Everything in Common

“All the believers were together and had everything in common.” Acts 2:44

When we read about the early Church in the book of Acts, it’s hard to imagine a community where all believers are together, sharing everything in common. Our entire society is built on a giant rulebook of separation. We live in separate homes (or even apart-ments) and drive separate cars to separate buildings. We work in walled-off offices or cubicles. Our homes are grouped compartments call rooms. Our clothes are separated by closets and drawers. Dishes in cupboards and shelves. Food in separate Tupperware containers. Each and every life, really, is a series of man-made barriers, which must be crossed.

Contrary to what we're used to, the life of the early church was one-room homes, families all together. Those who came to Jesus in those first days after the resurrection were kicked out of the Jewish order. They had to band together. Many lost their families, their livelihoods. In order to survive they came together. But it was more than that. It was an understanding that if Jesus is who He says He is, then these possessions we have in life really don’t matter very much. The only thing that really does is the relationships we build and those we lead toward Christ who will join Him and us in heaven.

In a materialistic society like ours, having everything in common is a foreign concept. We’ll call it radical socialism and avoid it entirely. Give something to the poor, certainly, but all believers together with everything in common? Really? But what if that is exactly the life we were meant to live? Are there ways we can serve one another with our possessions that will help us know God more and live for Him more fully? What would happen if, like the early Church, we pooled our resources and lived as if nothing mattered here, but it was all for the hereafter?

God, help me to have the right attitude about my possessions. When I look at my home, my car, my job, my savings, show me how I can best use these resources for Your glory. Let me be mindful of the needs of other Christians, those in my church and community who have needs that I can help meet. Like the early Church, help me to live with the mindset that what I gather and have here on earth is really for use in ministry, and my true investment is in the heaven to come. In Jesus’ name, Amen