14”But this I admit to you, that according to the Way which they call a sect I do serve the God of our fathers, believing everything that is in accordance with the Law and that is written in the Prophets; 15having a hope in God, which these men cherish themselves, that there shall certainly be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked. 16In view of this, I also do my best to maintain always a blameless conscience both before God and before men.”
“The Way” and its similar forms came to be a phrase Luke favored in referring to the Christian movement. It may be rooted in the words of Jesus, who said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6). The followers of Jesus and the teachings of the apostles (Acts 2:42) were those whom Saul (known later as Paul the apostle) first persecuted (Acts 9:2); the wording there suggests the phrase was commonly used for the Christian movement. While the followers of “the Way” were Jews, they were considered an errant “sect,” a minor group not fully accepted by the Jews as a whole. Paul later identified Apollos in Ephesus as being “instructed in the way of the Lord.” Although Apollos initially was not fully versed in all the truth, what he knew from the teaching of John the Baptist resonated with him, and he obeyed that which he knew. So he was in line with “the way of the Lord” (Acts 18:24–26). So also, Paul, in his defense before Felix and the Jewish leaders, referred to the Christian movement simply as “the Way.”
We continue in this heritage as followers of Jesus Christ. The terminology may change, but the focus remains the same. We believe everything in the Bible, OT and NT. Our understanding of the OT is conditioned and informed by the writings of the NT, but that does not undermine the OT. Rather, it gives the Jesus-focused interpretation, which according to Paul, is “the Way of the Lord.” This understanding of the Scriptures gives genuine and substantive hope, not just for the nation, but also for the individual. Paul emphasized in his defense that he and his fellow believers in Christ cherished all of God’s Word, and they firmly believed in the resurrection of the dead—all will be raised.
Because of these unshakeable beliefs, Paul strove for a blameless conscience—to be above reproach, as he instructed church leaders (1 Tim. 3:2), so that no one could lay a charge against him. But he went further than simply being blameless before men: he asserted that he had a higher judge of his heart, and that is God Himself. While today, people might make such an assertion as a debate point or a discussion stopper, in Paul’s day one did not say such a thing lightly. He was absolutely calling God as His witness.
Lord, because of the great hope I have in Christ, I desire, like Paul, to live blamelessly before You and before all people.
0 Comments