Those Christians

A Letter to Diognetus, possibly dating to second century.

This is a first hand account of what Christians were like back in the second century. I like it.

For the Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country,
nor language, nor the customs which they observe. For they neither inhabit
cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life
which is marked out by any singularity. The course of conduct which they
follow has not been devised by any speculation or deliberation of
inquisitive men; nor do they, like some, proclaim themselves the advocates
of any merely human doctrines. But, inhabiting Greek as well as barbarian
cities, according as the lot of each of them has determined, and following
the customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food, and the rest of
their ordinary conduct, they display to us their wonderful and confessedly
striking method of life. They dwell in their own countries, but simply
as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet
endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their
native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. They
marry, as do all [others]; they beget children; but they do not destroy
their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed.
They are in the flesh, but they do not live according to the flesh. They pass
their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the
prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They
love all men, and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned;
they are put to death, and restored to life. They are poor, yet make
many rich; they are in lack of all things, and yet abound in all; they
are dishonoured, and yet in their very dishonour are glorified. They are
evil spoken of, and yet are justified; they are reviled, and bless; they
are insulted, and repay the insult with honour; they do good, yet are
punished as evil-doers. When punished, they rejoice as if quickened into
life; they are assailed by the Jews as foreigners, and are persecuted by
the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for
their hatred.

To sum up all in one word--what the soul is in the body, that are
Christians in the world. The soul is dispersed through all the members of
the body, and Christians are scattered through all the cities of the world.
The soul dwells in the body, yet is not of the body; and Christians dwell
in the world, yet are not of the world. The invisible soul is guarded by
the visible body, and Christians are known indeed to be in the world, but
their godliness remains invisible. The flesh hates the soul, and wars
against it, though itself suffering no injury, because it is prevented
from enjoying pleasures; the world also hates the Christians, though in
nowise injured, because they abjure pleasures. The soul loves the flesh
that hates it, and [loves also] the members; Christians likewise love those
that hate them. The soul is imprisoned in the body, yet preserves that
very body; and Christians are confined in the world as in a prison, and yet
they are the preservers of the world. The immortal soul dwells in a
mortal tabernacle; and Christians dwell as sojourners in corruptible
[bodies], looking for an incorruptible dwelling in the heavens. The
soul, when but ill-provided with food and drink, becomes better; in like
manner, the Christians, though subjected day by day to punishment, increase
the more in number. God has assigned them this illustrious position,
which it were unlawful for them to forsake.