Faith First Media

This is chapter thirteen of the book A Theology of Peace by Matthew Elton.

Click here to read the previous chapter: The Kingdom Lifestyle

The Example of Early Christians

The concept of living the Kingdom lifestyle is not new. Although terribly distorted by the church in the Middle Ages, Christ’s teachings concerning nonviolence were taken extremely literally and extremely seriously by the early Christian church. The prophesies of Isaiah, Micah, and many other prophets describe the Kingdom of God as being a Kingdom of peace - peace between all people, and even peace between animals. In the age to come, God will establish everlasting peace on Earth. The early church reasoned that the best way to preach this message of hope was to begin living in peace in this present age. The early church preached the Gospel of the Kingdom not only through words but through lifestyle. Early Chrisitans strived to be living proof that the Messiah had come through the way they lived their lives. They lived to provide the world with a foretaste of the peace of the Kingdom of God that was to come. We should follow the examples of early Christians by making our lives living proof that the Old Covenant is obsolete and the New Covenant is here. If anyone disputes that the Messiah has come, we should be able to prove that he has come simply by saying, “Look at the way we live our lives. We used to accept war and violence, but now we live under the New Covenant of peace and love.”

What these maxims teach is this: “Bless those who curse you,” and “pray for your enemies.” Moreover, fast “for those who persecute you.” For “what credit is it to you if you love those who love you? Is that nott eh way the heathen act?” But “you must love those who hate you,” and then you will make no enemies. “Abstain from carnal passions.” If someone strikes you “on the right cheek, turn to him the other too,” and you will be perfect. If someone “forces you to go one mile with him, go along with him for two”; if someone robs you “of your overcoat, give him your suit as well.”

--The Didache, c. 120, The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, 1:3-4

For the Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, nor the customs which they observe. For they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life which is marked out by any singularity... But, inhabiting Greek as well as barbarian cities, according as the lot of each of them has determined, and following the customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct, they display to us their wondeful and confessedly striking method of life. They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all thing with others, and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as do all others; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at some time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all men, and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemnedl they are put to death, and restored to life. They are poor, yet make rich; they are in lack of all things, and yet abound in all; they are dishonored, and yet in their very dishonor are glorified. They are spoken evil of, and yet are justified; they are reviled, and bless; they are insulted, and repay the insult with honor; they do good, yet are punished as evildoers. When punished, they rejoice as if quicked into life; they are assailed by the Jews as foreigners, and are persecuted by the Greeks, yet those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for their hatred.

--Mathetes, c. 130, Letter to Diognetus, 5:1-7

We who formerly murdered one another now refrain from making war even upon our enemies, but also, that we may not lie nor decieve our examiners, willingly die confessing Christ.

--Justin Martyr, c. 160, The First Apology of Justin, chapter 39

We used to be filled with war, and mutual slaughter, and every kind of wickedness. However, now all of us have, throughout the whole earth, changed our warlike weapons. We have changed our swords into plowshares, and our spears into farming instruments. We cultivate piety, righteousness, philanthropy, faith, and hope, which we have from the Father Himself through him who was crucified.

--Justin Martyr, c. 160, Dialogue with Trypho, chapter 110

If anyone, however, advocating the cause of the Jews, do maintain that this New Covenant consisted in the rearing of that temple which was built under Zerubbabel after the emigration to Babylon, and in the departure of the people from thence after the lapse of seventy years, let him know that the temple constructed of stones was indeed rebuilt (for as yet that law was observed which had been made upon tables of stone), yet no New Covenant was given, but they used the Mosaic Law until the coming of the Lord; but from the Lord’s advent, the New Covenant that brings back peace and the law that gives life have gone forth over the whole earth, as the prophets said, “For out of Zion will go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem; and he will rebuke many people; and they will break down their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks, and they will no longer learn to fight”... these did form the swords and war lances into plowshares, and changed them into pruning hooks for reaping the corn, [that is], into instruments used for peaceful purposes, and that they are now unaccustomed to fighting, but when smitten, offer also the other cheek.

--Ireanaeus, c. 180, Against Heresies, book 4, chapter 34

He bids us to ‘love our enemies, bless them who curse us, and pray for those who despitefully use us’. And He says: ‘If anyone strikes you on the one cheek, turn to him the other also; and if anyone takes away your coat, do not hinder him from taking your cloak also.’”

--Clement of Alexandria, c. 190

An enemy must be aided, so that he may not continue to be an enemy. For by help, good feeling is compacted and enmity dissolved... We do not train our women like Amazons to manliness in war, for we wish even the men to be peaceable.

--Clement of Alexandria, c. 190

Christians are not allowed to use violence to correct the delinquencies of sins.

--Clement of Alexandria, c. 190

For it is not in war, but in peae, that we are trained. War needs great preparation, and luxury craves profusion; but peace and love, simple and quiet sisters, require no arms nor excessive preparation.

--Clement of Alexandria, c. 195, The Instructor, book 1, chapter 12

Men of old were used to requiring an ‘eye for eye, and tooth for tooth’ and to repay evil for evil, with usury!...But after Christ has supervened and has united the grace of faith with patience, now it is no longer lawful to attack others even with words, nor to merely say ‘fool’, without danger of the judgement...Christ says ‘Love your enemies and bless your cursers, and pray for your persecutors.’

--Tertullian, c. 195

Hippias is put to death for laying plots against the state. No Christian ever attempted sucha thing on behalf of his brethren, even when persecution was scattering them abroad with every atrocity.

--Tertullian, c. 195

For what difference is there between provoker and provoked? The only difference is that the former was the first to do evil, but the latter did evil afterwards. Each one stands condemned in the eyes of the Lord for hurting a man. For God both prohibits and condemns every wickedness. In evil doing, there is no account taken of the order...The commandment is absolute: evil is not to be repaid with evil.

--Tertullian, c. 195

I think we must first inquire whether warfare is proper at all for Christians. What point is there in discussing the merely incidental, when that on which it rests is to be condemned? Do we believe it is lawful for a human oath to be added to one that is divine?...Is it lawful to make an occuptation of the sword, when the Lord proclaims that he who uses the sword will perish by the sword? Will the son of peace take part in the battle when it does not become him even to sue at law? Will he who is not the avenger even of his own wrongs apply the chain, the prison, the torture, and the punishment?

--Tertullian, c. 195

Isaiah in the ensuing words announces, saying, “... and they shall join to beat their sowrds into plows, and their lances into sicklel and nations shall not take up sword against nation, and they shall no more learn to fight.” Who else, therefore, are understood but we, who, fully taught by the new law, observe these practices, - the old law being obliterated, the coming of whose abolition the action itself demonstrates? For the inclination of the old law was to avenge itself by the vengeance of the sword, and to pluck out “eye for eye,” and to inflict retaliatory revenge for injury. But the new law’s inclination was to point to mercy, and to convert to tranquility the original ferocity of “swords” and “lances,” and to remodel the original execution of “war” upon the rivals and foes of the law into the peaceable actions of “plowing” and “tilling” the land. Therefore as we have shown above that the coming cessation of the old law and of the carnal circumcision was declared, so, too, the observance of the new law and the spiritual circumcision has shone out into the voluntary obedience of peace.

--Tertullian, c. 197, An Answer to the Jews, chapter 3

But now inquiry is made about this point, whether a believer may turn himself unto military service, and whether the military may be admitted unto the faith, even the rank and file, or each inferior grade, to whom there is no necessity for taking part in sacrifices or capital punishments. There is no agreement between the divine and the human sacrament, the standard of Christ an the standard of the devil, the camp of light and the camp of darkness. One soul cannot be due to two masters - God and Caeser. And yet Moses carried a rod, and Aaron wore a buckle, and John (the Baptist) is girt with leather and Joshua the son of Nun leads a line of march; and the People warred: if it pleases you to sport with the subject. But how will a Christian man war, nay, how will he serve [the military] even in peace, without a sword, which the Lord has taken away? For albeit soldiers had come unto John, and had receieved the formula of their rule; albeit, likewise, a centurion had believed; still the Lord afterward, in disarming Peter, every solider [disarmed].

--Tertullian, c. 200, On Idolatry, chapter 19

Shall it be held lawful to make an occupation of the sword, when the Lord proclaims that he who uses the sword shall perish by the sword? And shall the son of peace take part in battle when it does not become him even to sue at law? And shall he apply the chain, and the prison, and the torture, and the punishment, who is not the avenger even of his own wrongs? Shall he, forsooth, either keep watch-service for others more than for Christ, or shall he do it on the Lord’s day, when he does not even do it for Christ himself? And shall he keep guard before the temples which he has renounced? And shall he take a meal where the Apostle has forbidden him? And shall he diligently protect by night those whom in the daytime he has put to flight by his exocrcisms, leaning and resting on the spear the while with which Christ’s side was pierced? Shall he carry a flag, too, hostile to Christ?... Then how many other offenses there are involved in the performances of camp offices, which we must hold to involve a transgression of God’s law, you may see by a slight survey. The very carrying of the name over from the camp of light to the camp of darkness is a violation of it. Of course, if faith comes later, and finds any preoccupied with military service, their case is different, as in the instance of those whom John used to recieve for baptism, and of those most faihful centurions, I mean the centurian whom Christ approves, and the centurion whom Peter instructs; yet, at the same time, when a man has become a believer, and faith has been sealed, there must be either an immediate abandonment of it [military service], which has been the course with many; or all sorts of quabbling will have to be resorted to in order to avoid offending God, and that is not allowed even outside of military service; or, last of all, for God the fate must be endured which a citizen-faith has been no less ready to accept.

--Tertullian, c. 211

A soldier of the civil authority must be taught not to kill men and to refuse to do so if he is commanded, and to refuse to take an oath. If he is unwilling to comply, he must be rejected for baptism. A military commander or civic magistrate who wears the purple must resign or be rejected. If an applicant or a believer seeks to become a soldier, he must be rejected, for he has despised God.

--Hippolytus, c. 215, The Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus of Rome, 16:17-19

And to those who inquire of us whence we come, or who is our founder, we reply that we are come, agreeably to the counsels of Jesus, to “cut down our hostile and insolent swords into plowshares, and to convert into pruning hooks the spears formerly employed for war.” For we no longer take up “sword against nation,” nor do we “learn war anymore,” having become children of peace, for the sake of Jesus, who is our leader, instead of those whom our fathers followed, among whom we were “strangers to the Covenant,” and having received a law, for which we give thanks to Him that resuced us...

--Origin, c. 248, Origen Against Celsus, book 5, chapter 33

In the next place, Celsus urges us “to help the king with all our might, and to labour with him in the maintenence of justice, to fight for him; and if he requires it, to fight under him, or lead an army along with him.” To this our answer is, that we do, when occassion requires, give help to kings, and that, so to say, a divine help “putting on the whole armor of God.” And this we do to the obedience of the injunction of the Apostle, “I exhort, therefore, that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authoity;” and the more anyone excels in piety, the more effective help does he render to kings, even more than is given by soldiers, who go forth to fight and slay as many of the enemy as they can. And to those enemies of the faith who require us to bear arms for the commonwealth, and to slay men, we can reply, “Do not those who are priests at certain shrines, and those who attend on certain gods, as you account [call] them, keep their hands free from blood, that they may with hands unstained and free from human blood offer the appointed sacrifices to your gods; and even when war is upon you, you never enlist the priests in the army. If that, then, is a laudable custom, how much moreso, that while others are engaged in battle, these too should engage as the priests and ministers of God, keeping their hands pure, and wrestling in prayers to God on behalf of those who are fighting in a righteous cause, and for the king who reigns righteously, that whatever is opposed to those who act righteously may be destroyed!” And as we by our prayers vanguish all demons who stir up war, and lead to the violation of oaths, and disturb the peace, we in this way are much more helpful to the kings than those who go into the field to fight for them. And we do take our part in public affairs, when alongwith righteous prayers we join self-denying excercises and meditations, which teach us to despise pleasures, and not be led away with them. And none fight better for the king than we do. We do not indeed fight under him, although he may require it; but we fight on his behalf, forming a special army - an army of piety - by offering our prayers to God.

--Origen, c. 248, Origen Against Celsus, book 8, chapter 73

Consider the roads blocked up by robbers, the seas beset by pirates, wars scattered all over the earth with the bloody horror of camps. The whole world is wet with mutual blood; and murder, which in the case of an individual is admitted to be a crime, [but it] is called a virtue when it is committed wholesale. Impunity is claimed for the wicked deeds, not on the plea that they are guiltless, but because the cruelty is perpetuated on such a grand scale.

--Cyprian, c. 250, The Epistle of Cyprian: Epistle I: To Donatus, chapter 6

Adultery, fraud, manslaughter, are mortal crimes. Let patience be strong and steadfast in the heart; and neither is the sanctified body and temple of God polluted by adultery, nor is the innocence dedicated to righteousness stained with the contagion of fraud; nor, after the Eucharist carried in nit, is the hand spotted with the sword and blood.

--Cyprian, c. 250, The Treatises of Cyprion, Treatise 9:14

For since we, a numerous band of men as we are, have learned from His teaching and His laws that evil ought not to be requited with evil, that it is better to suffer wrong than to inflict it, that we should rather shed our own blood than stain our hands and our conscience with that of another, an ungrateful world is now for a long period enjoying a benefit from Christ, inasmuch as by his means the rage of savage ferocity has been softened, and has begun to withhold hostile hands from the blood of a fellow-creature. But if all without exception, who feel that they are men not in form of body but in power of reason, would lend an ear for a little [while] to his salutory and peaceful rules, and would not, in the pride and arrogance of enlightenment, trust to their own senses rather than to his admonitions, the whole world, having turned the use of steel [for swords] into more peaceful occupations, would now be living in the most placid tranquility, and would unite in blessed harmony, maintaining inviolate the sanctity of treaties.

--Anobius, c. 305, The Seven Books of Arnobius Against the Heathen, book 1, chapter 6

Or why should he carry on war, and mix himself with the passions of others, when his mind is engaged in perpetual peace with men? Doubtless [I doubt] he will be delighted with foreign merchandise or with human blood, who does not know how to seek gain, who is satisfied with his mode of living, and considers it unlawful not only himself to commit slaughter, but to be present with those who do it, and to behold it!

--Lactantius, c. 313, The Divine Institutes, Book 5: Of Justice, Wisdom, and Folly chapter 8

It is not right that a worshipper of God should be injured by another worshipper of God.

--Lactantius, c. 313, A Treatise on the Anger of God Addressed to Donatus, chapter 14

Click here to continue to the next chapter: The Downfall of Nonviolent Theology Under Constantine

See also:

• Pacifism: Following Christ's Example
• The Example of Christ
• The Example of the Apostles
• The Example of the Anabaptists
• Conquering Evil by Doing Good
• A Return to Christian Nonviolence

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Email the author at: matt@faithfirstmedia.com