The earliest Christians were not opposed merely for holding unusual doctrines. They were opposed because their way of life seemed suspicious. To many Roman authorities, Christians did not merely look mistaken. They looked disloyal.

The heart of the problem was allegiance. Christians confessed that Jesus Christ was Lord, meaning that Caesar was not. Of course, Christians were not trying to overthrow Rome. They prayed, worked, raised families, paid taxes, and sought to live peaceably. But they also claimed that their highest loyalty was to a kingdom greater than Rome. To some observers, that sounded like a “state within a state.”

Several practices intensified Roman suspicion. Christians refused to participate in emperor worship and would not honor the Roman pantheon. This was not seen as a harmless private conviction because Roman religion was deeply public. Romans believed in the pax deorum—the “peace of the gods”—the idea that society’s safety and prosperity depended on properly honoring the gods. If Christians refused, they appeared to endanger the entire community.

Their gatherings also raised questions. Christians often met privately, sometimes before dawn or at night. Christians also spoke about one another using close familial terms. They spoke of eating Christ’s body and drinking his blood during the Lord’s Supper. To Christians, these practices were innocent, biblical, and beautiful. To suspicious outsiders, they sounded secretive, twisted, and dangerous.

Athenagoras, a second-century Christian philosopher and apologist, addressed these rumors in his Plea for the Christians. He outlined three common charges against believers. First, Christians were accused of atheism for rejecting the Roman gods and refusing to worship the emperor. Second, they were accused of holding Thyestean feasts, a reference to cannibalism, because outsiders misinterpreted the words of the Lord’s Supper: “Take and eat…this is my body…this is my blood.” Third, they were accused of Oedipian incest because their private meetings made outsiders suspicious. Christians gathered out of public view, sometimes at unusual hours, called one another “brother” and “sister,” and greeted one another with a holy kiss. To suspicious outsiders, such secrecy suggested that Christians might be hiding the most shameful behavior.

These accusations were grotesque, yet they reveal something important. The early church was not hated for being cruel, immoral, or violent. It was hated because it belonged to Christ first. Its worship, fellowship, and loyalty all testified to a kingdom higher than Rome.

That remains instructive for us. Faithful Christianity will not always seem normal to the surrounding culture. The church is called to live peaceably, honor authority, and love our neighbors. Yet we must never forget that our first allegiance is to Christ. When that seems strange, costly, or even suspicious, we are walking a path the church has known since its beginning.

– Pastor Chad