@FirstChurchofJerusalem
Today's Early Church Wisdom
“I shall not hesitate also to put into ordered form for you, along with the interpretations, everything I learned carefully in the past from the elders and noted down carefully, for the truth of which I vouch. For unlike most people, I took no pleasure in those who told many different stories, but only in those who taught the truth. Nor did I take pleasure in those who reported their memory of someone else’s commandments, but only in those who reported their memory of the commandments given by the Lord to the faith and proceeding from the Truth itself. And if by chance anyone who had been in attendance on the elders arrived, I made enquiries about the words of the elders—what Andrew or Peter had said, or Philip or Thomas or James or John or Matthew or any other of the Lord’s disciples, and whatever Aristion and John the Elder, the Lord’s disciples, were saying. For I did not think that information from the books would profit me as much as information from a living and surviving voice.
~ Papias of Hierapolis (c. 60–130 AD) From the Preface to his lost ‘Expositions of the Sayings of the Lord’
This week's Psalm is Psalm 31 'My Rock, My Shield, My Song'

Life Together

Spirit-filled fellowship

In his book ‘Life Together’ the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote: “Seek God, not happiness – this is the fundamental rule of all meditation. If you seek God alone, you will gain happiness: that is its promise.” It is clear from the New Testament that the first church both knew and lived this principle. Their collective joy reflected it, and their new life together in the Holy Spirit fuelled the fires of their daily walk with Jesus. The empowerment that resulted from the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was both personal and collective. It reflected the truth that God’s blessings are not just “new every morning” (Lamentations 3:22-23) for the individual disciple, but also for the whole family of believers. It seems reasonable to maintain that the latter was contingent upon the former. The remarkable growth of the infant church was largely driven by the spiritual life and power of Jesus’ growing company of disciples, but this was not simply a collection of empowered individuals. This was a living community who sought God together. Joy followed, and as we see from the singing of Paul and Silas in prison (Acts 16:16-40) it could not be contained, even in times of difficulties, suffering, and pain.