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Much has been written over the years about “restoring the New Testament Church”.  Much has been preached on that subject and many battles have been fought over the “right way” to accomplish that goal. There is no doubt that the church has drifted from her moorings over the two thousand years which span the current time and that of Jesus the Christ and His Apostles. In MY mind, the important question to ask is not “how many songs were interspersed with the sermon and Communion” or whether or not they used instruments to accompany their singing, but rather the question should be “What did the Church DO that made her the church?”  To many the answer to that question is sought in the area of “praise and worship” or “religious ceremony”. In fact, the Roman Church and the Greek Church (both of which claim to be “catholic”) are VERY big into pomp and circumstance and doing everything “just so”.  Many of the so called “Protestant” churches are also big into liturgy and traditions that post date the first century of the Church’s existence by many centuries. But my question is, “What made the Church the Church?” or “What caused Roman governors to hesitate at destroying their ‘best citizens’?”

To my way of thinking, it’s not about “the right form of religious ceremony” but about “the right way of living”.  Jesus the Christ was known as The Way.  Before Antioch the early disciples were simply known as “disciples of Jesus of Nazareth” or “followers of The Way” or something similar.  In Antioch the disciples were first called christians, probably as a deprecatory epithet.  Note the form, “were first called”, they did not call themselves such at first but rather were called by that name by those around them.  This epithet soon became their badge of identity and was worn proudly because it expressed the essence of their being – “christian” = “little christ”.  In modern times we see much of the same thing happening.  Barrack Obama referred to his opponents in Pensylvania  during the 2008 presidential race as people who “cling bitterly to their guns and their religion”.  Blogs and forums soon sprouted people proudly claiming to be “bitter clingers”. In much the same way, the early followers of The Way soon adopted the epithet “christians” as a badge of identity.  After all, they were being taught to “put off that which is worldly” and to “put on Christ” so to be identified by that which they were putting on was only natural.

The key to understanding The Way – the church of the New Testament – is to come to an understanding of the message preached by Jesus and His Apostles.  He came down hard on the most religious folks around – because they were so focused on religion that they could not focus on the changed life that God was seeking from them.  As Del Tackett puts it, “Just memorizing Bible verses won’t hack it. We must learn how to penetrate the heart.” And that is what Jesus’ teaching did – it sought to transform His hearers by penetrating into their hearts and minds to effect a change in behavior due to the change in attitude brought about by a complete surrender to God’s way of thinking.  We will continue to mull this subject in future posts.