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To His Excellency, Diognetus:
I understand that you are interested in learning about the religion of the Christians…. I welcome this keen interest on your part and ask God, who gives us power to speak and power to listen, to let me speak in such a way that you may derive the greatest possible benefit and to enable you to listen to such good effect that I may never have a reason for regretting what I have said.
Now, then, clear out all the thoughts that take up your attention, and pack away all the old ways of looking at things that keep deceiving you…since you are going to listen to a really new message.
Christians cannot be distinguished from the rest of the human race by country or language or customs. …. Yet, although they live in Greek and barbarian cities alike, as each man's lot has been cast, and follow the customs of the country in clothing and food and other matters…at the same time they give proof of the remarkable and admittedly extraordinary constitution of their own commonwealth.
They live in their own countries, but only as aliens. They have a share in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners….They marry, like everyone else, and they beget children, but they do not cast out their offspring. They share their board with each other, but not their marriage bed. They are "in the flesh," but do not live "according to the flesh." They busy themselves on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven. They obey the law, but in their own lives they go far beyond what law requires. They love all men, and by all men are persecuted…. They are reviled, and yet they bless. Undergoing punishment, they rejoice because they are brought to life.
To put it simply: What the soul is in the body, that Christians are in the world.
Now [the Father did not send his Son] to rule by tyranny, fear, and terror? Far from it! He sent him out of kindness and gentleness…. He sent him as God; he sent him as man to men. He willed to save man by persuasion, not by compulsion, for compulsion is not God's way of working. In sending him, God called men, but did not pursue them; he sent him in love, not in judgment. Yet he will indeed send him someday as our Judge, and who shall stand when he appears?
God, the Master and Maker of the universe, who made all things and determined the proper place of each, showed himself to be long-suffering, as well as a true friend of man. But in fact he always was and is and will be just this—kind and good and slow to anger and true; indeed, he alone is good.
Blessings for a safe and fun holiday weekend,
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