The history of Christianity is quite checkered. It seems sometimes it flourished greatly. Other times it was in retreat.
During the first century, Christianity spread far across the world. Tradition tells us that Thomas, the disciple who said he would not believe Jesus had resurrected until he saw the nail prints in His hands and thrust his hand in His side, went to the country of India. Even today there is the St. Thomas Church in India. Another tradition tells us that Mark (John Mark) went to Egypt, though there seems to be little verification of that.
As the church spread across the Roman Empire, strange ideas filtered in. One was that to be holy one must live alone, completely isolated from society. On my 1962 visit to Mt. Athos in Greece, I saw firsthand how this aloneness functions.
The separatist movement began even before the Christian era. The Qumran community on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea in Israel pioneered the idea. Qumran was practically unknown until 1947 when by accident the first scrolls were found by a shepherd boy. We know the Qumran community was separated from general society and concentrated on holiness. They were there, scholars believe, from 150 years before Christ until A.D. 70.
Going back to Mt Athos, the monastic idea sprang out of Christianity. Transportation on the mountain was walking, donkey back, or ship. My friend and I took a ship journey. As we rounded the south end of the peninsula, the hermit huts were clearly visible on the mountain slopes. Hermits do indeed withdraw from society, rarely coming out of hiding. To them society is evil; therefore they have little to do with people.
It appears that hermits have overlooked a basic principle Jesus spoke of when He showed the disciples where and what the source of evil is. The Pharisees were complaining that the disciples were eating without washing their hands. To the Pharisees that was a source of defilement. Jesus explained that the heart is where defilement comes from. Observe Matthew 15:17-20:
Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.
To be sure, there is no way anyone can get away from the source of evil by that definition. Therefore, separation from society does not make a person holy until the heart has been cleansed. The heart and mind are closely related.
The apostle Paul put it right in Romans 12:1-2:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
What does “transformed by the renewing of your mind” mean anyway? I repeat, the mind and the heart are closely related. Transformed by the renewing of your mind means refusing to let the world press you into its mold. Instead, be transformed, be changed in the very essence of your being by renewing your mind. The mind is, after all, the source of action. Sometimes we speak of “thoughtless action.” That may be our easy way out. From our study of I Corinthians, you might have concluded that Paul was a loner, somewhat monastic perhaps. Some of his teaching came on pretty strong. Now in this my last message I hope to help you see the other side of...
