Fascinating comment from Kevin Perotta from his book Leading Christians to Maturity. Chapter 7: “A Distinctive Way of Life”
> “Christ, the apostles and the leaders of the early church considered the teaching about the Christian way of life to be the norm for Christians. They viewed the didache not as a distant ideal but as something that ordinary people would actually live out. Conversion meant new behavior. “By this it may be seen who are the children of the devil: whoever does not do what is right is not from God, nor he who does not love his brother” (1 John 3:10). “By their fruits you shall know them” (Matthew 7:20).
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> The early church was not perfect. But the early Christians followed the Christian way of life sufficiently well that their distinctiveness – along with their bold announcement of the gospel – brought to them almost three centuries of persecution in the Roman empire, and at the same time helped to attract thousands of men and women to Christ, even though commitment to Him could end in martyrdom.
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> In our own day it cannot be said that Christians in the West are following the teaching of Christ in a way that makes them particularly distinct. At a time when Western societies are swinging away from Christian values, Christians’ lives are generally failing to become more clearly distinguishable. Rather, as a society becomes less Christian, so do Christians’ own patterns life.”
This way of life is what is in view when Christians speak of “holiness” in the context of a human life.
What are your thoughts about the above comment? Is he right? What is the core of the problem? How ought we solve the problem?
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