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The Believers Share
their Possessions

Acts 4:32-35

Good News Translation (GNT)

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32  The group of believers was one in mind and
   heart. None of them said that any of their
   belongings were their own, but they all shared
   with one another everything they had.
33  With great power the apostles gave witness to
   the resurrection of the Lord Jesus,
   and God poured rich blessings on them all.
34  There was no one in the group who was in
   need. Those who owned fields or houses
   would sell them, bring the money received
   from the sale,
35  and turn it over to the apostles; and the
   money was distributed according to the needs
   of the people.

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Taken from 'word-on-the-web' supplied by the
Scripture Union

The Believers Share their Possessions

    Acts Chapter 4:32-35

This passage demonstrates that when Christians are filled with the Holy Spirit several things happen, including material possessions, money, houses and property lose their grip on their owners.

This powerful experience emerged from a deep sense of togetherness and dependence on God. It's important to get the order right. We're not filled with the Spirit because we do these things; we do these things because we're filled with the Spirit.

In much of the so-called developed world, where the ideology of possessing has driven people apart, we may find Luke's description of the first Christian community hard to understand - and we may be relieved when commentators tell us that it would be wrong to take this passage too literally!

However, the challenge presented by this apostolic sharing of goods cannot be dismissed when we know that across the southern hemisphere today, in the shanties, favellas and slums of the major cities, millions of our poor brothers and sisters are reproducing the kingdom-life first seen in Jerusalem.

The logic is obvious in Acts 4.
The believers belonged together, with a shared spirit and purpose. United through the gospel of Christ and bound together by the Spirit, they were now the new covenant community, God's own family living by God's standards.

So the selfish tendencies of hoarding possessions and property for exclusively personal use were replaced by an atmosphere of mutual concern and shared purpose, where generosity flourished.

For sure, the personal ownership of property continued, since they met in one another's homes, yet today's passage demonstrates that possessions were easily surrendered if circumstances required it.

These things are written to be an example for us today, so that our churches also might be like that first church in Jerusalem. If our church today is not like that first church, then we need to pray urgently that it will soon become so.

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