By

Zecharias E. Castro

When the Christian era began 2/3 of the Christians were slaves. And the other 1/3 were free men who owned lands and possessions. This 1/3 however sold their lands and possessions to embrace the life of being slaves of Jesus Christ. The early Christians did not call Jesus Master and Lord as a mere formality , but they took upon themselves the lifestyle of a slave. Parting with the ownership of anything they embrace the task of stewardship, being thus overwhelmingly glad to manage, on behalf of their savior, all things visible and invisible God had entrusted to their care.

As slaves of Christ they knew themselves to be God’s property. And as God’s property they understood that property has no rights to own anything. They understood that property can only be use and control by it’s Owner and Master. They had no problems with Christ telling them “When you do all that you ought to do, think of yourselves as unprofitable servants because you can only do what the Word teaches and instructs you to do”.

A slave understood that everything he did was not for his own glory and honor but rather to exalt the honor and glory of his benevolent Master.

An early believer armed with the mentality of being a bond slave to Christ, would have never consider, not even for a second, the idea of using or claiming the Good Name of Christ for his own personal advantage or profit. The early believers did not only part with their possessions but at any instant were willing to parts with their lifes for the privilege of proclaiming and confessing Christ to be “The Word of God made flesh that has come to save us by His grace”.

When Peter was put in prison and the angels delivered him. The early Christian did not pray for angels to deliver them as well, but rather for boldness to be given to them so they could also be willing to die for their Lord at any moment. They constantly say “we did not hold our lives dear to ourselves”. They long in their hearts to please their Lord by being counted worthy to have suffer for their Lord.

The constant prayer request of that faithful slave “the apostle Paul” was for an opportunity to speak the word, for a door of utterance and for boldness to deliver the message as an edict from the King of heaven, even in the face of impending torture, persecution or death.

The early believers sacrifice their physical bodies and exposed them to constant danger in order to show off THE BODY OF GOD. The body of God are the words that reveal Him. To the early believers “The Word” The body of revelation was their inner man.

The early believers love to display “THE WORD” showing muscle and strength. That means the word of their lips was not employ to confess their dreams, desires and wants as the pagans did and even as the religious leaders of their time had taught the masses to pray to God to grant them their dreams, desires and wants. The early believers employ the word of their lips to announce they were complete in Christ and therefore nothing in this world was necessary, they employ the word of their lips to announce that as far they were concerned “the Desired of All Nations” was truly their’s in Christ Jesus and everything else was an idle vanity.

Because they knew Jesus - The Word - held and sustained every atom in creation they love to live as slaves without titles and recognition always learning how to be useful and skillful in anything their fellowmen asked of them. This was the best way to represent and direct all glory and honor to Their Lord and savior - the very glue of the universe.

The early believers were spiritual weight lifters. They loved to show the muscle and strength of their inner man - Jesus - The Word of God. Is the word you speak showing some muscle and strength?

Which of the icons above is being promoted by the church of The 21^st Century?.