And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them. And with great power the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all. For there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales and lay them at the apostles' feet, and they would be distributed to each as any had need. (Acts 4:32-35 NASB)
I was going to just include verse 32, but then 33 and 34 jumped out and mugged me, crushing my props keeping my self-centered me-focused paradigm facade in place. Stupid thing collapsed all around me. Not only was my paradigm not fit Scripture, the supports for it were inadvertently keeping my Master's great power through my testimony and great amounts of grace away on purpose. Yes, inadvertently on purpose; in other words, my props were preventing my Master's work in my life by design even though I didn't design them to do that. I had designed them to support a point of view that took more ownership of the things my Master has let me borrow. I didn't realize they would also prevent Him working in my life in great ways.
Think of things around you. I have lots of "stuff" around me. So much has accumulated over the years, and in my house, remains in boxes. Regardless of how long the stuff around you took to accumulate, it may fall into the category which most of mine falls into, rarely if ever used. To be fair, some of it is seasonal. The space heater I can see in front of me is not something I'm likely to use in 100 degree heat of desert summers. But some of it I haven't seen since we moved here. That means it's already been unused through a winter, and therefore, isn't seasonal.
One claim has been that this view of ownership in verse 32 is "socialism" which it isn't, clearly. The telltale indicator is that "...not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own,..." So, this view of "stuff" was voluntary, not legislated. It does have one element in common with socialism though. It was a choice that was obedient to the Spirit of God. In other words, like in Chapter 2, here this description closely follows the congregation being "filled with the Holy Spirit". I believe that, from this and from the next chapter, this view of "stuff" was actually driven by the Holy Spirit, not just a human familial good will. So, in the sense that it was inspired it is like socialism, but in the sense it is voluntary it is not. This is also the reason I don't see it as an economic system, but rather as a character quality of this group.
Now before I run out and reshape my entire life around owning nothing, I must also note that I don't see this community view in every congregation. The ones in Samaria and Syria which come later aren't described this way. Some of the ones started by Paul in Anatolia and Europe have to be goaded into giving to support others (Corinth for instance). So I'm not so sure this is a universal rule inspired by the Holy Spirit. But I'm still not comfortable because the quality of a heart where this becomes possible I believe is a universal.
It isn't hard to find examples where Paul draws on this concept in his ministry methods. Nor is it difficult to see this quality in some of his letters, even his admonition to his fellow leaders. But I also believe it shows up in threads in 1 Peter, and 1 John. This quality that holds the things of this world so lightly as to consider them available to all believers is a testimony of my "alien-ship" here in this universe. If I truly believe I have a dwelling somewhere else eternally with my Master why is my stuff here so important? That's where this paradigm would testify so strongly of my faith, and where I would open myself up to my Master's grace and power. As long as I hold on to this failed part of my paradigm and its limiting props, I hold myself back from my Master.
It's time to disassemble. I need this paradigm space for something else, something that views the stuff around me as stuff, not as my stuff. It views my stuff as the stuff reserved by my Master for me in heaven. So, it looks for and after my stuff, it just locates it somewhere else. I'm thinking a yard sale is definitely in my future.
No comments:
Post a Comment