The Early Church and their Care for the Poor

I’ve had a quote on the tip of my tongue this whole week and it’s been killing me. Yesterday, I finally found it in a Tim Keller sermon I listened to the other month. 

Here it is quickly transcribed:

Julian, the last Roman emperor, tried to revive paganism, he built temples and spruced them up but Christianity was spreading faster than he could compete with. In the midst of this, he wrote to a friend, a pagan priest:

“Nothing has contributed to the progress of the superstition of these Christians as their charity to strangers, the impious Galileans provide not only for their own poor but for ours as well.” 

The early Christians were promiscuous with their charity.

I love that last line of commentary by Keller! Oh that the world would have reason to accuse us of the same today!