The Jesus Way, Part 3

Christianity was much simpler in the days before it was, well, Christianity. It’s a challenge being a responsible Christian these days—so many services to attend, classes to take, books to read, programs to join, projects to complete, people to impress.

Back when Christianity was simply “The Way,” the requirements for responsible church involvement were much simpler, the choices much easier to make.

The demands, however, were rather more serious. In our last installment we considered the worship of the early Christians. They didn’t have all the elaborate programming and staging that worship services seem to require these days. Just show up and participate. But they worshiped longer, more often, and with a level of involvement that it is easy to avoid in a large sanctuary nicely arranged in pews or chairs, where a worship band is the only noise you can hear. Worship was an activity to work at in the early church, both in the larger setting of the “community church” and in the house church contexts in which followers of The Way also tended to gather. They also worshiped throughout the day, observing “hours of prayer” that today are kept only by the really spiritual types. If we could get back to the deeper and more constant worship of our first forebears, we might not need so much else going on in our churches to make us feel like we really know the Lord.

A second feature of Christianity before it became Christianity—while it was still The Way—was the strong emphasis on learning and devotion. The followers of The Way didn’t have the plethora of Bibles, study guides, and other study resources that we do; but they were, if anything, more earnest about their devotion to the Word and their determination to live for Christ in every area of life.

DEVOTION TO THE WORD
The first Christians were hungry for the Word of God. They understood the cry of Jeremiah, “Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and Thy Word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart . . .” (Jeremiah 15:16). Luke tells us that the earliest Christians “devoted themselves” to the teaching of the apostles. This seems to have had two aspects. First, they were devoted enough to come out for their teaching. When the apostles were there to open the Word of God, the people of The Way showed up to hear them. We read of one occasion in which the people were willing to stay up all night, just to make sure they didn’t miss anything Paul had to say (Acts 20:1-12).

But beyond that, they seem to have taken the Word to heart, allowing it to become a powerful shaping element in their souls. This is especially evident from two situations.

In Acts 6 the church in Jerusalem faced a crisis that threatened to split it every way from Sunday, and, thus, to bring to discredit all the high-sounding promises of living in the love of God. But rather than give in to the temptation to break apart, the believers, in what can only be described as a mature response of faith, solved their problem amicably and justly, without rancor or division. The Gospel continued to grow because of the love they showed one another, and even a large number of their primary detractors began to believe, undoubtedly because they saw in the lives of those people the truth of what they had been proclaiming.

In Acts 8, when persecution broke out, the believers knew they could not go back on what they had embraced, so they fled, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom everywhere they went. Their lives were so inextricably engaged with the Good News of Jesus that they preferred to leave homes and familiar surroundings if it meant they could continue to make Him known. How unlike our own day, when even a hint of disapproval on the part of a neighbor or co-worker is enough to silence most Christians’ witness for the Lord.

The first Christians were subjected to the teaching of “all the counsel of God” in those early days (Acts 20:27). Their hunger for God’s Word could not be satisfied with a weekly sermon. If they’d had personal copies of the Scriptures, you can be sure they would have been in them—reading, meditating, pondering, studying—much more than most believers today. They took the apostles seriously when they declared the Scriptures to be the inspired Word of God; thus they hungrily fed from them often, and deeply, in life-changing ways. Today fewer than half of those who claim to be “born again” believe in absolute truth, which, translated into their view of the Bible, helps to explain why ignorance of the Scriptures and indifference toward a personal devotional life are so widespread among the followers of Christ.

DEVOTION TO HOLINESS
The faithful hearing and diligent study of God’s Word which characterized the people of The Way was not a mere intellectual exercise. They did not consider that they had learned anything just because they knew the content of it. Their commitment was to becoming holy, to growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, and to being equipped for ministry to build the Church of the Lord (2 Corinthians 7:1; 2 Peter 3:18; Ephesians 4:11-16).

The apostles called their charges to lives of good works and faithful witness, and, by all accounts, the people of God responded. They lived like lights in the world and spoke of the truth of the Gospel with such conviction that the Word of Christ spread rapidly throughout the Roman world and beyond. They sacrificially supported mission endeavors and wandering evangelists, giving freely of their means—and beyond their means—to pass on the light that had infused their souls.

Like the believers in Corinth, Christians throughout the early Church practiced church discipline in order to improve holiness within their own ranks and encourage it on the part of all who considered joining them. They accepted persecution, and persevered through it; were diligent and faithful in prayer and in sharing their resources with other communities; and in persevered in showing good works to people from every walk of life. As followers of Jesus they believed they needed to follow in the example of His works, living in obedience to God’s Law (1 John 2:1-6) and exercising gifts of the Spirit in ministry to one another.

As a community of true disciples, the people of The Way were avid learners, devoted to holiness and mission, and growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Their leaders chided them when they failed in this high and holy calling (1 Corinthians 3:1-4; Hebrews 5:11-14), and they stood ready to teach, exhort, instruct, and equip them for every good work, by every means, and in every season. Today, for all our frenzy of Christian educational activity, we have precious little fruit to show for it in the way of truly transformed lives. The most “Christian educated” generation of believers in all of Church history, we are nonetheless failing to enlighten, leaven, and preserve from decay the society of which we are a part.

We should consider returning to a simpler time, when the only programs consisted of pastors and teachers, serving as shepherds, to equip God’s people for works of ministry, teaching and holding them accountable for growing in grace and living sacrificial and holy lives for the Lord. This is The Way the first believers turned their world upside-down for Christ, and it is The Way today’s Christians must do so as well.

T. M. Moore is dean of the BreakPoint Centurions Program and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. Sign up at his website to receive his daily email devotional Crosfigell, reflections on Scripture and the Celtic Christian tradition, or sign up at WilberforceProject.com to receive his daily study, ViewPoint, studies in Christian worldview living.. T. M. and his wife and editor, Susie, make their home in Hamilton, Va.