taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me
coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead. And I
was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment
came, sin became alive, and I died; and this commandment, which
was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; for sin, taking
opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through
it killed me." (Romans 7:6-11)When we operate by the letter of the law, a written code
of conduct, all it does is make hypocrites of us. We cannot
perform according to the standards contained therein; only
Jesus can, for He is the expresser of the character of God in
man.
In the early church most of the Christians were simple,
illiterate people. Many were from slave backgrounds and
could not read or write. It is estimated that as many as
eighty-percent of the early Christians were illiterate. Most
were Gentiles with no Bible-background. They possessed
no Bibles as either individual or community property. The
Old Testament papyrus scrolls were, for the most part,
maintained at the synagogue and were not "on loan" to the
Christian congregations. In the early decades of the church
what we know as the New Testament had not been written
yet.
What did the early Christians do when they assembled
together? I am convinced that they did not do what we so
often do when we gather together. Today, evangelical