The disciples in the early Christian Church were known as people of the way. They followed the way of the Christ. A pathway that adhered to a standard of integrity and morality based on Scripture and the teaching of Jesus Christ. It was also a path that was leading them toward a specific destination and gave them an identity that gave them a window into the transcendent reality of God. The evidence of this deep faith connection is found in the witness of their lives, in the way they lived and died. The Greek word for witness has survived in our language still serving as a testimony of these early Christians, the word is martyr.

Walking this pathway was difficult and took discipline. Finding our path as Jesus’ disciples in our world today is not necessarily easy either. How do we find our pathway? What are the characteristics of a Christian community, of a people of God? What is our direction, the purpose that fills our hearts and minds with faith and hope that motivates us and gives us the strength to persevere?

The early church was not all composed of theological or spiritual giants; in fact it is people with a simple strong faith throughout the ages that have been most willing to serve God with true humility, most willing to follow where God leads.

Like most deep things there is an inherent simplicity to the way. It starts with just two simple things Jesus asked of us. One of my teachers stated it this way; The Great Commission and the Great Commandment make a Great Church.

In Matthew 22 Jesus meets with a Lawyer who questions him, "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" He said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." This Great Commandment is at the very center of our faith. It defines both our identity and the way we relate to others. We are a people who are loved by God and love God in return; this is our identity, what makes us a people of God. This loving relationship defines our relationship with everyone, to love them even as God loves us. It is this love that is our moral center and forms the borders of the pathway we walk as Christians.

If the Great Commandment defines the order of our pathway, the great commission gives us purpose and direction. After Jesus ascended into heaven the disciples were left adrift. They had one another, and their relationships with God but that could have formed a set of relationships, a people of God that was introspective and did not reach out to others, inviting them into the family of God as well. God has called us to be an open and grace filled community inviting others into the same loving relationship with God that each of us has discovered in Jesus Christ. This is the true meaning of the Great Commission. As the disciple gathered aimless, without purpose on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:18-20).

These two things seem so simple. We need to love God and love one another with this as a border our pathway has depth and meaning that is truly beyond ourselves. And if we add the purpose of helping god gather together the lost sheep, the wandering children of the family of God the path the early Christians, the people of the way walked stretches before us. It is simple but it gives the kind of depth and meaning to our lives that only God can give, for it is God’s way.

Pastor Jim Bliss
July August 2008