Acts 2:32-37
I believe some parts of this
passage are transferable, and some are not. Verse 33 is transferable (Cat 1) in
that, today we can expect to receive an outpour of the Holy Spirit, and through
Him, live our lives in power, strength, and confidence. Verse 41 is
transferable too (Cat 1); sharing what we know about these events and others
(as learned in the Word), people that hear it may want to know what to
do about it (we should always be ready to give an answer as to why we believe
and hope in what we do, 1 Pet. 3:15) The passage as a whole however, falls into
category 2 – not transferable. The events Peter, the people who were affected
by, and the people that witnessed the manifestation of the Holy Spirit (tongues
of fire over head), as well as, what they saw take place with Jesus (the
crucifixion and resurrection) is something we will not be privy to. It is
historically particular.
Acts 2:44-45
The believers having everything in
common, selling off all their possessions, and giving to those as they had
need, is not something the Church as a whole does, or even promotes; however,
there are equivalents to this. So I believe the verses fall into category 3.
The Church or “body” at the time of this writing was still very young, it was
easier to teach many hundreds and thousands to live by the same set of
instructions giving by just a few of God’s chosen leaders, ergo commonality.
Selling off possessions and giving to those – in the body – as they had need,
sought to grow the “way”. Today, living it out that way doesn’t seem to make
sense. Notwithstanding, we do share a whole lot in common as Christians, but we
also have so many different doctrines and theologies, it is impossible to say “All the believers were together and had
everything in common” V44. Today we may not sell all of our
possessions (although, it would probably show a great degree of faith to do so,
and trust God to provide for us. We have become so accustomed to the social
norms created for us via secular thinking; we feel we deserve the things we’ve
worked so hard to attain. Nothing wrong with having things, don’t get me wrong,
but if we were called to unite and do what the believers did back then, could
you do it?). Today we give to charities, we give a little extra for the
building fund, or even bake a few cookies and cupcakes to send our youth groups
on local missions, but we don’t give it all away. Shoot, half the time we don’t
even know what our money is going to; just saying.
With love and respect, God bless.
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