Viewing something from the distance of 2000 years has its limitations. When considering the historical evidence of the nature of the first church there are limited sources. The accounts in Acts 2 and 4 are broad strokes which leave us wanting. The few other sources (Josephus, Pliny) verify the accounts in Acts but do not give much in the way of increased substance. Therefore, we are left wondering, just how did they do what they did? What, exactly, made their life so much an admirable experience, and can this experience be repeated today?
If you could sum up the abbreviated accounts in one word, it would be LOVE. The evidence makes it clear that here was a group of people who were elevated from the grind of striving for their own survival to a devotion to seeking the betterment of those around them. The life of the first church was in every way an imitation, or if you will, a reincarnation of the life of their Master, the Son of God. In so many ways, the life of the first church was the life of the One they were a living testimony of, the One who was executed by the religious and civil systems of their day. In their life, though He was dead, He was very much alive. This was truly glorious, a group of believers who were all living above the rat race that so easily consumes us. Can this glory be restored? We hope so.
