Affection with feet

Something has happened, and because it has happened, everything is different.

—N. T. Wright

Is another discussion on "what it means to be Christian" truly necessary?

Absolutely!

We must recognize that, regardless of our tradition or have embraced faith in Jesus as adults, confessing him as Savior, or were raised in a Christian household, we frequently fall into one of two oversimplifications:

• Christianity-as-creed – “Get your doctrine right and you’re safe.”

• Christianity-as-cause – “Do the right things and you’re faithful.”

Both contain truth; neither is the whole truth. When belief is detached from practice, it curdles into sterile orthodoxy. When action is severed from worship, it decays into anxious activism or moralism. Faith that is “doctrine without feet,” or feet that march without fire in the heart, finally fractures the church and confuses the world.

There is a a third way: Christianity-as-devotion because God has made "him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified" Acts 2:36.

And Luke gives us snapshot of this third way in Acts 2:42-47.

And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Devotion begins not with our promise to do better, but with the news that God in Christ has already turned the world right-side up and He invites us to be a part of this right-side-up world now.

That’s news—it has already happened. We don’t vote on it; we announce it; we learn to live in it.

Many Christians today live as if the world has stayed mostly the same, even after Jesus' resurrection. They believe that aside from the possibility of a form of present spirituality and an eventual disembodied eternity, nothing significant has altered with Jesus. They have forgotten that the resurrection of Jesus changed everything, and we are called to live in this new reality, as the first Christians did, now.

When the crowd asked, “What shall we do?” (Acts 2:37), they were asking how to live inside this new resurrection-shaped reality. Until the resurrection is received as news—something that has rearranged all of reality—our "discipleship" will remain a polite elective.

Because God has taken charge of this world in a new way Christianity flourishes—or flounders—at the intersection of news and devotion.

In John 13, Jesus offers us a profound commandment: to love one another. While this may not seem new to those familiar with the scriptures, it carries a depth that may have left the disciples in the upper room feeling bewildered. Imagine, if you will, the scene: Jesus, having washed their feet—a gesture that would have left them both humbled and confused—says, "A new commandment I give you." This was not merely an instruction but a call to a deeper understanding of love, rooted in His own life.

The Nature of Holiness and Love

When we hear the call to be holy (Leviticus 21:8; Exodus 19:6; Matt 5:48; or 1 Peter 1:15-16), we often equate it with a list of moral do's and don'ts. Yet, consider how Jesus redefines holiness—not merely as moral living, but as love in action.

Holiness, biblically speaking, is love at work.

God is holy, and His holiness is manifested through His self-giving love. Thus, when Jesus commands us to love one another as He has loved us, He invites us to embody that love in our interactions. Holiness is no longer measured by keeping your distance from dirt but by your willingness to stoop into someone else’s, in love. Is it any wonder that the apostle Paul penned these marvelous words in 1 Corinthians 13?

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Devotion for the early Christians, friends, meant affection with feet.

It is not enough to feel love in our hearts; we must express it through our actions. As we reflect on our lives, let us ask ourselves: How do we demonstrate our devotion? It is through our actions that the world will recognize us as His disciples.

The Call to Community

Discipleship demands devotion to Jesus be demonstrated and in Acts, we see a vivid picture of what it means to be devoted to one another.

The early believers reordered their lives around togetherness. They broke bread, prayed, and supported one another in both joy and need. They leaned into what Jesus was doing. They stepped into His Story, allowing Scripture to re-map their imaginations. They turned their dining table into an altar where everyone had a place. They shared life, making “mine" “ours” whenever lack appeared; and they prayed together, laying each day’s headlines before God long before they bothered to tweet about them! This collective devotion is what drew others to Christ.

The devotion of the early Church is not just a historical account; it is a powerful call to action for us today.

In declaring that the son of man didn't come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28, Mark 10:45, John 13:1-17), Jesus was not saying that power was irrelevant, or that the only thing that mattered was what would happen to you after you died. Instead, he emphasized that the kingdom would be realized through the all-conquering power of self-giving love.

The early church offers us a powerful reminder that our faith is not meant to be lived in isolation but in community, it is not to be lived as if the only thing that matters is going to heaven, but to to devote ourselves to life in Jesus' kingdom on earth, as it is in heaven.

The road the followers of “the Way,” walked was neither creed alone nor cause alone; it was unreserved devotion to a risen King who had already turned the world right-side up.

The early church didn’t merely believe; they belonged to each other, shared life, broke bread, and bore burdens. Holiness wasn’t just about avoiding sin but loving deeply, like Jesus—stooping low, serving freely. God’s love didn’t stay in heaven; it walked among us. So must ours. True devotion isn't just feeling love for Jesus––its affection with feet.