My sense is that men throughout the Roman world of Paul’s day heard his call to prayer, received it gladly, and entered on it with diligence and joy. The results for generations following Paul speak for themselves. Our excerpt from If Men Will Pray is found on pages 13 and 14:
“[T]he first Christians turned their world upside-down for Jesus Christ. They maintained a strong unity among the congregations of Christ throughout the Roman world. They brought a new morality and a hitherto unknown level of civic courage, decency, and love to an Empire on the downslope of moral integrity.
“The first Christians braved numerous waves of intense persecution (think: lions, being torn limb from limb, burned on a spit, set adrift on ice flows, all stripped naked and before howling throngs).
“The first Christians inaugurated a body of theological and spiritual literature which continues to bless those who can tear themselves away from television and the Internet long enough to do some serious and edifying reading. The first Christians evangelized their neighbors with consistency and convincing power. The first Christians started thousands of churches in houses and communities, trained their own pastors, sent out their own missionaries, preserved the Scriptures for subsequent generations, and refuted heretics and philosophical opponents – all without a worship band, committee, klieg light, new building (or any building), or the promise of health and wealth.
“The first Christian men must have been men of prayer, because the first Christians achieved the kind of society Paul envisions in this passage: peaceful and quiet, godly and dignified in every way, with the Gospel advancing everywhere.”
For reflection or discussion
1. What does it mean that the first Christians turned their world “upside-down”? Can you do that without prayer?
2. Why do you think men today find it so difficult to sustain a powerful life of prayer?
Prayer changes things. God has promised that if we will call on Him in prayer, He will answer us and show us great things and mysteries we have not known before (Jer. 33.3). Take up this offer and challenge, and bring someone along with you. Share today’s podcast with a friend, then get together to discuss it. You can order copies of If Men Will Pray from The Ailbe Bookstore.
