All the believers were together and had everything in common. (Acts 2:44)
Expanded Passage: Acts 2:44-47
A child’s first words are innocent reflections of the world that surrounds them. Mama. Dada. Ball. Binky. As the child’s vocabulary grows, more complex words and phrases emerge. It can be astounding how quickly children learn the power of the possessive pronoun: My mama. My dada. My ball. My binky. The power of the possessive pronoun grows stronger as we get older. We find it difficult to share our hard-earned resources, especially as those resources grow in size.
The church, as described in Acts 2, offers a powerful remedy for this possessive spirit that can easily poison our hearts and communities: shared life together. The church is the remedy. The church in Acts 2 is a community of believers made up of people from all regions of the Roman Empire in the first century. They came to Jerusalem to celebrate the Jewish festival of Pentecost and were radically changed by the apostles’ stories of Christ. They quickly came together and shared their resources, taking care of one another, especially those who were vulnerable and in need.
May the church today follow the example of our earliest brothers and sisters. May we, with open hearts and open hands, share our resources with those in need. May we, as the church, be the remedy a hurting and vulnerable world needs.
Use your resources to be the remedy the world so desperately needs.
Mark Moore is an associate professor of theology at Jessup University (CA) and an associate pastor at Faith Legacy Church in Sacramento, California.
© 2025 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
