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Monday, February 14, 2005

The Didache, Chapters 12-13

Chapter 12 “How to Treat Strangers”
Here’s the principle: welcome and be hospitable to anyone who drops by, who shares your same loyalty to the Lord.
As he hangs out with you, you’ll get to know him, and know if he’s talking out of the left or right side of his mouth.
If he’s just a person traveling through the area, help him out as much as you are able to, but keep an eye on what he’s doing; he shouldn’t stay with you more than two or three days at the most.
If he likes you guys, and likes the area and wants to make it his home, he needs to have some skill or trade so he can get a job and support himself.
If he doesn’t have a skill, you’ll have to decide how he might be able to work to help the community in exchange for support, he can’t just sit around and be fed.
If he’s not willing to do some work around the place, then he’s a swindler, who’s learned how to use Christ’s name to get a handout.
You have to watch out for guys like that.

Chapter 13 “How to Take Care of Church Leaders”
If a spokesman for the Lord wants to settle down in your area, be a part of your community; take care of his needs and provide for him, your community needs him. That ends up being the “work” he does for you.
The same would be true for a teacher. If he’s a good teacher, who helps you understand God’s good plan, he’s someone you need, you should provide for his needs.
You can carry out the same principle from the Law, where the first part of all the harvest and oil and wine, as well as the first born of the livestock were given to the high priest, you could follow that pattern for the prophet who is living with you.
And if you don’t have a prophet/spokesman as part of your community, you could follow that pattern and give that stuff to the poor people in the neighborhood.
You could follow this principle through every part of your livelihood, and give away everything that comes off the top, just like they did under Moses’ law.

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