v 44. And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had.
The first Christian believers in Jerusalem, immediately after Pentecost, were so struck by God’s generosity that they responded by sharing what they had with those around them. Nowhere in Peter’s sermon recorded in Acts 2 does he urge them, or even encourage them to respond in this fashion. The realisation of the extent of God’s generous grace to them simply opened their lives up to become generous in their relationships with fellow believers.
I have written before – and feel I have to keep reminding myself and others – that we live in a culture that stresses individualism. That includes the insidious idea that we personally own what we possess. Far from it; we are only stewards of what God has allowed to come our way.
Just pause for a moment to consider all the things that we say are ours.
My Bank accounts.
My home, and my garden.
My time, and what we fondly label as my personal space.
My doctor, my social worker, my mechanic at the garage, my … How easily that little word creeps in as if we are claiming some personal possession.
Jesus let go of everything for our sakes and invites us into a kind of partnership of letting everything go – learning to share in the way these early believers did in Jerusalem. It is a radically new lifestyle.
What might God be inviting you to share with others in need?