Simplicity

Perhaps we tend to make the matter of being a Christian too complicated. It is possible to over think some things, and I would suggest that this could be the case here.

When we look at the teachings of Jesus. In Matthew 16:16, in a conversation with Jesus, Peter said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Then Jesus said, "..on this rock I will build My church.." Thus, we know that Jesus is the foundation of the church..and our beliefs. But Jesus didn't start the church during His lifetime. He told the apostles to do that, to wait in Jerusalem after He had departed to heaven for the Holy Spirit to come upon them. We see these events unfolding in Acts 2 and even the beginnings of the church. Peter was doing the talking in Acts 2:41 when it says that "...those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship..." When we look at this in context we see that people had come into town for the Jewish Passover and stayed over for this new Christian relationship to develop; they were sharing with each other to be sure that no one went without.

The simplicity of becoming a Christian is shown in Acts 8:35 where Philip teaches an Ethiopian nobleman about Jesus. "Now as they went down the road , they came to some water. And the eunuch said, 'See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?' Then Philip said, 'If you believe with all your heart, you may.' " We see here that there wasn't any deep doctrine or philosophy taught. Philip just taught him about "Jesus."

A study of the church in the New Testament seems just as straightforward, or "simple." We don't see any complicated formal structure. Each church was independent in the early church; and each church had leaders, elders to guide and protect the church (see Acts 20, 1 Timothy 3, and Titus 1), and deacons to help in the work. But simplicity was the order of the early church, far more so than we see in most "Christian" churches today.

Living the Christian life isn't so complicated, but it surely can be difficult sometimes as we fight the temptations of this life. Enough for today. Thanks for reading.