In fact, the first Christians did not only oppose Roman religion, but they were also enemies of oppression, exploitation and the unjust social “order”, the survival of which was ensured by the state organization of the Roman Empire.

From the middle of the 3rd century, the weakening Roman Empire responded by intensifying its persecution of Christians as the movement of the oppressed.  They wanted to make any gathering of Christians impossible, they banned religious services, confiscated property belonging to the congregations and to those Christians who refused to renounce their religion they sentenced to death.  However, all violence was in vain.  Christianity, the movement of the oppressed grew as fast as did the violent attempts of the state, the oppressing body of the deteriorating Roman Empire, to maintain the old religion as well as the old “order”.  There were more and more Christians.  Christians could now be found not only among slaves and the poorest, but increasingly also among the middle classes.

With the growing number of the well-off people joining Christian congregations, the strict life-style of the old Christians began to change.  Initially, when someone joined a congregation and became Christian, he gave all his possessions to the congregation.  Within the congregation there were neither rich, nor poor, they all felt themselves to be members of a family who own everything together.

However, the total fraternal community of goods did not last for too long among the Christians.

The permeation of the rich into the congregations gradually changed the character of early Christianity to such an extent that the community of goods of the old congregations disappeared almost without trace.