There are two ways, one of life and one of death, and there is a great difference between these two ways.
- The Didache
A Patristic Treasury: Early Church Wisdom for Today, edited by James R. Payton, Jr.
According to The Didache, the way of life is to love God and love your neighbor. I will come later to the way of death.
God
He who made the heaven and the earth and all that is in them, and provides us all with what we need, cannot Himself need any of the things that He Himself provides to those who imagine that they are giving to Him.
- The Letter to Diognetus
Doctrine
There are three basic doctrines of the Lord: the hope of life, which is the beginning and end of our faith; and righteousness, which is the beginning and end of judgement; and love shown in gladness and rejoicing, the testimony of righteous works.
- The Letter of Barnabas
A focus on eternal life, sanctification, and charity. Not a bad summary of the Christian journey.
Submission
He Himself submitted, in order that He might destroy death and show the reality of the resurrection of the dead.
- The Letter of Barnabas
Humility inherently comes tough for all of us. We are prideful beings, and this pride is at the root of our troubles. The idea of submission I don’t think afflicts all of us in the same way. It comes tough for a few – for example, those of us, like me, who were favorably predisposed to embracing Ayn Rand’s individualism and seeing in it some sort of archetype, a model to be embraced.
Charity
You shall not turn away from someone in need, but shall share everything with your brother or sister, and not claim that anything is your own.
- The Didache
A command toward action. And, yes. Nothing is my own. It all belongs to God; I am merely His steward. But is it as simple as sharing everything? We are, after all, to be good stewards.
Do not be someone who stretches out his hands to receive, but withdraws them when it comes to giving.
- The Letter of Barnabas, also cited in the Didache
Whoever takes upon himself a neighbor’s burden, whoever wishes to benefit another who is worse off in something in which he himself is better off, whoever provides to those in need things that he has received from God, and thus becomes god to those who receive them, this one is an imitator of God.
- The Letter to Diognetus
I am not comfortable with the “becomes god” part, but I am sure there is a broader context to this passage. So, I accept the intent.
And then there is the issue of a lack of charity:
The way of death is…having no mercy for the poor, not working on behalf of the oppressed, not knowing Him who made them, murderers of children, corrupters of God’s creation, turning away from someone in need, oppressing the afflicted, advocates of the wealthy, lawless judges of the poor.
- The Didache
So much of the focus of the early Church was just this: charity toward the poor, those in need, especially brothers and sisters in Christ. It was, of course, a focus of Jesus’s teaching, so I guess this shouldn’t be a surprise.
But in many cases today we seem to have lost this.
Enemies
You shall not hate anyone; instead, you shall reprove some, and pray for some, and some you shall love more than your own life.
- The Didache
This is so terribly helpful. Reproving someone is love; praying for someone is love. Giving our own life for another certainly is love.
In other words, there are always ways to love our enemies; we need not embrace all of them to our, or our neighbor’s, detriment.
Speak evil of no one, and do not enjoy listening to someone who does.
- The Shepherd of Hermas
Bearing a grudge produces death. … If our God and Lord, who rules over all things and has authority over all His creation, holds no grudge against those who confess their sins and is merciful, can a human being, who is mortal and full of sin, hold a grudge against someone, as though he could destroy or save him?
- The Shepherd of Hermas
This idea, which I have come across in other books I have worked through for this blog until this time, is one of the weightiest. Am I greater than God, more righteous, more abused or hurt by another’s sin? The idea is laughable.
Yet, He forgives. And I hold grudges.
Baptism
Baptize as follows: after you have reviewed [with those to be baptized] these things [regarding faith and life], baptize “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…”
- The Didache
After this, specific instruction on the method, with various alternatives presented in the event circumstance prevents any preferred method. Further, fasting should precede baptism – fasting for both the one baptizing and the one being baptized.
To “review” something suggests a level of understanding in the one about to be baptized. I am not qualified to speak on the issues of infant vs. credo baptism, but I am not prepared to take this statement as a “win” for the credo side.
The Didache was written as early as the time of the apostles. Inherently, many being baptized were adult converts. In other words, context of time and place and circumstance must be taken into account.
The Eucharist
On the Lord’s own day, gather together and break bread [i.e. receive the Eucharist] and give thanks, having first confessed your sins so that your sacrifice may be pure. But let no one who has a quarrel with a companion join you until they have been reconciled, so that your sacrifice may not be defiled.
- The Didache
Don’t hold a grudge. See above.
Sanctification
What follows are several passages that touch on how a Christian is (or is not) to live, the attitude that Christians are to have, etc.
Accept as good the things that happen to you, knowing that nothing transpires apart from God.
- The Didache, also cited verbatim in The Letter of Barnabas
Above, there is a quote from the Letter of Barnabas also cited in the Didache. Quite circular, on the surface, two letters, each citing from the other. Perhaps each is citing from a third, earlier source; perhaps one or the other of these has been modified since the original.
In any case, what I have come to learn – as difficult as it is to live with sometimes: when seemingly bad things happen to me, I try to ask myself why God has put such a thing on me, or why he has allowed it (or however you want to deal with the reality of “bad” in this world).
I try to remember to ask myself, and live in: Where is it that I am to grow from this? What flaw is in me that this will allow me to correct? I know it can be difficult to take such events and circumstances in this manner, but when I am able to focus this way, it helps me see more clearly the attitude I must take.
If you are able to bear the whole yoke of the Lord, you will be perfect. But if you are not able, then do what you can.
- The Didache
I do not grasp the idea that it is possible to be perfect. Yet, we do what we can – and in this, it can only be through the strength of the Holy Spirit.
Let us avoid…absolutely all the works of lawlessness, lest they overcome us. And let us hate the deception of the present age, so that we may be loved in the age to come.
- The Letter of Barnabas
A message for Christians today, who in too many cases are on the opposite side of this admonishment, embracing – and therefore, being overcome by – lawlessness.
You shall love Him who made you; you shall fear Him who created you; you shall glorify Him who redeemed you from death.
- The Letter of Barnabas
The Lord lives in patience; the devil lives in angry temper.
- The Shepherd of Hermas
Clothe yourself, therefore, with cheerfulness, which always finds favor with God and is acceptable to Him.
- The Shepherd of Hermas
From these two: if all we accomplish in life is to live in patience and to be clothed with cheerfulness, what a blessed life that would be, and what a blessing we will be toward others.
If you bear the Name but do not bear His power, you will bear His name in vain.
- The Shepherd of Hermas
To bear His power, one must overcome self.
The Lord lives among people who love peace, for peace is truly dear to Him, but He keeps His distance from the quarrelsome.
- The Shepherd of Hermas
All who do not keep His commandments are running away from their own life and oppose Him…they do not follow His commandments, but hand themselves over to death and every one of them is guilty of his own blood.
- The Shepherd of Hermas
The Church
The Church…was created before all things… For her sake the world was formed.
- The Shepherd of Hermas
The Civic Christian
Christians are not distinguished from the rest of humanity by country, language, or custom. … They live in their own countries, but only as aliens; they participate in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners.
- The Letter to Diognetus
When [Christians] do good, they are punished as evildoers; when they are punished, they rejoice as though brought to life.
- The Letter to Diognetus
Biographies / Sources
The Didache (proposed dates of writing between 50 and 80) reflects the teaching and practices of the earliest Church. It emphasized the contrasting life of believers as opposed to non-believers; it offers valuable information regarding the practice of baptism.
The Letter of Barnabas (sometime between 70 and 132, by an unknown author) was likely written by someone in Alexandria. It shows how Christians should approach the Jewish Scriptures, manifesting the Christian confidence that the Old Testament focused on the coming work of Christ.
The Shepherd of Hermas, dated around 95 – 100, is by far the lengthiest document in the corpus of the Apostolic Fathers. Apocalyptic visions combined with mandates for Christian living. The work was very popular and widely read in the early Church, to the point where it was proposed to be included within the Canon of Christian Scripture.
The Letter to Diognetus (somewhere between 150 and 225) is the most eloquent and elegantly written of the works of the Apostolic Fathers. It is the earliest extant example of a style of writing that would grow more common in this time, that of apologetics. Neither the author nor the recipient is known.