Thought for a Tuesday

In studying about the early church I came across a story about a pagan actor who becomes a Christian. He realized that he had to change his employment because most plays encouraged immorality and were steeped in pagan idolatry, not to mention that they turned boys into homosexuals so that they could better play the roles of women on stage (women were not allowed to act at that time). *Note: does this sound like present day? This man had no other job skills. He knew he could not act because of the above mentioned so he thought he would begin to teach drama to non-Christian students. But before he did this, he submitted his idea to the leaders of his church to get their thoughts. *Note: imagine if this took place today, how would our lives be different? The church leaders told him if acting was an immoral profession then he could not train others to do it. The church leaders wanted to make sure they had given him good advice so they wrote to another church where Cyprian was the pastor (I've said that I thought the pastor of this church was Polycarp but I was wrong it is Cyprian). Cyprian agreed with their advice, even though it was his sole means of support. But he went further in his advice back to this church. He said that they needed to be willing to support this man, since he was giving up his sole means of employment. If they couldn't, then send the man down to his church and they would support him.

There are a lot of things to think about in this story. First, the man wanted to get away from his profession because of how evil it was. Second, he sought advice from his church leaders on what to do. Third, I believe (the story doesn't say) that he went along with the churches advice. Fourth, the church took care of him since he was giving up his sole means of support. In todays day and age, this is not what happens at all. I don't think any of the 4 things I mentioned above are done, though I believe there is something for us in doing what the actor did.

We don't want to give up worldly pleasures. We do not want to ask the church for advice on what to do or how to handle a situation. Besides, we would not follow the advice given anyway, especially if it is something that we really wanted to do. We are a society that does whatever we want to do. The church is to legalistic, and in some cases this is true, to ask for advice and get a Holy Spirit inspired answer.

How far we have fallen from the early church. The book of Acts sets the example and through the centuries, we have watered it down. The church is not a living breathing body of believers, it is just a building. A relationship with Christ isn't attractive, but burdensome and not worth our time. The Bible isn't living and active but an irrelevant book that has nothing for us today. Praying takes time but if God had a cell phone so I could text Him, it would be better for me. This has become the American Christian's way of thinking. Where is the love? Where is the unity? Where is the one accord that we read about in Acts? It's only a 180 degree turn away. In another words, repentance is what is needed to bring us back to the model that Christ gave us in the book of Acts. What do you think?