“Obey all that I have commanded you.”
“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, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” ~Jesus of Nazareth, to his disciples, as recorded by the disciple Matthew. (Matthew 28:19-20 ESV) [emphasis mine]
Most other translations say “Teach them to obey all that I have commanded”. But this isn’t a post about translation.
At our bible study tonight, while covering Acts 13 & 14, which talks a lot about early church planting efforts of the Christians shortly after Christ’s death, one brother asked a question for the sake of the discussion:
“But what did the early church DO? They didn’t have a bible… …they didn’t just sit around all day thinking about a great message they heard one night.”
Darn straight they didn’t. And the fact is while they didn’t have a bible, they had Peter, John, Paul, and James (at least through chapter 12…). So, they didn’t have the Bible, but they had the folks who wrote it, teaching them directly. And what were they teaching? I think it is reasonable to suspect they taught what Christ commanded right before he took off for heaven: to obey all that Christ commanded.
There seems to be a general disconnect in our thought processes here however, because when we think of this concept, I have a feeling we generally read it like this:
“Teaching everyone… …what I have commanded”, or “Teaching everyone to know what I have commanded.”
But in fact he commands us to teach everyone to “OBEY what I have commanded you…”
A recursive command. The programmer in me squeals with glee.
Here’s what hit me though:
Christ didn’t command concepts.
He commanded a way of life.
He commanded a way of thinking. He commanded a way of FEELING.
He commanded a way of looking at the world.
He commanded a way of seeing our problems.
He commanded a way of talking.
He commanded a way of thinking about our friends.
He commanded a way of thinking about our enemies.
He commanded a way of ACTING towards our friends.
He commanded a way of ACTING towards our enemies.
He commanded a way of looking at stuff.
He commanded a way of loving God.
Perhaps that is why early Christianity wasn’t called Christianity at all. It was called The Way.
Sorry this post is humoungous.
Right on!
:-)
Great stuff Matt. We’re studying the first century church this summer ourselves. Check out my blog where I have been posting our discussions. And I have been reading Acts 13 adn 14 myself the past couple days as part of our one-year Bible plan. Lots of persecution in those chapters and those guys were into it, man.
They did have a Bible. The Old Testament. Look at Acts 1:3. Jesus spent 40 days showing the disciples out of the Old Testament how Scripture had been fulfilled through him. Imagine that 40-day conference. Every day getting off work and running over to the Upper Room to hear what the risen Jesus was going to talk about that night. I don’t know if that’s exactly how it happened but it must have been one awesome extended “conference.” And then the apostles were passing on what they had learned from the Lord.
As far as The Way, I found one Greek word that sums it up. The word is “allelon,” which means “one another.” There are more than 90 “one anothers” in the New Testament. You know, love one another, be humble toward one another, admonish one another, and so on. Of course, Jesus is The Way and becoming more allelon-ized helps us stay in the way.
I catalogued the allelons on my blog. We’re going to study the allelons in more depth in our group the rest of the summer.
Sorry for the long reply but this is very interesting.
Nice blog. It’s the heritage of the Great Commission Churches to focus on obedience more than knowledge. Though, of course, proper obedience requires an accurate understanding of the text. It’s a matter of emphasis.
Hey Matt. I’m going to use some of your thoughts tonight when we get together to talk about applying what we’re learning about the 1st century church. We’re going to focus on applying those “allelons.”
Hope you don’t mind.
david bosch in his book, Transforming mission referrs to this idea and makes a good arguement that this idea, “Teach them to obey all that I have commanded” is rooted in the Sermon on the Mount. That there, jesus teaches us how we need to live as members of his kingdom and followers of him. the problem lies in that we have misinterpreted this passage for so long. anyways, he deos a great job of arguing this so i will leave it to him. if you are interested, get the book or take it out from a library or something.
Dan - Allelon is a beautiful word :) We should use it more often.
Todd - I’m definitely interested in reading that book. We’ve been misinterpreting that passage how?