Followers of the Way

Do you know what people used to call Christians before they started calling us Christians? We were called followers of the way. This is because we followed the way of Jesus. As a matter of fact, the reason we were called Christians was because we acted like little Christs. To the world, christians displayed the character of the one we followed.

Sometimes I think that as Christians today we put a lot of emphasis on theology. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a theology guy. I’m a bible reading, pie in the sky thinking, deep knowledge seeking Christian. I believe this is because knowing scripture, understanding the concepts, and comprehending the doctrines help me to know God and his character better which hopefully informs how I actually live my life. But that’s the point.

We need to live out this life. What’s gotten me thinking about this is my time spent going through the book of 2 Peter. 2 Peter is about a faction creeping in and saying we as Christians can act any way that we want. Peter disagrees and explains that when acting this way we blaspheme or put to open shame the way. He says this because essentially to be a christian is to follow Christ. And if we bare his name we are shaming that name to the world. He even says that those who live this way, their destruction has long been set. This means that if we as Christians are not walking in the way of Christ then we are not Christians.

Again, I do not want to belittle the need for correct theology. Theology is important. When we read further in 2 Peter we see that either a) the reason for their behavior (living unethically, immoral, and sexual impure lives) is because of their theology or b) because of their behavior (they are creating ways theologically to justify their behavior) they are spreading improper theology. And in spreading this hetrodoxy (false teaching) they drag others to damnation as well.

I want to exhort you to live out the life God has called us to. Read the scriptures and find out how Jesus lived. See how he walked the earth. Then, live that way. That’s what I want to do. In this way we won’t shame the name and we will truly be called Christians (little Christs) because we will actually be following the way.