St. Paul wrote the Epistle to the Philippians from Rome, where he was awaiting trial for assorted thought crimes against the state (some things never change). In closing his letter, he said,\
All the saints salute you, chiefly they that are of Caesar’s household. (Philippians 4:22)
Caesar’s household! Christians–right there in the very heart of the Roman Empire. Right there in Caesar’s house! And this less than 40 years after Jesus Christ was crucified–by Rome.
The Romans should have known that they were licked right there. Nevertheless, they went on to kill and jail as many Christians as they could lay their hands on. All those early Christians had to do, to save themselves from painful and humiliating deaths, was to deny Jesus Christ.
They didn’t.
And Christ did not and will not deny them.
I had never taken note of that verse before. Even the mighty Roman Empire could not control the hearts and minds of its subjects.
They tried, though!
We’re seeing it replayed in real time before our eyes. The Science March you reference in another post is a perfect example. I’ll elaborate on that thread.
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What’s remarkable is how many Roman soldiers seem to have been drawn to Jesus — viz. the Centurion whose sick slave Jesus cured, and whom Jesus praised for his faith, and even the soldier who was converted at the very site of the crucifixion. Obviously, as soldiers they recognized true authority when they saw it. (“I, too, am a man under authority….”) As an Air Force officer, I always got a thrill on reading the story about the Centurion. And when I found out that Philippi was the place where many of the retired Roman soldiers lived, because of the land grants they’d been given there at their retirement, Philippians became my favorite of St. Paul’s epistles. Military bias on my part, I suppose….
Yes, Philippi was a “colony,” Acts tells us–meaning a place where Roman veterans were settle after their time was up.