Re: The Early Christians: Self-Portraits and Portrayals

Happiness does not consist in ruling over one’s neighbors or in longing to 
have more than one’s weaker fellowmen. Nor does it consist in being rich 
and in oppressing those lowlier than oneself. No one can imitate God by 
doing such things. They are alien to his sublimity. On the contrary,
anyone 
who takes his neighbor’s burden upon himself, who tries to help the weaker

one in points where he has an advantage, who gives what he has received 
from God to those who need it, takes God’s place, as it were, in the eyes 
of those who receive. He is an imitator of God. In this way, though living

on earth, you will know with awe that there is a God who reigns in heaven,

and you will begin to proclaim the mysteries of God. Then you will learn
to 
love and admire those who are punished by death because they refuse to
deny 
God. In this way you will despise the deception and error of the world.	

Letter to Diognetus 10.