The Jesus Way, Part 4
By T.M. Moore|Published Date: October 20, 2009
Before Christianity was, well, Christianity, it was simply “The Way.” But that epithet packed a lot of meaning, as we have seen thus far in considering the approach to worship and the place of God’s Word within this new faith community.
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Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common…There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.
Acts 4:32, 34 |
Before everything about the faith began to be formalized, formulaic and institutional, it was much more spontaneous, all-inclusive, and, frankly, life-changing. The people who turned their world upside-down for Jesus Christ lived a more intimate, powerful, and comprehensive experience of Jesus than many seem to today.
The earliest creed of the Church, the Apostles’, emphasizes the role of “communion” in the lives of believers: “I believe in the communion of the saints.” Today when we think about “communion” the Lord’s Supper comes to mind. When we talk about “saints” we often mean those who have gone before. But for the first followers of The Way, the “communion of the saints”, while it entailed both these matters, was a much more comprehensive, intimate, and powerful confession than what we know or practice today.
We may identify four aspects of the communion of the saints as that was practiced among the first followers of Christ.
Life together
The first of these is what Bonhoeffer expounded in his excellent book, Life Together. The first believers were literally together in much more consistent and intimate ways than we tend to be today. They worshiped day by day in one another’s homes, as well as in public. They took meals together, shared freely of their possessions and resources, and took care of their needy with such efficiency that even skeptics, observing their communion, were unable to resist the Truth of the Gospel any longer (Acts 6:1-7).
The common lived experience of the first believers was far-ranging and far-reaching. It served to strengthen their spiritual lives, as they met together to study, pray, and learn together (Acts 2:42; Colossians 3:16). They employed the gifts of the Spirit, given to each one according to the good pleasure of the Lord, in meeting the needs of all the members of the Body, rather than indulge them for merely personal purposes (1 Corinthians 12:7-11). The fellowship they enjoyed was also physically sustaining, as they shared meals together and offered their wealth to help the needy whenever circumstances required (Acts 2:46; 4:34,35; 11:27-29). Opportunities to provide work for others also arose from time to time (Acts 18:1-3). House churches were an integral part of the organization of every local communion of believers, serving as bases of worship, disciple-making, discipline, and outreach. Believers frequently opened their homes to widows, visitors, and others with needs. They even suffered together as persecution came down against them (Acts 8:1-4; 11:19-26).
 The followers of The Way thus spent a good deal of time in one another’s presence, often in ways that were mutually beneficial, either spiritually or materially or both. In our day, when families are pulled here and there by work, the social demands of children, and the interests of parents and families, the communion of spirit and life that the followers of The Way knew with such joy and power often escapes us, and our witness for the Lord is compromised as a result (John 17:21).
Sanctity of the Supper
There is evidence the first believers took the Lord’s Supper much more seriously than we do today. For one thing, communion over the body and blood of Christ seems to have been a much more common practice then than now. Is this because the first believers understood this as a true “participation” in the Lord, whereas we see it only as a memorial service of some sort (1 Corinthians 10:16)? Was their experience of the Lord’s presence more profound and filled with glory than ours?
Certainly from Paul’s perspective the Supper was more serious and more to be sanctified by the followers of The Way than what we see in most churches today. These days it is not uncommon for pastors, as they serve the communion, to offer an “open table” and to put up no fences or hindrances to anyone coming to partake of the elements. Paul would have shuddered at such a thought. He earnestly exhorted the believers not to take the Supper in an unworthy manner—that is, with unconfessed sin—lest they should fall under the discipline of the Lord (1 Corinthians 11:27-32).
Intimacy with the absent or distant
In spite of the fact that travel and communications were more difficult in Paul’s day than ours, the churches then seem to have managed to keep up vital concern for one another and for the servants of the Lord in far places. We see this in Paul’s mobilizing the European churches to support the needs of the believers in Palestine (Romans 15:26,27) as well as in his and John’s exhortation to commendation to support those itinerating evangelists who may be passing through on occasion (Titus 3:13; 3 John 5-8).
Paul rejoiced in the Philippians’ constant care for him, and he anticipated that the Romans would happily take a share in his planned ministry to Spain (Philippians 4:14-16; Romans 15:24). It was part of the apostolic Gospel to promote and maintain this worldwide vision of the one Body of Christ, and to teach and lead the believers to work hard at maintaining the unity of the Body by every available means (1 Corinthians 1:2; Ephesians 4:3).
Sense of the eternally present
The writer of Hebrews reminded his readers of their intimate connection with the saints who have gone before (Hebrews 11, 12:1). Those who had gone before to the presence of the Lord were understood as somehow being still present with the Body of Christ on earth. John envisioned the departed saints as, in some sense, concerned for the wellbeing of the Church on earth, and even assisting in our prayers (Revelation 6:9-11; 5:8). There doesn’t seem to be any encouragement here to pray to the saints; however, knowing that they somehow had an interest in our circumstances and “race” must have been an encouragement to the people of The Way as they took up their daily callings to follow Jesus.
The confession “I believe in the communion of the saints” thus seems to have much more meaning and practical significance for those first followers of Christ than what we typically know and practice today. We can learn from them to take this article of the Creed more seriously, and to explore and discover new and more vital ways of promoting the oneness we have in Christ, so that our witness for Him might be more persuasive to the watching world (John 17:21).
This is hard work, it’s true (Ephesians 4:3), but this does not excuse us from the effort. So many things divide the churches in our day—differences of doctrine, practice, and peculiar denominational interest. But the example of our forebears suggests that our own discipleship can be greatly enhanced if we would apply ourselves more deliberately and consistently to practicing the kind of intimacy, mutual dependence and assistance, and spiritual fellowship and accountability that the followers of The Way knew in their day.
T. M. Moore is principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition, and dean of the BreakPoint Centurions Program. His daily devotionals are available at MyParuchia.com and ColsonCenter.org.
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