What Being Christian Should Look Like

How many Christians could be described this way in our current age?

While reading the book The Early Church Was The Catholic Church, I came across the most profound, inspiring, and eloquent description of early Christians (or Christians from any time) and their relationship to the world I've ever read. It's known as Letter/Epistle to Diognetus.

The date of the letter is debated among historians, but there's no debate about its authenticity, although the author was anonymous. It was addressed to a pagan who was curious about Christianity named Diognetus, who we know nothing else about, with the goals of explaining the nature of God and Christianity, and how Christianity is different from and superior to pagan religions and Judaism.

The author draws heavily on Biblical teachings to explain the nature of Christians and Christianity, but there is a freshness, insightfulness, and eloquence to the writing that is unique, and very persuasive. It is also theologically and philosophically deep, while being free from error, so it has as much substance as style.

Although the letter has 12 very short chapters, the two chapters on how Christians live and their relationship to the world were the most impactful to me, so I transferred these chapters in a translation of the letter from the Vatican into image format for easier reading and sharing.

The Vatican's translation of these two chapters is slightly different than some translations of the full letter, so I've included links to both at the end of this post, for the sake of clarity.

I have the impression that this letter is almost completely unknown by Christians and non-Christians alike, so I hope those of you reading this who are inspired by this section of the letter, as I was, will share it as well, and I encourage you to read the full letter.

https://www.vatican.va/spirit/documents/spirit_20010522_diogneto_en.html

https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1620