Go With Him Two . . .

On Friday mornings, after my Legal Argumentation class and office hours, I attend Prof. Enlow's "Christianity and Law" lectures at HILS. (Handong International Law School -- the graduate law school that is now located on the first two floors of All Nations Hall below my department -- the University's undergraduate School of Law housed on All Nations' third floor).  Yesterday's lecture focused upon the 2nd Century Letter to Diognetus written by an anonymous Christian who had been taught by the Apostles (most likely Paul).

The recipient of this letter, Diognetus, is considered by many scholars to have been the Diognetus who was the teacher of Emperor Marcus Aurelius (that's the emperor above; no known bust of Diognetus exists).  Diognetus, though, was a well-known philosopher of his day and may have looked a bit like this simply-clothed fellow striking a pensive pose with scroll in hand.

It is a very interesting letter seeing as it describes how followers of Christ, some 1800 years ago, lived their lives in the midst of the Roman culture of their day.  One passage from the letter to Diognetus was particularly arresting:

For Christians cannot be distinguished from the rest of the human race by country or language or customs. They do not live in cities of their own; they do not use a peculiar form of speech; they do not follow an eccentric manner of life. This doctrine of theirs has not been discovered by the ingenuity or deep thought of inquisitive men, nor do they put forward a merely human teaching, as some people do.

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 of daily living, 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. Every foreign land is their fatherland, and yet for them every fatherland is a foreign land. 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. It is true that they are "in the flesh," but they do not live "according to the flesh. They busy themselves on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven. They obey the established laws, but in their own lives they go far beyond what the laws require.

I found that last line to be especially telling.  Could the same be said of Christ's followers today?  Could it be said of me here at Handong?  Do I make it a practice of my life to "go far beyond" what is required of me?  As a disciple of Christ do I follow his teachings in the Sermon on the Mount?  When I am compelled to go one mile, do I willingly "go with him two"?

And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.  And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.  Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.  ~ Matthew 5:40-42