The Spirit of God was operating in a powerful way and the Christian gospel quickly spread all over the Roman Empire and doubtless into more distant lands. There was a large Christian assembly in Rome before the Apostle Paul visited it. Through his labors a large number of churches had grown up in Asia Minor and in Greece. Many others were spreading the good news concerning Christ — of redemption, of a hope beyond the grave and of the glorious coming again of the crucified Saviour. The very darkness and despair in which millions were then sunk prepared many to receive a hope which led their hearts and minds beyond this troubled world. Instead of the many hateful and immoral deities they had been brought up to worship, they were told of a God of love and righteousness and grace and mercy.
The worship of the only true God, the lofty ideals and righteous principles, and the gentleness and kindness of Christianity were as far from the vapid moralizings of the philosophers and the demon worship of the heathen as the east is from the west.
A dim light had indeed shone among the Jews, but here was a light brighter than the sun — the light of God. Moreover, believers were not only taught to do right, but receiving the Spirit of God they had the power to do right. Of no other religion could this ever be said. Christians were drawn to one another; they had nothing in common with the world. It hated and despised them. In each other’s company they found solace and comfort and mutual joy. Above all, they shared together in the gift of the Holy Spirit. There were companies now, large or small, in very many places, but it was all one united Church, the Church of Christ. We can form a picture of it from the New Testament writings. They met simply in little companies, often in the houses of one of their number, sometimes, when numbers were great, in various houses. They came together to break bread in remembrance of the Lord on the first day of the week (Acts 20:77And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight. (Acts 20:7)). Paul enlarges on this in his first Epistle to the Corinthians. He speaks in chapter 10 of “the bread which we break” and “the cup of blessing which we bless” (1 Cor. 10:1616The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? (1 Corinthians 10:16)), showing clearly that it was a well-established custom. He distinguishes in chapter 11 the Lord’s supper from the common meals which it is evident early believers often partook of together and which Jude calls love feasts. Being often together, they would naturally find it agreeable to eat at one table. The abuse of this practice is the subject of the Apostle’s rebuke in 1 Corinthians 11.
Copies of the Old Testament were early used and revered as the inspired Word of God. As many could not read, public reading of the Scriptures was an important service and the exhortation to Timothy to give himself to reading is to be understood in this sense. Later the gospels and the epistles of Paul and the other New Testament writers were added, being early recognized as inspired. Peter, for example, says in regard to Paul’s writings, “As also the other scriptures” (2 Peter 3:1616As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. (2 Peter 3:16) JND).
There was no official minister. Every brother was free to take part as led by the Spirit, for the Apostle says in 1 Corinthians 14, “Whenever ye come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation” (1 Cor. 14:2626How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying. (1 Corinthians 14:26) JND). And later he says, “Ye can all prophesy one by one” (vs. 31 JND). It may be that there was an excess of zeal in participating in the service at Corinth, but the liberty of each brother to function is clearly established by this passage. The distinction between the clergy and the laity had not been thought of. The functioning of the assembly was likened by the Apostle to the body —every member playing its part — none greater than the other, but each essential to the whole (See 1 Corinthians 12).
There were those who were recognized as elders — men of moral weight and exemplary lives whose authority was more moral than official — whose service was that of a shepherd and who were exhorted by Peter to emulate the great Shepherd, the Lord Himself. There were deacons who attended to the more secular needs of the company, whose services were exemplified by those chosen in Jerusalem in the earliest days. (See Acts 7.) The elders are sometimes referred to as overseers, for we read that Paul called to him the elders of Ephesus and told them the Holy Spirit had made them overseers.
The Epistle to the Philippians is addressed to all the saints who are in Philippi with the overseers and deacons. There was no thought in those days of local leadership being in the hands of one man. This was a later development, but the germ of it is seen in Diotrephes, of whom the Apostle John writes in his third Epistle, “Diotrephes, who loves to have the first place among them” (vs. 9 JND). Here we see a single man asserting himself and taking the authority into his own hands, a thing which is severely deprecated by the Apostle. At the beginning the Church was a spiritual organization (though organism would be a better word). Its only head was Christ. Believers moving from one locality to another carried letters of commendation as we see from Romans 16:11I commend unto you Phebe our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea: (Romans 16:1) and 2 Corinthians 3:11Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you? (2 Corinthians 3:1).
While the power of the Holy Spirit was recognized and acted on, an organization such as worldly bodies require was not needed. As the Church departed from its pristine simplicity and faith, human organization gradually came in, and in increasing measure what was human usurped the place of the Spirit. The difference is illustrated by the difference which exists between a living body and a machine. The presence and authority of the apostles largely preserved the early Church during their lifetime, but it is evident that signs of decay began to be apparent even in apostolic times. If the power of God was at work in the early Church begetting men anew and preparing members for Christ’s assembly, Satan was also at work in opposition. His opposition, as always, was the outward violence of persecution and the inward working of evil. What he could not destroy he strove to corrupt.
There are two views of the Church given us in Scripture. The first, in the Lord’s own words, “On this rock [Himself] I will build My assembly, and hades’ gates shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:1818And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18) JND). The other is given in the parable of the woman and the leaven (Matthew 13:3333Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. (Matthew 13:33)). Leaven here does not represent Christianity, but a corrupting and inflating element. This leaven (features of the world and the flesh) could come in, and did come in, through true believers. Hence the many exhortations in the apostolic writings to exclude such evil in all its forms. This could only be done by each individual believer judging himself in the power of the Holy Spirit and keeping his eye on Christ. The epistles abound with such exhortations and warnings. It is clear that the Corinthians were puffed up with religious pride; the Colossians were warned against philosophy and other features of the world; the Galatians were in danger of returning to the bondage of the law, while the Apostle John warns the faithful against gnostic and other errors which were finding an entrance into the minds of believers. There were those who denied the Lord’s deity and those who denied His true humanity. Both are powerfully refuted by John’s writings.
On the other hand lay another danger, the infiltration into the ranks of Christians of unregenerate men with an utterly corrupt outlook. Of these Jude says, “Certain men crept in unawares ... turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness” (Jude 44For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. (Jude 4)). Peter likewise warns against false prophets in the most solemn terms. But Paul’s language is equally grave, saying to Timothy, “The Spirit speaks expressly, that in latter times some shall apostatize from the faith, giving their mind to deceiving spirits and teachings of demons” (1 Timothy 4:11Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; (1 Timothy 4:1) JND).
In his second letter to Timothy he makes the sad statement that all those in Asia had turned away from him — Asia where he had worked so long and so arduously and had watered his labors with his tears.
The Church was growing in numbers but declining in its love and purity and power. While the authority and the energy of the apostles remained, there was a check on the decline, but with the departure of John, the last, at the close of the first century, the drop became very marked. It is revealed in the writings of the early fathers, which are so inferior in spiritual tone and quality to the apostolic writings that the inspiration of the latter stands out in unmistakable relief.
As foretold by the Lord (in Matthew 13), the field had been sown with tares and this was not to be remedied by rooting them up lest, said the Lord, you root up the wheat. Obedience to this clear and simple command of the Lord would have saved the Church from the long, dark history of persecution in later times when, under the pretext of rooting up tares, some of the finest of the wheat was destroyed, yet not destroyed, for they were but hastened into the presence of their Redeemer.
On the other hand, Paul’s injunction to individuals to “depart from iniquity” (2 Tim. 2:1919Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. (2 Timothy 2:19)) was more often ignored and true men remained to support, under the pretext of a false unity, a system which in course of time became the denial of all it professed. But we are anticipating history.
A general view of the churches in Asia as they existed ere the Apostle John passed from the scene is given us in Revelation 23. These messages from Christ, the exalted Head of the Church, to the seven representative churches of Asia give us not only a picture of contemporary conditions, but a brief prophetic history of the Church to its close. They show us in Ephesus the early Church having left its first love, in Smyrna the persecuted Church of the second and third centuries, in Pergamos the established Church of the fourth, fifth and sixth centuries, in Thyatira the Church under the domination of Rome, in Sardis the post-Reformation Church, in Philadelphia the revived Church of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and in Laodicea the final phase of decline and departure when Christ Himself is outside, yet still appealing to those who will hear His voice.
The fact has to be recognized that the Church, like Adam, the first man, and like Israel, has failed — failed, that is to say, as a responsible entity on earth. Viewed as Christ’s building it never could. The true wheat remains and will be gathered into the Lord’s garner. The tares will be burned with fire. A day of judgment is coming when all will be sorted out and dealt with. The Church, as Christ’s building, belongs to heaven and will shine there in the day of glory with her Head.
But these chapters 23 in Revelation give a clue to the Lord’s mind in the interval. His address closes each time with words to the overcomer. In a state of public failure, the continuance of the Christian testimony rests with overcomers, those who, as individuals, struggle against the forces of evil which are rampant in the Christian profession. The true history of Christianity is found with such. The acts of popes and princes relate more to the outward form of Christendom than to vital Christianity, though the two are often inextricably mixed. This distinction we shall closely observe in the pages to follow.