the dead.


Corinth was the first place where Paul at last found enough time to attend to the complete organization of a congregation. One of his first rules was that everyone was obligated to earn his daily bread honestly with the labor of his hands. Although Paul founded a number of charitable brotherhoods to care for the poor and the sick, anyone who was in good health was not exempted from daily labor. Paul had a saying, “He that will not work shall not eat.”

Faith in Christ was not just something to save men after death. Paul wanted to change the world order of the Gentiles and to uproot all evil. Faith must regulate the life of the individual in his relations to the state, his family, and in all human contact.

The Gentiles were used to participating in the feasts and celebrations in honor of the local gods. It was a symbol of citizenship. So when Gentiles abstained from participation, they found themselves cut off from the rest of the population just as the Jews did. They were now subject to the same hostility, suspicions, and accusations. This isolation was harder on the Gentiles than it was on the Jews. They needed a special degree of faith to be able to withstand the pressure of their environment and their old associations. In order to help them in this act of sacrifice, the young Christian church adopted the same organizational forms as the Jewish synagogue. Each group elected its overseers and submitted to their authority. Like the Jews, the Christians came to their officers and elders with their problems, whether these concerned articles of faith or the rules of life under the faith.

Paul was always on the alert against any infraction of the purity of family life. He introduced a strictly monogamous concept of marriage, with love and respect on the part of the man, love and obedience on the part of the woman as a remedy against the degenerate nature of the surrounding world. In some respects he went even further than the Jewish rabbis. Leaning on the doctrine taught by Christ, he forbade divorce. Moreover, members of the Christian congregation were forbidden to take any of their disputes before the city courts. They were told to take their differences to their own arbitrators, even as the Jews did in the court that sat in the synagogue.

These concepts produced a need for men learned in the law, and such men began to appear. So they had councils of elders after the Jewish fashion. The elder of the congregation was the highest authority, and his word was law. His functions embraced not only the religious needs of the congregation, but its entire life. He was charged with the education of the young and the appointment of teachers. He kept an eye on the conduct of all the members. When the congregation became too large for the personal supervision of a single elder, he was authorized to choose assistants, among whom he distributed various functions.

And before they quite knew what had happened, the Gentiles suddenly realized that Paul, who had liberated them from the yoke of the Law of Moses, had placed them under the yoke of righteousness.

* * * * *

Even while concentrating on the faithful of Corinth, Paul never forgot the congregations he founded in other places. He thought of each congregation as a beloved child. The Galatians were the first fruits of his labor, but the Philippians were also very dear, they being the only ones he had accepted monetary help from. And no less dear were the faithful of Thessalonica, who were much tried. The field he’d sown in haste, and left to the storm, had become golden with the grain of Christ. He missed them all.

He remembered how his teacher, Rabban Gamaliel, took him to his office in the Temple court, where the elders of Israel had received the delegates sent by the various Jewish communities throughout the world. To answer their questions, Gamaliel wrote letters for them, containing the wisdom of the sages of Jerusalem. Those letters were like threads, binding the various congregations to the central root of Israel, the Torah. Why shouldn’t Paul do the same thing with the congregations of Christ?

When Paul received word that some believers in Thessalonica had died, and the faithful of that city mourned because the dead wouldn’t have the privilege of seeing the second coming of Christ, he made up his mind. He sent Timothy out to buy a roll of papyrus, so that he could write to the Thessalonians and tell them that those who died in Christ lived in Christ, and that they would see the redemption even before the living. They would hear the trumpet of Christ first.

Thus Paul began to weave the network of letters that would ultimately work, not just his vision of the faith, but the strands of his own life. His letters would become the record of his stormy wanderings, the echo of his soul’s cry, and the mirror of his inner struggles and doubts. They’d be filled with the dark sound of mourning, the thunder of rage, the moaning of his heart, and the cry of his triumphs. Like a skillful weaver, he would work the pattern of his emotions, desires, and longings into the texture of his letters, and all would be shot through with the fiery colors of his temperament and the somber shadows of his Jewish soul.

For now though, he was only concerned with what was happening in Thessalonica. So he dictated to Timothy.

“Brothers, we are comforted in our sufferings and troubles because of your strong faith. For now we live, because of your strength in the lord.

“Do not engage in passionate lust, like those who don’t know God. Let no one take advantage of his brother, or deceive him in any way. God has not called us to be unclean, but to be holy. Therefore anyone who rejects these things does not reject man, but God, Who has given us His holy spirit.

“And concerning brotherly love, you don’t need me to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another.

“And see that you modestly work with your own hands, just as we taught you.

“As for those who have died, don’t mourn for them, like people do who have no hope.

“For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so too will God bring those who are asleep in Jesus.

“And as far as how and when all this will happen, you don’t need me to write. For you know full well that the day of the lord will come like a thief in the night. Therefore comfort and encourage each other with these words.

“See that no one repays evil with evil. Always do what is good, not just for yourselves, but for everyone. Rejoice always.

“Never stop praying.

“Give thanks in everything, for this is both God’s and Christ’s will for you.

“Brothers, pray for us, and greet each other with a holy kiss.”

Then in his own hand, Paul wrote, “I solemnly command you in the name of the lord that you read this letter to all our holy brothers. The grace of our lord, Jesus Christ, be with you. Amen.”


Sometime later Paul had Timothy write a second letter to the Thessalonians.

“Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw from every brother who walks in rebellion, and not after the tradition we taught. For you yourselves know that it is your duty to obey us, and to act like we acted when we were with you. We ate no one's food without paying for it. We always worked diligently so that we might not be a burden to anyone. Now we didn’t do this because we had no right to such help, but in order to make ourselves an example for you to follow. For when we were with you, we taught you, ‘If anyone doesn’t work, neither should he eat.’ For we hear that there are some of you who live disorderly lives and are idle busybodies. They don’t work, but are forever concerned with the affairs of others. We command those people, in the name of our lord Jesus Christ, that they work quietly, so that they may eat the bread of the own labor.”

Again, Paul added some words in his own hand, “I, Paul, send greetings with my own hand. This is the sign in every letter that I write. The grace of our lord, Jesus Christ be with all of you. Amen.”


Paul took each letter, bound them in linen, and hung them on the chest of a messenger. The names of the messengers are unknown, and it doesn’t matter. Whoever was a believer in Christ was a soldier of Christ, and he would surely have delivered the message.

Thus Paul sent his letters to the congregation of Thessalonica. But Timothy and Silas remained with him in Corinth, for he needed many helpers in the work that lay before him.

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