We left off last time where Peter and John sought the counsel of the Lord and asked Him to allow them to continue to speak the truth and preach the good news of the Kingdom with boldness. As they prayed to the Lord, the ground they were standing on was shaken. In that moment, all who were gathered together praying were filled with the Holy Spirit. Now being filled with the Holy Spirit, the people began to live, think, and act like Christ. It was a spectacular and welcomed change that began to portray what the body of Christ should look like.
Now all who believed began to live in true community. Just for kicks, let’s see what the dictionary definition for community is.
Community: (n) group of people, neighborhood, kinship
The first two meanings hardly scratch the surface of real community. The word kinship does a better job of explaining what community in the bible looked like.
Kinship: (n) unity, identity, cooperative spirit, similarity, and convergence.
In Acts chapters four and five, we see the true biblical definition of community. The believers came together in unity and having a cooperative spirit they realized how to become a community of Christ. They brought all they had and laid it together in one place. Then from there each took only as they needed and everyone’s needs were cared for and no one grew hungry or without shelter. There was grace and humility. There was humbleness and love. In this time, the “church” portrayed a community of believers that revealed what the love of God looked like. Now, as I am on the World Race, I am learning a lot about the meaning of living in true community. It is no easy thing by any means, but you do learn many attributes of God and His love quickly. I couldn’t imagine what the world would look like if we all gave what we had and that no one was ever in need. We would all be unified and work towards a common goal. There wouldn’t be anyone homeless or hungry. We would truly begin to see “Earth as it is in Heaven.”
