The first century vision is breathtaking, given our divisions today.
"After
his death and resurrection a fellowship of followers of Jesus came into
being which was called The Church. Beliefs about it arose almost
immediately and it took a variety of visible forms.
The
ideal of the Church appears again and again in the early Christian
documents which compose the New Testament and which reflect the
convictions of leaders in the primitive Christian fellowship. To these
leaders the church was to be inclusive and one. They shared the purpose
of Jesus which was transmitted through The Gospel according to John
that all believers in him should be as united as were he and the
Father. More than once, carrying out this same conception, Paul spoke
of the Church as the body of Christ. Obviously, as he saw it, it was to
be one, knit together, each member contributing to the whole. The Epistle to the Ephesians declares
that Christ is the head of the Church and dreams of the Church as
ultimately being without spot, wrinkle, or blemish. The Christian
fellowship, so the New Testament held, was to be a new Israel, a chosen
people, but it was to be drawn from all mankind. In Christ both Jews
and Gentiles were to be members of "the household of God," growing into
"an holy temple." Not only was the Church to embrace both Jews and
Gentiles, but in it there was also to be no distinction on the basis of
race, national, cultural status, servitude, freedom or sex. It was to
be gathered from every nation, and from all tribes, peoples, and
tongues." (A history of Christianity, vol. 1, beginnings to A.D. 1500, rev. ed., 1975 by Kenneth Scott LaTourette
