An Important Note To Students And Teachers
The world of the first century was very different from the world in which we live. Many of us who are Christians have lived in a Christian environment all our lives. Many of us either grew up in a Christian home or grew up in a social environment that favored Christian values and concepts.
Such backgrounds frequently influence us to hold a specific view of the world. We commonly think everyone has had our experiences and holds our religious perspectives and views. It comes as a rather rude awakening to learn that not everyone thinks religiously as we think.
Certainly that was not true in the first century! That was a very different existence! No one had electricity or the appliances made possible by electrical power. No one burned candles [candles had not been invented yet]. No one read anything in print [the printing process had not yet been invented]. No one spoke in English [the English language did not exist]. Very few people had heard about Jesus Christ [he was born and worked in a very small country with a very small population].
Though Christianity spread quickly in that century, it was still a new religion. In some places it was a misunderstood, unpopular religion. In some places it was violently repressed because it threatened society and other religions as people knew them. Often in the first century being a Christian required both courage and sacrifice. In many instances, Christian existence was not for the uncommitted!
By [even before] the end of the first century, most Christians were gentiles [people who were not Jews]. When Christianity first began, it began as a Jewish movement that was 100% Jewish or Jewish converts [proselytes]. For centuries these people knew the God Christians honored. As long as any of them could remember, they had been devoted to doing this God's will.
When gentiles became the majority among early believers, the Christian movement underwent significant change. Gentiles were leaving a background of idolatry. They were accustomed to acknowledging the existence of many gods. It was quite "normal" to worship more than one god. Their morals and values were different. While devout Jewish people defined right and wrong, moral and immoral, and just and unjust much as Christians did, idol worshippers did not.
What conversion to Christ meant for a devout Jewish person and what conversion to Christ meant for most idol worshippers was distinctly different. Most of the New Testament epistles are to congregations in which gentile Christians were predominant or were the majority. Since most Christians today are gentiles, these letters provide some interesting insights.
The insight that serves as the focus for this series of lessons is this: the spiritual objective in the lives of gentile Christians was to challenge them to behave like the "new self" God made them. The issue was how they thought, felt, were motivated, and behaved after baptism.
This series is devoted to Christian behavior after baptism.