There is a decided continuity between the teaching of Jesus and the teaching and practice of the apostolic period. For example, the book of Acts continues many the themes found in Luke's gospel, for it demonstrates how the power of the Spirit enables the Christian community to practice what Jesus taught land lived. Two passages act as summaries to explain how the church does in fact function: Acts 2:43-47 and 4:32-5:11.
Both of these passages exemplify a lifestyle characterized by three dynamic forces. The first is a total, single-minded commitment to God demonstrated in the prayers, frequent gatherings, and continuing conversions of "those believing." There was a base of commitment from which to see all of life in new perspective. The second force is the experience of the presence of God among them in the dynamic of the Holy Spirit. It is no accident that the first summary passage is set into the Pentecost narrative and the second follows immediately after the powerful "filling" with the Spirit in Acts 4:31. This lifestyle is not a law imposed from without, but a new direction and power flowing from within.
The third force is a deep concern for one another, which is expressed in the sharing of goods and meals.
When we look at the material more closely, we see that the people expressed their concern for one another by divesting themselves of surplus goods and capital and using the proceeds for the good of the community. This is expressed in chapter two in the phrase "they had all things in common" (2:44). A further explanation shows that this practice of divesting met all community needs (2:45). In chapter four this same concept is indicated by the words, "No one called the things which belonged to him his own" (4:32). The unity of the community meant that private possession was subjectively renounced, but the objective redistribution of the goods took place according to the needs developing in the community.
This redistribution was not the expression of some ideal of "holy poverty," but an example of mutual love and care. It also was not a once-for-all requirement for entrance into the community, but a voluntary, continuing process.
In other words, Acts 4:34 is essentially a triumphant statement that the church has embodied the hope of Deuteronomy 15:4: because the members share their goods, need has disappeared. Other passages in Acts show how problems in fair distribution were worked out (Acts 6:1-6), how the sharing was inter-church (even across national lines) as well as intra-church (Acts 11:27-30), and how Paul subordinated his economic interests—indeed, his whole lifestyle—to the good of the church (Acts 20:33-35). Thus Luke sees the program of giving to one another in love as not simply a characteristic of the Jerusalem community, but as the way inter-church relationships and individual lifestyles are to be governed.
Paul and Devotion to God
Paul's lifestyle flowed from his theology. He was conscious that, previous to his conversion, his life was oriented around a certain set of ideas and principles which had "bound" him. The entry of Christ into his life had freed him, reorienting him around a new center, Christ himself. Paul applied this new fact in his life to all his ethical concerns.
Paul derived his personal lifestyle from two values: the glory of God and the imitation of Christ (e.g. 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1). We immediately recognize his continuity with Jesus and the Old Testament. The love of God with heart, mind, and soul has now become bringing glory to God in all one's actions. The imitatio Dei (imitation of God) which Jesus and the Old Testament taught (e.g. Matthew 5:48) has now become imitatio Christi (imitation of Christ). The ethical core has remained the same even if the terminology has changed slightly to fit Paul's experience.
These principles govern every action in Paul's writings. Since one's lifestyle ought to support the work Christ wishes to do through the church, the good of the church limits the broad freedom of choice which Christians otherwise enjoy (1 Corinthians 8-9). In concrete instances, Paul refers back to the principle of single-minded devotion to God (or Christ) as the basis of his teaching on ethical questions.
For Paul, this devotion stands over against all other ethical systems or cultural values, which together form "this age" or "the world." Paul warns Christians about the ability of these values to subvert one from total devotion to God to conformity to the world's standards (Romans 12:1-2). These forces are ruled by "the god of this age" (2 Corinthians 4:4) or "the prince of the power of the air" (Ephesians 2:2).
The Christian was once in bondage to these powers, but has now been freed from them (Galatians 4:3) or put to death in relation to them (6:14). The Christian, therefore, has a duty to struggle against these forces, in the sure and certain knowledge that they are temporal and ephemeral (Ephesians 6:12).
This means that the Christian ethic is not a division of some non-Christian lifestyle, but a radical alternative to all non-Christian lifestyles, for it is built on a new base. Paul views all of life from a transcendent, eschatological perspective, just as the beatitudes did.
We have observed, then, three basic dimensions of the Christian lifestyle in Paul's thought: it is a lifestyle derived from a commitment to Jesus as Lord; it stands in radical discontinuity with all other lifestyles; and it is permanent, in contrast to those of this world which are passing away.
This lifestyle, however, is not an individualistic one, for as Jesus arranged much of his teaching around the love of one's neighbor, so Paul believes that a valid Christian lifestyle must be worked out in the context of a commitment to the Christian community. Christ has broken down the barriers between nationalities, social classes, and sexes; he has brought his people together into complementary relationships in which they care for one another.
Self-Giving Service
This is part of the reconciliation which Christ has produced in the world (Ephesians 2:14-22). The church is collectively subject to Christ (Ephesians 1:22) and it patterns itself after him. But the aspect of his character which is the focus of the pattern is his suffering service for others. The cross becomes the example of the Christian lifestyle, for as Christ served others by suffering for them, so ought the Christian to "look not to his own interests but also to the interests of others " (Philippians 2:4-11).
Paul works out this lifestyle of suffering for others in concrete situations. He himself suffers for the church, whose suffering he sees as a part of Christ's. In suffering for the church, Paul believed that he relieved it of suffering (Colossians 1:24, 2 Corinthians 1:5-6). One way in which he suffered was in giving up his right to compensation from the Corinthian church for his evangelistic and pastoral activity on their behalf—so that he would not be confused with mendicant philosopher-preachers who were preaching for money (1 Corinthians 9:12).
This meant, of course, long hours of labor so that he could both make a living and evangelize effectively. Paul then applies his example by counseling Christians to subordinate their financial interests to the good of the church, even to suffer financial loss rather than to go to law against their fellow church members (1 Corinthians 6:1-11).
Paul's acceptance of suffering came not because he was some kind of masochistic ascetic. Like Jesus his master, he was fully ready to enjoy himself given the proper circumstances; but such enjoyment was not his goal. He subordinated all the circumstances of his life and his whole manner of living to the service of Christ (Philippians 4:11-12).
This attitude meant that at best Paul, like Jesus, viewed possessions indifferently. The Sermon on the Mount (in whatever form Paul knew it) taught him to trust God for food and clothing. Paul knew, however, that people seek more, that they place their security in material possessions. His lists of vices abound with such words as greediness and self-seeking.
Having mentioned what was sufficient, he goes on to say, "but those who desire to be rich ..." (1 Timothy 6:6-10). The desire to have more is destructive; it is the root of all evil. One who desires is caught up in the world's system (the polar opposite of freedom in Christ) and must guard, care for, and maintain one's wealth. This concern is disastrous for faith. So Paul, like Jesus, advises us to be content with little and not to seek more.
Paul also agrees with Jesus that there is a positive use for surplus possessions—not in storing them, but in giving them away. A Christian should work so that he or she can give to others (Ephesians 14:28). The rich are to be instructed to reorient their priorities and to share their wealth, thus becoming rich in good works, so that they may have treasure in heaven (1 Timothy 6:17-19). Such surplus wealth could be used within the church in the support of those who serve the community. Or it might be used in supporting poorer members of the community, for Paul's churches apparently had a system of sharing similar to that which Acts reports was practiced in Jerusalem.
Those who earn more than they need can be a help to the rest of the community, for if the community stands ready to care for the economic needs of its members (or their orphans and widows), the members are in turn freed to risk bold proclamation of the gospel in deed as well as in word.
Paul, however, extends economic sharing far beyond the confines of the individual Christian community. When he took up a collection for the church in Jerusalem, he was reaching far beyond even national boundaries to share with other Christians. In doing so he makes it clear that, as in the case of sharing within the community in Acts 4, the sharing is voluntary—he does not levy a "fair share" on each of the churches from which he collects. But he also plainly argues that this gift, which should be a response to the Spirit of God—acknowledging dependence upon God and responding in joy to being chosen to supply the needs of others (2 Corinthians 9)—is something that their superior economic situation makes it morally imperative to give:
I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of equality your abundance at the present time should supply their want, so that their abundance may supply your want, that there may be equality. As it is written, "He who gathered much had nothing over, and he who gathered little had no lack."
2 Corinthians 8:13-15
There is, then, to be an economic equality among churches which transcends national and racial barriers. Christians are mutually to help one another so that no one has too much and each has his or her needs met.
The lifestyle which Paul teaches is one which moves out from a commitment to Christ to imitate him in suffering service for others. The Christian is to give him or herself to the community, even to the extent of sharing one's wealth with it. But more than this, the Christian is to find security in God alone and thus be content with a simple lifestyle, freeing his or her life for service. The sharing and the service extend across all boundaries, so that, as Paul says, there may be an equality—each community will share its surpluses so that the whole church worldwide is bound together in one great fellowship of love.
Other New Testament writers underscore these teachings. First Peter refers directly to the imitatio Dei/Christi which was important for Paul (1 Peter 1:16, 2:21-25). First John concretizes this demand in terms of keeping Jesus' commandments (1 John 2). Revelation simply calls on each Christian to endure to the end.
This commitment to Christ occurs in a context of a radical distinction between his values and the values and systems of this age. This means that the Christian value system will be totally inexplicable in terms of worldly values. First Peter expresses this concept using the image of "strangers and pilgrims" to describe the relationship between the Christian and the society in which he or she lives (1 Peter 2:11). First John puts it in imperative form: "Love not the world... for if anyone loves the world the love of the Father is not in him" (1 John 2:15). Revelation portrays the ruling powers of the world as a great prostitute inspired by a demonic monster which drinks the blood of Christians. There was no question of compromise with such a system. The impossibility of serving both God and mammon, Christ and the world, is utterly clear (cf. Jude 20-23).
Each of these works also indicates that the Christian lifestyle is not simply a withdrawal from the world, but is also a commitment of love for fellow Christians. While Peter is mainly concerned with the strategic strengthening of Christians for their battle with the world, he also regulates relationships among Christians in order to strengthen the fellowship. Only a loving church can withstand a hostile world. Neither does Revelation neglect the fellowship, especially in its first three chapters.
But 1 John goes further. The author demands concrete love for the Christian brother or sister, stating that if such love is absent, so is love for God (1 John 4:7-21). Loving for John means sharing. To see a fellow Christian in need and not to share is in fact to reject God (1 John 3:14-18). Despite the unsystematic and specific character of these books, the basic stresses which we have observed in both Paul and Jesus come through. But having made this point, we turn to James, where we can see aspects of the Christian lifestyle worked out in more detail.
James
James contains all of the emphases we have noted. He calls for a totally single-minded concern for God, condemning at two different points the "double-minded person" who is not committed totally to either God or the world (James 1:8, 4:8). He calls for submission to God, and, more importantly, he calls for obedience to God in practical areas of life. James believes that there is a great difference between the Christian community and the world. This is true not only in outward action, but also in inward motivation. That which is of the world or from below is not just "earthly" and "unspiritual" (or "natural"), but also "demonic." It is the root of all types of evil (James 3:15).
In contrast, the Christian is called to a value system motivated by a different spirit—that is, a new wisdom which comes from above. This wisdom also produces a strong community. James is deeply concerned to denounce the party spirit and the petty infighting which are dividing the Christian communities he knows. He urges instead care for one another, which he expresses in terms of peacemaking, gentleness, mercy, and good fruit. A lifestyle of practical care for one another comes to the surface (James 3:17-18).
James reveals, in this context, his deep concern for the economic lifestyle of the community, which for him must be characterized by concrete sacrificial help for the less fortunate members. True religion does not consist simply of right doctrine or religious practice, but of "visiting orphans and widows in their distress," which means sharing one's goods with these typically needy community members (James 1:27).
Only one chapter later, he argues that any so-called faith that can see a brother or sister in need and not meet that need is no faith at all. Real faith is single-minded commitment to God which then copies God in his care for the poor and oppressed. The so-called faith which stops with the intellectual appreciation of facts about God—the faith which ends with decisions and religious practice, to use some modern parallels—is nothing more than the faith of demons. Yet, James implies, even they actually have some appropriate works: at least they tremble!
In contrast to this non-faith, James cites Abraham who, in Jewish tradition, crowned his many works of charity with the greatest sacrificial deed of all: giving up all the security he had outside God. But, as the Jewish readers of the epistle would understand, this last deed cannot be seen in isolation from all the deeds of Abraham, especially his charitable ones. This makes the following example of Rahab clear for, like her, Abraham had received the alien, and he had also fed the hungry and clothed the naked. In Jewish and early Christian tradition, he was indeed a man of many works, not just of a single deed (James 2:14-26). Thus James continues the command of Jesus: share what you have with the poor. In fact, James implies, if you fail to help your suffering fellow Christian, you are not obedient to Jesus—you have not true Christian faith but a dead sham.
James' concern for the poor spills over into economic analysis of society. He argues that the Christian lifestyle must outlaw all distinctions based on economic difference. If the Christian community begins to honor the wealthy, it has failed to obey the gospel and has betrayed Christ, for it is Christ himself who declared the law of love for all; it is Christ who made the poor rich and the rich poor. To honor the rich is to ignore the whole new viewpoint which Jesus introduced, according to which the Christian sees through worldly distinctions to ultimate reality (James 1:9-11, 2:1-13).
This new viewpoint reveals two facts: the rich are not only the persecutors of the church, but also the oppressors of humanity; and those who desire material security are compromising with the basically anti-God forces of the world—thus making themselves enemies of God despite their professed Christian faith. It is the rich and powerful who persecute, James cries, for only they can persecute—money is power (James 2:6-7). He continues that it is the same group which, by one legal means or another, has gathered wealth by impoverishing the poor (James 5:1-6).
But, declares James, this powerful group is doomed, for the kingdom has broken into the world, and they will pass away in the end like dried grass. But woe to those professed Christians who, driven by desire, try to be like the wealthy and fail to share with one another. They know the good they ought to do, but, since they are double-minded, they fail to do it. They look to their business and make their plans to increase their (perhaps) modest wealth. Thus they have become friends of the world and therefore enemies of God. They must repent (James 4:1-17).
In this denunciation of wealth and its corrupting power, James not only echoes the words of Jesus, but also explains what the author of Revelation put in symbol: the structures and systems of the world—that which enriches the merchants and governments—are the great city of Babylon, the anti-God prostitute. In the end God will destroy her, bringing ruin on all the wealthy and powerful, for it is this force which has slaughtered saints and prophets. The call to the people of God is to come out of her, to be part of the new vision from God, of the new community where people love one another and share with one another (Revelation 18).
Despite the necessary limitations of this survey, we can draw some conclusions by pointing out constant themes in biblical, theological ethics. These are ideas which—because they appear again and again in many sections of the Bible—we may accept as the main pillars of an authentic biblical lifestyle.
1) All biblical lifestyles must originate in an absolute commitment to God. Until one commits oneself to obey the commandments of God (to use Old Testament terminology), or to die to the world and be reborn in Christ, and be renewed by God's Spirit (to use New Testament words), all of the biblical teaching we have surveyed will be unrealistic nonsense. Orientation determines lifestyle; one just cannot expect a person who is living in allegiance to the world to be excited about biblical ethics. Conversion precedes sanctification.
2) Biblical lifestyles are directly opposed to all other (i.e. human) values and lifestyles, because they are informed by a different view of reality. The perspective of the kingdom of God calls those blessed whom the world counts miserable and those damned whom the world honors. A weak and impoverished church appears in the Bible as the dawn of the coming age; the powerful economic and political structures of this age are unmasked as demonic forces which are passing away. This new perspective is a "wisdom" or "light" which the world cannot receive. But the Christian knows that, without it, one cannot have the proper perspective on life.
3) A biblical lifestyle is modeled on God, his character and his deeds. The imitatio Dei or the imitatio Christi is the starting point for all ethical thinking. In the Old Testament, Israel was called to reflect upon God's action in the exodus and in the wilderness, and to behave accordingly. Jesus calls us to be "perfect" like God. In particular, the Christian is called to copy Christ's own suffering love on the cross in being willing to suffer for others both within and without the community of faith.
4) The context of a biblical lifestyle is that of the people of God, the community of faith. Neither the faith of the Israelites in the Old Testament nor the faith of the Christians in the New comes as an isolated individual event: it always has a context in the larger group, the whole people of God, and its local expressions. The commitment to God, then, demands a commitment to brothers and sisters, as well as to those outside the community. This commitment is a commitment of body as well as soul, of material goods as well as spiritual life. One cannot love or obey God without loving and serving his people.
5) The ideal of prosperity is an ideal for the people of God as a whole, not for isolated individuals. The idea of individuals within the community of faith accumulating wealth while others suffer need is abhorrent to the biblical authors. The community of faith (which is a far wider concept than simply the local group or congregation) is to have such care for one another that no one within it will suffer want unless the whole community suffers. For Paul, at least, this meant sharing among the worldwide congregations of Christians.
6) Since God has a special interest in and care for the poor and oppressed of the world, a biblical lifestyle will include this concern and will identify with these people, meeting their needs to every possible extent. This is how the Christian shows whether he or she has any real knowledge of God; this is where, in a sense, the Christian meets Christ (cf. Matthew 25:31-46). It was this characteristic of Christians as much as anything else which won so many in the Roman Empire for Christ in the first centuries of the church.
7) A biblical lifestyle cannot have wealth as a goal. The biblical authors and Jesus for the most part distrust wealth. It is possessed by the powerful of this age who oppress the poor. It is gathered at the expense of the poor (and thus is violent and oppressive even if the means of accumulating wealth are "legal"). It is maintained at the expense of charity, which calls one to share with the poor. And wealth is highly seductive, luring its possessors into compromise with this age in order to retain (or increase) it. At best wealth is questionable, and at worst it is both damning and damned, since it connects one to the world system which stands under God's judgment.
8) The biblical authors therefore call on wealthier Christians to share their goods with the less fortunate, to identify with the cry of the poor for justice, and even to totally divest themselves of their surplus. These are the possible implications of rejecting wealth as a goal. The call is, then, for a simple lifestyle in which needs are met, but in which one lives close enough to the edge of one's resources to have to trust in God to meet his or her needs. This is the ideal of many biblical authors from Proverbs to Paul, with Jesus being especially strong in this regard (cf. Proverbs 30:7-9).
Having drawn these conclusions, we must remind ourselves of two further facts. The Christian is not called to live outside of or withdrawn from the world, but right in the middle of it. Yet his or her lifestyle is to stand in stark contrast to the world. Lifestyle, then, is a major part of the witness of the Christian: it demonstrates the transforming power of Christ. But to sustain such a contrasting lifestyle, the Christian needs the support of Christian community. The discipline and love of other Christians has practical effect at this very point.
Furthermore, we must always remind ourselves that biblical living is not law, but grace; not a new shackle, but true freedom from bondage to materialism. This life is a creation of the Spirit. Without this dynamic, it is unrealistic—even idiotic—to attempt this way of living; but with it, this lifestyle becomes possible.
Then one can express the new life of God, of freedom in an age of bondage.
Peter H. Davids directed the department of biblical studies at the Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, when this article appeared.
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