A fascinating report on the Christians was written by an unknown author around the year 180. It is called the Epistle to Diognetus.
In this Letter to Diognetus, the author describes the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian. Here we catch a glimpse of how the early believers’ lives were ordinary and yet, at the same time, so very extraordinary:
Christians are not distinguished from the rest of mankind by country, by speech, nor by customs. But although they live in both Greek and foreign cities, and follow the local customs, both in clothing and food and the rest of life, they exhibit the wonderful and admittedly strange nature of their own citizenship. They live in their own homelands but as sojourners; they share all things as citizens, and suffer all things as aliens. Every foreign country is their homeland and every homeland a foreign country. They marry as all do; they bear children, but they do not discard their children as some do. They offer a common table but not a common bed. They find themselves ‘in the flesh,’ but do not live ‘according to the flesh.’ They pass their time upon earth, but are citizens of heaven. They obey the established laws, and surpass the laws in their own lives.They love all and are persecuted by all. They are put to death and are made alive. They are poor but make many rich. They lack all things yet abound in all things. They are abused and give blessing; they are insulted and give honor. When they do good they are punished as evildoers; when they are punished, they rejoice as those receiving life. By the Jews they are attacked as foreigners, and by the Greeks they are persecuted; and those who hate them are not able to state the cause of their hostility.
