He stops me in the hallway at work–my former teacher, now a colleague. He’s been studying Greek because, he says, teachers should always remember how hard it is to learn something difficult.
“Where in the Bible does Jesus say, “I am the way, the truth, and the life”?
“John 14, I think.”
He is especially interested in the word way, not sure if the English translation comes from
But Jesus does not use
Like
Jesus is not a means of inquiry. He is the way to God. And He gives direction for our lives.
They stood out among the crowd. Some didn’t like that.
My colleague also wondered about the root of the word Methodism. Methodism’s founder John Wesley was well versed in Greek. Had Wesley intended to associate his view of the Christian life with methodos–a way of inquiry?
We were both surprised by what he discovered.
The name Methodism came in derision–just as the name Christian had in the early Church. John and Charles Wesley’s fellow students at Oxford called them Methodists because they were methodical in their spiritual discipline and their ministry efforts.
They stood out among the crowd.
John Wesley once said, “Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.”
Wesley knew that to follow the Way was not the easy way
.
Wesley, like Luther before him, did not set out to establish a new church. Luther wanted to reform Catholicism. Wesley wanted to reform the Church of England. In fact, Methodism did not even become its own denomination until it arrived in America.
In England and America, Methodism planted churches and encouraged moral living, literacy, and philanthropy. Wesley encouraged William Wilberforce in the fight against slavery. Wesley advocated prison reform. He urged Christians not to simply collect and send goods to relieve the misery of the poor, but to go to the poor individually, each Christian engaging in personal ministry.
When He walked this earth, Jesus invited people to follow him. Wesley didn’t invite people to follow Methodism. He invited people to follow Christ.
Strong’s Concordance renders truth (
The Way, Truth, and Life invites us to a path that leads to reality for eternity.
And there is no other hodos.
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