Christian love in action… Read and be amazed at what the Holy Spirit of God can do in the hearts of faithful men and women. AMAZING! We need more of this beautiful Christianity today..., I need more of this.
Be encouraged Brothers and Sisters!
Doug
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Around the year A.D. 125, a Christian named Aristides wrote a defense of the Faith and presented it to the pagan Roman emperor Hadrian. In it, he describes what Christians were like less than one hundred years after the resurrection of our Lord…
Extracts from
THE APOLOGY
OF
ARISTIDES
THE PHILOSOPHER
“Now the Christians, O king, by going about and seeking, have found the truth…”
THEY OBEYED THE LORD THEIR GOD
“…they do not commit adultery nor fornication, they do not bear false witness, they do not deny a deposit, nor covet what is not theirs: they honour father and mother; they do good to those who are their neighbours, and when they are judges they judge uprightly; and they do not worship idols in the form of man; and whatever they do not wish that others should do to them, they do not practice towards any one, and they do not eat of the meats of idol sacrifices, for they are undefiled…”
THEY LOVED THEIR ENEMIES
“…those who grieve them they comfort, and make them their friends; and they do good to their enemies…”
THEY WERE CHASTE AND PURE
“…their wives, O king, are pure as virgins, and their daughters modest: and their men abstain from all unlawful wedlock and from all impurity, in the hope of the recompense that is to come in another world… “
THEY WERE A TRUE BROTHERHOOD
“…as for their servants or handmaids, or their children if any of them have any, they persuade them to become Christians for the love that they have towards them; and when they have become so, they call them without distinction brethren: they do not worship strange gods: and they walk in all humility and kindness, and falsehood is not found among them, and they love one another…”
THEY PRACTICED "PURE RELIGION"
“…and from the widows they do not turn away their countenance: and they rescue the orphan from him who does him violence: and he who has gives to him who has not, without grudging; and when they see the stranger they bring him to their dwellings, and rejoice over him as over a true brother; for they do not call brothers those who are after the flesh, but those who are in the spirit and in God…”
“…when one of their poor passes away from the world, and any of them sees him, then he provides for his burial according to his ability; and if they hear that any of their number is imprisoned or oppressed for the name of their Messiah, all of them provide for his needs, and if it is possible that he may be delivered, they deliver him.”
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THEY FASTED
“And if there is among them a man that is poor or needy, and they have not an abundance of necessaries, they fast two or three days that they may supply the needy with their necessary food.”
THEY WERE FULL OF THANKS TO GOD
“And they observe scrupulously the commandments of their Messiah: they live honestly and soberly, as the Lord their God commanded them: every morning and at all hours on account of the goodnesses of God toward them they praise and laud Him: and over their food and over their drink they render Him thanks…”
THEY REMEMBERED THE RIGHTEOUS
“…if any righteous person of their number passes away from the world they rejoice and give thanks to God, and they follow his body, as if he were moving from one place to another: and when a child is born to any one of them, they praise God, and if again it chance to die in its infancy, they praise God mightily, as for one who has passed through the world without sins.”
AND THE UNREPENTANT
“And if again they see that one of their number has died in his iniquity or in his sins, over this one they weep bitterly and sigh, as over one who is about to go to punishment: such is the ordinance of the law of the Christians, O king, and such their conduct.”
THEIR PRAYERS WERE ANSWERED
“As men who know God, they ask from Him petitions which are proper for Him to give and for them to receive: and thus they accomplish the course of their lives. And because they acknowledge the goodnesses of God towards them, lo! on account of them there flows forth the beauty that is in the world…”
THEY DID THEIR ALMS IN SECRET
“But the good deeds which they do, they do not proclaim in the ears of the multitude, and they take care that no one shall perceive them, and hide their gift, as he who has found a treasure and hides it.”
THEY “WORKED OUT” THEIR SALVATION
“And they labour to become righteous as those that expect to see their Messiah and receive from Him the promises made to them with great glory.”
HIS CONCLUSION:
“But their sayings and their ordinances, O king, and the glory of their service, and the expectation of their recompense of reward, according to the doing of each one of them, which they expect in another world, thou art able to know from their writings. It sufficeth for us that we have briefly made known to your majesty concerning the [manner of life] and the truth of the Christians. For truly great and wonderful is their teaching to him that is willing to examine and understand it. And truly this people is a new people, and there is something Divine mingled with it…”
THE VERY WORLD IS SPARED JUDGEMENT BECAUSE OF THE CHRISTIANS
“…And I have no doubt that the world stands by reason of the intercession of Christians…”
