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- For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.
- In its largest sense, the church is universal—the community of all people who profess faith in Christ. This is what is meant by the term “catholic,” with a lowercase "c," which simply means “universal.” In its most intimate sense, the church is “wherever two or three are gathered” in the name of Christ (Matthew 18:20). Whether universal or a gathering of two or three, the church is a community of people.
- God is here, he is watching all of you.
- The images of community in the New Testament are powerful, organic images of belonging. Most important, the church is described as “the body of Christ.” As Paul puts it, “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ” (I Corinthians 12:12).
- Not all parts of the body of Christ, the church, have the same function, but all are members one of another, suffering together, rejoicing together. This powerful metaphor is extended through the central ritual of the community, the blessing and sharing of bread and wine. The bread is called the “body of Christ,” and the wine “the cup of the new covenant.” As the bread and wine are one, so do those who share them affirm their oneness.
- Through the preaching of Paul and other missionaries, the new Christian faith grew quickly, spreading throughout the Mediterranean world. Its primary competitor was neither the sects nor mysterious religions of ancient Greece and Rome, but the cult of the emperor, to whom all were required to honor.
- For Christians, the “Lord” was Christ alone, and worshipping the emperor as Lord was impossible. The new Christian community was seen as subversive because of its refusal to participate in the cult of the emperor. Christians were persecuted and martyred for their faith throughout the Roman empire.
- CHRISTIANS
- Thus, it was a new landscape entirely when, early in the 4th century, the Emperor Constantine himself became a Christian. Beginning with his reign, Christianity was not only made legal, but would become the official religion of the Empire.
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