Over the centuries, beginning with Ignatius’ letters in the second century, this crucial aspect of the church gave way to the surrounding culture, so that one of Christianity’s distinctives was eroded to mere words, tucked away here and there among the gospels and epistles.
3 John: Lord It Over
Much harm has come to the church because of this hard stop put upon the organic growth of the Body of Christ, which had been meant to be nonhierarchical in its life.
