Distinguishing Christians

“Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, [living in such places] as the lot of each of them has determined, and following the customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct, they display to us their wonderful and confessedly striking method of life. They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers…They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives…they are reviled and bless.” –Author unknown, written to an inquirer named Diognetus in the 2nd century.

(The Pilgrim Church by E.H. Broadbent, pgs.39-40).