Simple Creeds from the early Church
Living a new life under the Holy Spirit is a pilgrimage of new insights and mercies every day. When following Jesus, you realize just how little you understand things and how much more there is to learn. It’s also fruitful to go deep in the Scriptures and have a strong root in the Christian faith. When being challenged by the world or another Christian theologically, it’s important to know what is true and what is man-made.
But when going deeper, it can be easy to lose focus on Christ and the heart of the Gospel. The basics can fade into the background and may even be forgotten down the road. Sometimes, it can just be refreshing to go back to the start of what we believe. This is where focusing on simple and yet profound teachings from Christ and the Scriptures come in.
When examining creeds and liturgies of the Christian faith, it is typically focused in the writings that took place after the New Testament. The Apostles Creed, the Council of Nicaea, Vatican I, or the Westminster Confession of Faith has influenced millions in the Church. As much as I appreciate the creeds and confessions throughout Church history, I want to focus on a couple creeds found right in the New Testament.
There are two specific passages of Scripture I’d like to examine. These are short, easy to remember, and core beliefs to the Christian faith. What if we memorize these and recite them on a regular basis? How would this shape the way we go about our day, fellowship with others, or evangelize?
After going over the two passages, I would like to briefly examine similar commands and confessions seen in writings that date shortly after the New Testament.
1. The Great Commandment (Matthew 22:35-40, Mark 12:28-34, Luke 10:25-28)
“One of the scribes approached. When he heard them debating and saw that Jesus answered them well, he asked him, “Which command is the most important of all?”
Jesus answered, “The most important is Listen, Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is, Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other command greater than these.””
Isn’t it fascinating that Jesus gave two answers to a one answer question? Jesus took the Shema from Deuteronomy 6 and took it one step further by combining the command to love your neighbor from Leviticus 19. To love God is to love our neighbor, and to love our neighbor is to love God. If we are not loving God, we truly are not loving our neighbors, and vice versa.
While this has traditionally been called the Great Command or Greatest Command, Scot McKnight has famously called this the Jesus Creed. Dr. McKnight points out how the Shema was a creed and command that was cited by Jewish believers on a daily basis. Therefore, when Jesus cited the Shema in declaring the most important command, He was declaring this also to be cited and remembered regularly among His followers.
Scot McKnight challenges Christians to recite the Jesus Creed every day, if not multiple times every day. Considering this command is mentioned in three of the four Gospels, we can safely assume it was a strong tradition taught and kept in Jesus communities. We also see the Leviticus command to love your neighbor being referenced by Paul and James as what sums up the Law (Romans 13:9, Galatians 5:14, James 2:8). We’ll explore later how the Great Command was used in the earliest (known) church manual.
2. The Corinthian Creed (1st Corinthians 15:3-5)
“For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas (Peter), then to the Twelve.”
This short confession of faith has been given strong analysis in the world of New Testament studies. Several scholars, both Christians and critics, have agreed this creed could have potentially been established just a couple years after the resurrection. I’ll leave a couple articles below for further research if anyone is interested.
The creed is short and straight to the point. Of course, there is so much more we can dig into regarding the theological significance of the crucifixion, atonement, and resurrection. But Paul himself, who wasn’t shy to get deep into theology, calls these core truths to be “most important”.
Is it fruitful to dig deeper and ask further questions surrounding these topics? Absolutely! But as we study and discuss the Gospel, we should always make sure Christ and His work are the foundation we do it on. It may be humbling for our 21st century western Christian circles to look daily to this simple creed that several early Christian communities held to and died for.
The Great Command in the Early Church
The oldest known Christian writing we have outside the New Testament is called the Didache. It is a church catechism that claims to be instructions taken from the 12 Apostles. Although it is often agreed that this was not written by any of the Apostles, it has often been dated to the late 1st century and is believed to be the earliest known church manual. It has become quite controversial in its studies and countless speculations have been made about it.
I do wish to examine in deeper detail the Didache in later blogs. But for now, it’s important to just recognize that it’s an 1st-2nd century church manual, and based on its references by later Christian leaders, it was influential. So how does this church instruction manual start?
“The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles: The Teaching of the Lord to the Gentiles by the Twelve Apostles. There are two ways, one of life and one of death, and there is a great difference between the two ways. This is the way of life. First, love God, the one who made you; second, your neighbor as yourself. And whatever you do not desire to happen, do not do to another.”
The earliest known church manual opens with the Great Command and the Golden Rule (Matthew 7:12). It looks like Scot McKnight is really onto something with the Jesus Creed! Following this, the Didache gives several more commands found in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). But it’s fascinating that the catechism opens with these two teachings from Christ, and shows how serious the early Church took Jesus’ commands.
The Ignatian Creed
I want to look at one more confession of faith that is also from the early Church. Ignatius of Antioch was believed to be a disciple of John, and wrote seven letters to churches as he was transferred by the Romans to be executed. Two ongoing themes in Ignatius’ letters are the importance of church unity and holding to the Christian truth. More than once, Ignatius makes core claims of the Christian faith to hold to. One of them can be seen in his letter to the Trallians and is spoken like a creed:
“Be deaf, then, when someone speaks to you apart from Jesus Christ, of the family of David, of Mary, who was truly born, both ate and drank, was truly persecuted under Pontius Pilate, was truly crucified and died, as heavenly, earthly, and sub-earthly things looked on, who was also truly raised from the dead, his Father having raised him, in whose likeness his Father will also so raise us up who believe in him through Jesus Christ, apart from whom we do not have true life. ”
Most scholars who study the Apostolic Fathers are in agreement that the letters of Ignatius were written in the early 2nd century. The Apostles have all passed on, and there is a new generation in the Church. What we see in this confession from Ignatius is once again holding the core truths of the Gospel, and is actually very similar to the Apostles Creed.
Conclusion
I personally want to memorize the Corinthian creed and start reciting both the Great Command and the Corinthian creed daily. I would encourage you to do the same, as well as recite the Lord’s Prayer on a daily basis if you don’t already (that will be discussed another time). Christ is the rock that we stand on, and what better creeds to remember and recite than statements that came right from Him and His chosen leaders?
Bibliography
McKnight, S. (2009). Jesus Creed: Loving God, Loving Others. Brewster, MA. Paraclete Press.
Wilhite, S.J. (2019). The Didache: A Commentary. Eugene, OR. Wipf and Stock Publishers.
Schoedel, W.R. (1985). Ignatius of Antioch: A Commentary on the Letters of Ignatius of Antioch. Philadelphia, PA. Fortress Press.
Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.
For more about the Corinthian Creed:
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/earliest-evidence-christianity/
https://carm.org/1-cor-153-4-demonstrates-creed-too-early-legend-corrupt