All for one, and one for all
And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.
Acts 2:44-45
Churches of God are made up of people from all circumstances of life, and whether by religious persecution or other sources of hardship, there will always be those who are in a time of need. The calling we have is to support each other in ‘all things’ as our loving service to one another. Each person added in fellowship supports the Fellowship, and the Fellowship distributes aid to individuals in need (see 2 Corinthians 8:16-9:5). Different funds can be administered globally or locally, depending on the need.
When individuals’ needs arose, the Christians in Acts were willing to sell the things they had to meet those needs. In Corinth, time was dedicated to a weekly collection for famine relief in Jerusalem (1 Cor. 16:1-3), so that a large amount could be sent when Paul travelled through Corinth. In both reactionary and goal-oriented giving, we should consider our possessions not our own, but part of the ‘all things’ which we have promised to share with our brothers and sisters. Following these examples does not come naturally!
What else do we share?
We might have time, care, physical strength, and other skills and gifts which we can consider part of the ‘all’ which we give to our local church of God.
We do not need to limit ‘all things’ to money, especially if we are people with few possessions or no regular income. We might have time, care, physical strength, and other skills and gifts which we can consider part of the ‘all’ which we give to our local church of God. This is something we can always re-examine to see if we are keeping to the description of being ‘a living sacrifice’, written in Romans 12:3-13.
And finally, the challenge comes in verse 2, just before that: ‘Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.’ There are many values that are impressed upon us by the societies in which we live, and most of them are against the will of God. It can be hard to feel what is right when deep-rooted values do not agree with what we are taught from the Bible: this verse instructs us to give away those values and surrender ourselves to God’s will, experiencing a renewed mind. Then our sacrificed life can be pleasing to God.
Based in the Church of God in Kirkintilloch, Michael works as a software engineer, so spends an awful lot of time on a computer. This makes being an editor of Beroean.com a much easier task (although he still manages to fit in reading about all sorts of history in his spare time).
