Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from “The Adult Sabbath School Guide” is titled “Ministry in the New Testament Church”. A look into the early Christian church and the manner in which various ministry initiatives were conducted. I thought I’d write on the idea of communal living. A concept that was a part of that early faith community. An idea that has been promoted off and on by cultures and even nations ever since. On the surface, communal living seems to be the ideal. And so cultures/ nations have attempted it in hopes of creating a utopian culture/ nation. By the way the word “utopia” comes from Sir Thomas More’s book titled “Utopia”. It compared social and economic conditions in Europe with those of an ideal society on an imaginary island located off the coast of the Americas. Sir Thomas More wanted to imply that the perfect conditions on his fictional island could never really exist, so he called it Utopia, a name he created by combining the Greek words ou (meaning "no, not") and topos (meaning "place”). Cultures and nations have proven that communal living such as described in our study this week, really does not work in real life. There is “no place” on this earth it will succeed. Why is this? Our quarterly speaks of this New Testament communal living in Sunday’s lesson. Let’s take a brief look.
In Sunday’s scripture texts (Acts 2: 42-47 and Acts 4:32 to Acts 5:2) we read of how this New Testament communal living worked. “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” as Karl Marx quoted centuries later. Who knew that Marxist Communism was derived somewhat from the Bible? Yet Soviet Communism failed as has all other earthly attempts. Why is that? There is only one reason I see. It’s because it was not freely chosen by all. For communism to work, all must participate. And in an earthly culture or nation, that means it will be enforced upon all. All must participate. You will participate… and you will like it… or else. And hence, its lack of success.
This also explains why the early church was successful at communal living. Because the founding members voluntarily chose it. And hence this fundamental precept of heaven and of love itself emerges. It must be freely chosen. This concept is so important, so vital to life that God Himself stepped-in to assure our ability to freely choose. Let me show you how…
As stated in many other “Thoughts for the Week”, the final destruction at the end is not execution at the hands of our Father. It is Him sadly letting us have the sin that we love… and IT kills us. Therefore, sin is the killer. And if not for our Father sustaining our lives this moment, we would all be dead and this earth would be a wasteland. When Adam and Eve sinned, the magnitude of their rebellion was not fully seen nor realized. If the first pair would’ve seen that magnitude, they would’ve dropped dead on the spot. As God had warned them regarding the tree of knowledge of good and evil “in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17), they should have surely died immediately. But God in His wisdom and patience did not allow the natural consequence to be realized. He knew they were deceived and did not know what they were doing. And so God Himself stepped into the breach to stay the natural consequence of their rebellion. And He has been in the breach ever since. His presence in the breach, in our minds torn asunder by sin, guarantees we need never be compelled, obligated, manipulated, nor controlled by any outside influence. We are free to choose as long as our life lasts. The Devil doesn’t make us do anything… God doesn’t make us do anything… we freely choose. In the end, we will all admit that we ourselves chose the path we did. The Devil did not “make me do it!”
Communal living, like love, only works in a climate of freedom. And in heaven, those who choose the sovereignty of love here on earth will freely chose the extension of that love… heavenly communal living… true love-filled communal living that earth has never seen. That concept can only work in an atmosphere of freedom, where love is 100% prodigal... giving love 100%... and receiving love 100%. Not just “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” as quoted above. But giving all… and receiving all. Sounds like heaven to me… and I hope to you, too.
With brotherly love,
Jim