Worship: Justin Martyr on Sunday Worship

Justin Martyr (d. c. 165) provides the earliest detailed description of a Sunday worship service in his "First Apology": "On the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place. The memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits. When the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray."

Justin continues: "When our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought. The president offers prayers and thanksgivings, and the people assent, saying Amen. Then there is a distribution, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given." This pattern -- Word and Table -- has remained the basic structure of Christian worship for nearly two thousand years.

Practical application: Notice the structure of your next worship service. Can you identify the basic pattern Justin describes: gathering, Scripture, teaching, prayer, communion, sending? If any element is missing, consider how it might be restored. Justin teaches that the basic shape of Christian worship was established very early and serves as a foundation for all subsequent elaboration.