English Standard Version
What do you think of when you think of the first century church?
It's easy to think of Paul, visiting these communities and encouraging them in the faith, although it seems easier to think of him in house imprisonment in Rome, dashing off letters around the known world.
What's easy to forget is the sense that this was an interconnected web, fragile in its youth, of believers trying to figure out how to be Christians, a new concept in a dangerous time. They cared for each other, genuinely grateful for the ministry afforded them, always searching for their next step, trying to claim a new identity believing something no community had believed before Jesus Christ came to earth.
They seem like they got a lot of things wrong, which is understandable, given that they were figuring it out on the fly. They were a mix of Jews and Gentiles, rich and poor, all thrown together, sharing a common faith in Jesus Christ.
We are their legacy. May we not treat this lightly, but endeavor to live together in such a way that we honor the work they did trying to be a community of faith. May we care not only for one another but also for the other communities of faith in our midst, as well as the leaders of all churches, all ministry figures -- may we hold them in our prayers. There are so many public stories of the downfall of ministry leaders -- may we be in prayer for all leaders, that they may not give in to temptation and, in doing so, bring negative press to the church. May we lead with humility, follow with love, and extend grace to one another, as we join in the communion of saints in every time and place.
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