Followers of The Way (Acts 9:2)

Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. (Acts 9:1-2)

Luke, the writer of Acts, tells us in chapter 11 of his book that the followers of Jesus were first called "Christians" in Antioch at some point after the movement began. Not long after this, the movement itself became known as "Christianity."

But before there was Christianity, there was the Way. And before there were Christians, there were followers of the Way.

This reference in Acts 9 is Luke's first mention of the term "the Way" in his book, and it would be used several more times before the book's close.

Eventually the name the Way seems to have given way to Christianity as the dominant moniker used to identify the Jesus movement.

But beyond its historical significance, I believe there is a theological takeaway we can gather from the fact that the first followers of Jesus were called followers of the Way.

What is a way?

It is not something you primarily study, discuss, or even believe in, but rather something you walk.

It is something you do and something that takes you somewhere.

You cannot truly know a particular pathway through a forest unless you walk it. And you cannot know it well unless you walk it repeatedly.

The first Christians did not see Christianity primarily as a doctrine, a teaching, or a belief system, but as a way of being. They saw it as a radically new way of existing in this world.

They could tell who else was following this Way, not mainly by what they spoke with their mouths, but by how they lived their lives.

The early church took seriously the repeated commands of Jesus to follow Him.

Now, yes we believe in Him. Yes we worship Him. Yes we love Him.

But what do these things look like? They aren't merely abstract ideas. They are incarnational realities.

We express our faith in Him by obeying His commands. We worship Him by denying ourselves, picking up our cross, and following after Him. We love Him by desiring nothing more than to be in such close union with Him that we begin to resemble His likeness.

The disciples were not scholars. They did not have extraordinary IQs. They were average people whose lives were forever changed simply by devoting themselves entirely to those words: "Follow Me."

Jesus said to him,

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 14:6