“Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.” – Acts 4.32-35 ESV
In the midst of the world we live in, we are all looking for some sort of place of connection. Whether we realize it or not, we center our lives around connecting. We believe if we can find the right people, then we will be able to create an environment in which we will thrive beyond our wildest imagination. Just consider this: We join gyms & athletic leagues, pledge fraternity/sorority, attend church, frequent book clubs, sculpt our Facebook pages. We just want a place to belong. However, we rarely think that these things will work out. We quit the gym, pull our hamstring, graduate college, church hop - all because we rarely believe that community is a reality. It is just some idealistic human goal.
We might try to find some sort of assistance in Scripture to discover community and we get descriptions such as Acts 2.42-47, where this glorious community is founded upon the teaching of Christ and is roofed by the coming of the Holy Spirit. Did I mention that everyone shared in everything? That community is the “ideal” house we want, where “your stuff” that I covet becomes mine through the miracle of Christian generosity. But in the end, perhaps we are still reticent to believe this is really possible? Was it only possible for them and not us? And yet, this idealistic picture is in our Bible, causing us to wonder….
In Acts 4.32-35, we hear an echo of Acts 2.42-47, where “all the believers” were: unified in heart and mind, sharing everything, testifying of Jesus’ resurrection, God’s grace upon them, and no one was needy in any way. I easily tend to write off this passage as I did with Acts 2, however, I found something that encouraged me greatly within it. There was a different point of centricity for this community that I failed to realize before. Verse 33 highlighted that this community found its core in Christ and his ability to connect lives, not our attempts to formulate life together.
One can find many cultural insights here, whether the writer of Acts is highlighting the Greek ideal of friendship where friends are “one soul dwelling in two bodies” (Aristotle). Or perhaps the Hebrew ideal of how true shalom (fullness) is occurring due to obedience to God, there would be none in need (Deut. 15.4f). But as I read this passage, the transcendent idea is the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, as it says, “With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all” (v.33). That power makes the impossible possible!
I know that we live in a world that seems to be full of negativity and criticism, often thwarting things we see in Scripture as rosy religious idealism. But what I see in this passage is that community “is not an ideal which we must realize; it is rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 30). Skepticism melts in the face of the apostles’ life of generous, gracious living created not by our ability to hold people together but by the gospel of Christ alone. When we face an ideal in Scripture that seems unattainable, begin to testify of Jesus Christ and watch how grace via His Spirit will take an ideal and create a reality. “For by Him, all things were created…and in Him all things hold together” (Col.1.15-17).
Submitted by Jason Peaks, M.Div. student, School of Divinity.
0 comments:
Post a Comment