Christian Characteristics
Imagine if Australia had been overrun by foreign troops since the year 1353. It’s beyond our ability to think like that. That’s 660 years.
And yet, all of our New Testament was written in the context of a nation that had been over-run by foreign powers for that same amount of time – 660 years. Judea was conquered first by the Babylonians in 606BC, then the Medes, who were themselves conquered by the Persians, then the Greeks and finally the Romans.
All the New Testament writers assume their readers are thinking like people whose nation is in foreign hands. And that’s where a major problem arises. As we read our New Testament, we gloss over this background that pervades its pages.
Jesus was not trying to stir up the people against the Romans, the Empire that ruled Judea at that time; nor was Paul, Peter or John. But each used language that made more sense to the first readers than to us today.
In war time people are:
· vigilant
· single minded in their thinking
· unwilling to put time and energy into things that don’t matter
· sacrificial
· careful about their words
· uncomplaining
· able to handle hardship
These and so many other qualities characterised the early Christians and rarely characterise Christians today. Perhaps now we can better understand why.
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