Acts 2:42-47 is often used as a model for how to “do church” today. There is a perception that the present church ought to create a community which is as close to the community in Jerusalem as possible. But there is a reluctance to take all of the descriptions of church activity in Acts 2 seriously. Modern churches pick-and-choose which aspects they will promote (prayer and fellowship, for example), but omit things like communal living or selling property to support the church. I usually do not hear any reason for taking one aspect while ignoring the others. My guess is that these things are re-interpreted or somehow explained away.
Clint Arnold points out in his Acts commentary that they community in Acts Two was characterized by four types of activities. Acts 2:42 says that the believers were devoted to these four activities. The verb here (προσκαρτερέω) has the idea of being busy with something, or even “to persist” (BDAG). The word appears twice in this paragraph, in verse 46 the community is daily worshiping in the temple and sharing meals together.
First, they devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles (διδαχή). This instruction is for new converts who may not have heard Jesus teach. The apostles are witnesses passing along the things which they have seen and heard. It is entirely possible that the apostles had common set of instruction which they regularly passed along to new converts. If this is the case, then there was a basic body of tradition within months of the death of Jesus which could be called the “teaching of the apostles.”
Second, they devoted themselves to fellowship (κοινωνία). Since this word has the connotation of sharing common, this is likely an allusion to the communal life described in the next verses (Fitzmyer, Acts, 269). At the very least this includes alms and care for the poor.
Third, they devoted themselves to “breaking of bread.” While this phrase can be used of sharing a meal together, it is likely that Luke is describing the community as celebrating some form of communion. In Luke 21:19 the same words are used as Jesus takes bread and breaks it. In Luke 24:35 it is used for the resurrected Jesus breaking bread as two disciples realized who he was.
Fourth, they devoted themselves to prayers. Since the Greek is plural this is plausibly a reference to daily prayers in the Temple. It would not be unusual for Jewish men to go to the Temple several times a day to pray, so the community continues to worship at the Temple regularly. In fact, Acts 2:46 indicates that the disciples met in both private homes and in the Temple.
Since a major interest in this series of studies is how to “apply” the book of Acts, it is critical to ask if Luke is describing an ideal Christian community, or the specific community in Jerusalem. While it is easy to see these four elements as generic components of Christian community everywhere, there are other elements in this paragraph which do not seem to be found elsewhere. I will come back to this later, but notice for now that the community sold property, pooled resources, and distributed these funds to the poor. Giving to the poor is a standard description of Christian community, but “living in common” only appears here in Acts 2. There is nothing which makes me think the Antioch church was pooling resources, nor does Paul give any such instruction to his churches.
The fact that these earliest believers are devoted to these activities daily is also unique in the apostolic period. There is no other group of believers who appear to have left their jobs to devote themselves to spiritual activity. In 1-2 Thessalonians Paul seems to instruct the members of the church to not retire from daily life and be constantly devoted to ministry. 2 Thess 3:11-12 specifically tells people to go out and get jobs so that they are not a burden.
What is the reason Christians are quick to apply Acts 2:42 but not Acts 2:43 (miracles) or 2:44-45 (communal living)? What is the difference between what is happening in Acts 2 and 2 Thessalonians 3?
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January 22, 2013 at 7:14 pm
Jake Fields
It is very interesting to look at the church of today and see what they are doing to follow God and do what God has called the church to do, to spread His word. This discussion of why the church follows some of the aspects of the New Testament churches and not others is a good one and it is something that I have put little thought into. I come from a reformed background and I have witnessed this problem in my home church and I have witnessed other actions in the church I go to now. My home church practices communion once a month, but I would say that they definitely do not put enough focus on communal living (Acts 2:44-45). I think the reason my church is like that is because they are very traditional and they care more about tradition than community. I think that a majority of Christians also don’t apply the aspects of communal living because we get too lazy or “busy”. There are a lot of programs that South Harbor Church offers to get people connected and I have heard that the community is really growing, but I’m sure there are still a lot of people there that say they are too busy to get together and have fellowship or they just simply don’t want to. At my home church there are barely any announcements of get together or Bible study groups, that isn’t encouraging community. Last year I only went to small groups a few times because I didn’t feel like going and it was a poor choice because this semester I have changed that and our small group is very connected and accountable. Something that I read in the commentary of my Bible for verses 40-43 is that if someone has just begun a relationship with Christ should be involved in groups where they can learn God’s word and pray and have fellowship so they can mature in faith. This is very true and this is the reason that Christians need to be living in community, because if we don’t then how are new believers going to get connected with God and his word?
January 23, 2013 at 11:36 am
arenberg93
It is so ironic to me how people pick and choose which scriptures they want to hear, and to live by. I’m sure that we all are guilty of this to a certain extent, and yet we find almost a complete neglect from people who specifically want to live out an “Acts 2″ church. The Acts 2 church was relevant and even crucial to the growth and ministry of the church in that day. And yet as we scour the scriptures we see that even in a short amount of time, the church expands out of this model. As P. Long mentioned, this model isn’t found anywhere else in scriptures. i would even argue that the people in the 2 Thessalonians 3 passage were living in this model, but living idly and off of one another. They simply assumed that Jesus was going to come back at any moment, so there was no need to work. Yet Paul combats that and tells them to go out and work! Stop being a burden and living like a leech off of your community. But this is all due to the culture at the time. In today’s culture, no one wants to give up the privacy of their own home, or to throw all of their money in the same pot. And this is okay, because we don’t need this in our culture today. We have expanded and grown past this form of church living. Acts 2 is a great passage, and we can pull many things from the text to live honorable and generous lifestyles. But trying to live exactly as they did is not profitable, and looking through the rest of the scriptures shows that.
January 23, 2013 at 2:32 pm
Mike
If being devoted to the prayers means going to the temple then that would be incredibly hard to apply to us today without encouraging syncretic beliefs. Although the parallel is not the same this verse could be used to say that Muslims who believe should still attend the mosque for the daily prayers. And that sounds really odd.
January 23, 2013 at 8:51 pm
Phillip J. Long
This is a good point, not many contemporary (protestant) Christians would advocate prayer three times a day at proscribed times, most would look at 1 Thess 5, “prayer unceasingly” as the Church model – this is a good example of the Jewishness of the earliest Christ followers!
January 23, 2013 at 6:07 pm
cbefus
If you look anywhere in this world you will find humans trying to make or do things the easiest way possible. There is no exception when it comes to the Bible too, humans apply the verses that are easiest to follow or that show some kind of benefit. Acts 2:42 is one of those verses that doesn’t affect our personal comfort when following. The verse encompasses what Christians have always done. Devoting yourself to follow a pastor, praying, and to fellowship with other Christians. It is not hard to apply and follow this verse because we enjoy fellowship with one another and with God. But when it comes to the verses that follow (44-45) it talks about having everything in common and humans like to have their own opinions and uniqueness. It is to see Christians have a common goal but not a common mind on how to accomplish it. We all want to do things are way, there is always going to be different opinions. I lived in a house with 8 siblings and I can tell you that the only thing we had in common was our parents and love for each other. Besides that there was always arguments, fights, and disagreements. Verse 45 is even worse in today’s world, giving from more than just your surpluses is something unheard of today. Todays mentality is to always be improving, always upgrading, and if you have extra then you give. No one wants to go sell their car, give the money to the poor and then have to take a bus. It is clear that almost every human being has their own needs and wants before anyone else. It is sad that we apply verses very strongly when they don’t affect our own personal comfort!
January 23, 2013 at 10:59 pm
leviwood138
Coming from a church that is very community oriented the parts where the early church discusses their communal living is very near and dear to my heart. I live in a house with six other guys, and we call it a community house. In some aspects it may be, we have an open door policy all are welcome at any time, come over share a meal with us. It is a feel at home atmosphere, where all are allowed to come over and talk and pray and do whatever. Now on the other hand we have talked about the sharing money part, and well that seems to be the hardest thing. Everyone feels that they work for their money and they should manage their own money. We split the bills equally but it’s just not quite like what they had set up in their day. We end up fighting over who left their socks in the living room and who hasn’t done the dishes lately. All but one of us actively serve at Take Hold Church. Also having friends who have lived and do live at JPUSA I also see the apathy and laziness that become a part of communal living. There are people who are just stagnant, they do the very least to not get kicked out and just live there because it is free. So I think there is a benefit to everyone having to have a job and supporting themselves.
January 24, 2013 at 12:01 am
Denise VanBeek
I have never fully grasped Acts 2:42-47 and its meaning. Now having read more than once, I think I may be getting it.
I think of the 4 points. “They devoted themselves to the teachings of the apostles’…” That sounds easy enough. In another blog post we talked about witnessing and the strongest witness being the eye witness. I believe that hearing the teachings of the apostles would be easy to devote to as they were the ones who witnessed all of these things. Do we devote ourselves to the teachings of the apostles? To the teachings of our pastors and those of authority in the church? I think that it is easy for a new believer to have passion and be fired up about these things.
I think a lot of it comes down to the fellowship of believers being so pumped up. When someone is fired up, it is obviously easy to follow with the rules and traditions. I feel like it is a lot to do with what Adam said “They simply assumed that Jesus was going to come back at any moment, so there was no need to work.” It seems to me that many expected Jesus to return so quickly that it was easy for them to be fired up for that short amount of time that they thought. They followed what they were supposed to do. Nowadays I don’t feel like we as a church expect Jesus to come down right now or even in our lifetime. I’m not sure if that is right or wrong. Maybe that is why we don’t do everything that is in Acts 2:42-47 so much. Maybe it is because we don’t expect to see Him so quickly.