Disruption in the Life of the Church: Then

The early Christians were disruptors in the first century. Not only did the early Jesus movement upset the status quo among some Jewish people shortly after Pentecost, the movement also agitated Gentiles as the Good News of Jesus went beyond Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria through people like Philip, Peter, Paul and their co-workers. 

New Testament scholar Kavin Rowe’s observations are helpful here:

“To say that the Christians ‘disturb the world’ — as many translations do — is to risk obscuring the gravity of the accusation. For the charge is not simply the complaint that the Christians are a social nuisance, but rather that the Christian mission is a force for sedition in an otherwise civilized world” (C. Kavin Rowe, World Upside Down, 96).

When I think of disruption, I think of opposing unhealthy and evil practices and values, whether they emerge from within the church or confront the church from the outside. Behind the confrontation is the desire for people to live in a way that is in harmony with the Kingdom of God.

As with the Thessalonians in Acts 17, Christian faith could be disruptive to Gentile life in general. But there was also internal disruption within the Christian community. We see this in 1 Corinthians with that church’s factionalism. In both instances — facing outward or facing inward — Christians need to be disruptors, attempting to overcome evil with good. For example, in ancient Corinth, we know that some of the Christians operated too much like those outside the faith community rather than following the way of Jesus. When members of the church emphasize nationalistic or unhealthy societal values rather than yielding to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, there is a distortion of the faith and that distorted way of life needs to be disrupted.

I am trying to make clear that disruption in the church back then happened on two levels: 

1. Christians disrupted life within the broader society, and 
2. Christians disrupted life within the community when some of them were drawn to operate like the broader society. 

I want to focus on an aspect of the first-century Greco-Roman world in which Christianity emerged that highlights the topic of our National Gathering: ‘Disruption in the Life of the Church.’ The topic is social stratification, the hierarchical way the world was organized in the first century. 

Disruption involves opposing unhealthy and evil practices and values, whether they emerge from within the church or confront the church from the outside, desiring for people to live in harmony with the Kingdom of God. Click To Tweet

How Social Stratification Disrupted the Early Church

Christianity was disruptive in challenging Roman society’s pervasive hierarchy. A couple verses come readily to mind here: Galatians 3:28 (“There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus”) and Colossians 3:11 (“Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all”).

Scholar Harry Maier points out how Paul’s vision for the Colossians challenged the status quo:

The utopian declaration of Col 3.11, that includes barbarians and Scythians, is a powerful geopolitical representation of the universal reach of Christ’s rule and its power in turning enemies into friends…the Roman imperial iconographic treatment of barbarians was to represent them in postures of submission or defeat. Colossians places an alternative cosmopolitan vision before its listeners’ eyes. It portrays a unity of humankind brought about through the crucifixion of Jesus, a victorious death that triumphs over those ‘estranged and once hostile in mind’, no longer enslaved to the now subjugated principalities and powers, and now joined them together in love and perfect harmony, and governed with peace (1.21; 3.13-15).

What I’m trying to say is that Christians disrupted the broader society and simultaneously disrupted elements within the church that mirrored the broader society. This is the case with social stratification and one example is the division at Corinth.

New Testament scholar John Barclay suggests that the problem at Corinth was having a number of the church members being too comfortable with the broader society:

Clearly, whatever individual exceptions there may be, Paul does not regard social alienation as the characteristic state of the Corinthian church.

In fact there are plenty of signs suggesting the social acceptability of the Corinthian Christians. That some of them (presumably the wealthier) take their disputes to the civic law-courts (6.1-6) signals their confidence in the legal system; they do not anticipate that believers will receive prejudicial treatment at the hands of non-Christians. Corinthian Christians are invited to meals in the houses of non-believers (10.27) and, conversely, non-believing friends or neighbours might well drop into the house where the Christian meeting is taking place (14.24-25). Most significant, however, is the fact that some of the leaders of the Corinthian church (whose example others are likely to follow) are to be found as participants in parties and feasts in the dining rooms of the temples (8.10). It is clear that Paul is somewhat uneasy about the degree of integration which the Corinthian Christians enjoy.

We won’t unpack Barclay’s analysis too finely, but my main point is that part of the Corinthian problem is what Paul would call ‘friendship with the world’ — which is not about people, but about the way the world operates.

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When members of the church emphasize nationalistic or unhealthy societal values rather than yielding to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, there is a distortion of the faith and that distorted way of life needs to be disrupted. Click To Tweet

Biblical Humility Disrupted the Early Church

There are other ways that the Jesus Movement proved to be disruptive in its early days. Perhaps one concept that encapsulates the notion of ‘Disruption in the Life of the Church‘ is humility. I’ve been working on the concept of humility from a biblical perspective and have a new book out with IVP Academic on the subject. I think humility is misunderstood and also underestimated, so I turn to a favorite passage of Scripture in 1 Peter 5 as I wrap up:

Therefore, I have a request for the elders among you. (I ask this as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ’s sufferings, and as one who shares in the glory that is about to be revealed.) I urge the elders: Like shepherds, tend the flock of God among you. Watch over it. Don’t shepherd because you must, but do it voluntarily for God. Don’t shepherd greedily, but do it eagerly. Don’t shepherd by ruling over those entrusted to your care, but become examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive an unfading crown of glory.

In the same way, I urge you who are younger: accept the authority of the elders. And everyone, clothe yourselves with humility toward each other. God stands against the proud, but he gives favor to the humble. Therefore, humble yourselves under God’s power so that he may raise you up in the last day. (1 Peter 5:1-6)

The concept of humility, at least as described in the New Testament, was not valued in the Greco-Roman world. The Greek word that Peter and Paul use, tapeinophrosynē, was used negatively by Josephus and the Stoic Epictetus. To them tapeinophrosynē meant a small-mindedness that invited shame but for the Christians it meant living in the way of Christ.

Let’s be honest.

Christians ought to be a disruption to the status quo of our violent and stratified society but it seems as if the violence and stratification find too much of a home among some Christians. But humility can help us to disrupt and dismantle evil because humility runs counter to the corrosive, competitive, arrogant ways of the world and invites God’s grace. After all, as often said in the Scriptures: “God stands against the proud, but gives favor to the humble.”

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Humility can help us to disrupt and dismantle evil because humility runs counter to the corrosive, competitive, arrogant ways of the world and invites God’s grace. Click To Tweet

Sisters and brothers, remember that we serve a Lord who says:

Come to me, all you who are struggling hard and carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Put on my yoke, and learn from me. I’m gentle and humble. And you will find rest for yourselves. My yoke is easy to bear, and my burden is light. (Matthew 11:28-30)

That’s a word for tired old Dennis.

I don’t need more taskmasters. I don’t need more work. I don’t even need to fight people, because the Lord fights my battles. And I don’t even need to think it’s on me to fix all the world’s problems — I sometimes felt that way as a younger man.

But what I can do is take on the yoke of a gentle and humble Lord and find rest for my soul. My restful soul is disruptive to a violent, competitive, stratified world that is in constant chaotic motion.

May the memory of our Christian forebears who turned the world upside down, be for us a blessing and encouragement. Amen.

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My restful soul is disruptive to a violent, competitive, stratified world that is in constant chaotic motion. Click To Tweet

*Editorial Note 1: The plenary keynote lecture above, entitled “Disruption in the Life of the Church: Then,” was given by Dennis R. Edwards. Dennis challenged us deeply at Awakenings 2023, building a case that early Christians were disrupters of the status quo of life in the Ancient Roman world. They were “turning the world upside down” through their allegiance to Jesus Christ rather than Caesar (Acts 17:6-7). Because of their commitment to God’s justice, their formation of new communities, and their love of fellow humans, they made converts — and also enemies. As Dennis looked afresh at some New Testament texts, he considered how disruption in the life of the early Christians might help us navigate our own challenging times. ~CK

• Purchase the “Disruption in the Life of the Church: Then” video plenary here.
• The full Awakenings 2023 Gathering bundle is available here.

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*Editorial Note 2: Awakenings 2025 returns to the DC area this coming March 6th-8th, 2025! Our theme for our 6th biennial National Gathering will be “Wholeness and Beauty in the Life of the Church.” Missio Alliance is thrilled to announce that our first featured speaker is none other than the esteemed Dr. Willie James Jennings. Sign up here to be notified via email when registration goes live!