Jesus calls us to "Come, follow me" (Mark 4:19), because Jesus is "the Way, and the Truth, and the Life" (John 14:6). The earliest disciples of Jesus identified themselves as followers of "The Way," 1, that is both a journey and a path of "love" that you follow. The word "love," used throughout the New Testament, is a translation of the Greek term agapē, which meaning comes closest to identifying the unconditional, self-giving, limitless, and overflowing fullness of Divine love. For example, the word agapē is translated as love in such passages as "For God so loved the world..." (John 3:16); or Jesus's teaching of the two greatest commandments: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind" and "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:37-39); and Jesus' "new commandment" to his disciples to "Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another" (Jn 13:34). "Love" became a defining factor of the early Christian communities. As Tertullian expressed in describing how others viewed Christian communities, “See… how they love one another” (The Apology, Ch. 39).
Christ calls us to be a community who seeks to love as God loves us, not limited to just one another, but also to those we may even consider to be our “enemy.” Being and gathering in and through love should be the essence of any community that claims to be followers of Jesus. Through God’s grace, we can allow God’s "Way” of love, justice, peace, healing, compassion, and salvation to be shared through us and experienced by others in our spheres of influence. As St. Augustine taught, “Love and do what you will.”
1 "The Way" is translated from the Greek hodos, meaning a journey, a way or manner of thinking, feeling, deciding; see Acts 9:1-2 and note; 18:26; 19:9, 23; 22:4; 24:14, 22.