St. Djan Darada Fellowship

“Be in the world, but not of the world,” is a familiar phrase among Christians. But, where is it written explicitly in the Bible? What is the book, chapter, and verse? Answer: It isn’t explicitly written in the Bible. This is a maxim that is attributed to one of the earliest and best known teachers of early Christianity, Tertullian of Carthage.* This Punic (native African-Phoenician) rhetorician gave instruction on modest living and prayer to fellow believers, encouragement to those arrested and tortured (“The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church”), and explained the Trinity 150 years before Constantine became Emperor.** Early Christian history nerds consider him to be the earliest Latin Church father. Although not a canonized saint (in later years, he followed the Montanist heretics), his writings are packed with faith, hope, and wisdom.

Why does Tertullian and his words matter? Because if we don’t teach…