Plough Magazine features excerpts from a letter Justin the Martyr wrote to the Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius around the year 150 AD.
We follow the only unbegotten God through His Son – we who formerly delighted in fornication, but now embrace chastity alone; we who formerly used magical arts, dedicate ourselves to the good and unbegotten God; we who valued above all things the acquisition of wealth and possessions, now bring what we have into a common stock, and communicate to every one in need; we who hated and destroyed one another, and on account of their different manners would not live with men of a different tribe, now, since the coming of Christ, live familiarly with them, and pray for our enemies, and endeavour to persuade those who hate us unjustly to live conformably to the good precepts of Christ, to the end that they may become partakers with us of the same joyful hope of a reward from God the ruler of all.
I love this sentiment and the description of the transformation that comes with a life lived in Christian faith. It is because of these types of documents that I look to historical artifacts as witness for a true witness for Christ, rather than being discouraged by what contemporary Christians in the Western world exemplify.
Source: Dear Emperor | Plough Magazine
