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T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
June, 1936
should be rich in material wealth, but in the spiritual benefits of a new creation. The riches of grace, and of love, and of hope, and of giving, are all ours in Christ. Points and Problems This first part o f this week’s lesson (Acts 4:32-35) has been appealed to so often for the purpose of surrounding with a Christian halo the political communism of modern times that it may be profitable to note several radical differences. 1. The so-called “ Christian communism” of verse 32 was produced by what hap pened in verse 31. It is a great pity that verse 31 was not included in the lesson, for it explains why the church did what it did. The group of believers held a prayer meeting, were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and preached the Word of God. And as a result, the members of the church began to share their possessions with one another. But the political com munism of our day would like to get the results without the means. They despise prayer, scorn the Holy Spirit, and reject the Bible. 2. The Christian sharing found in the early church, was also based squarely on faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The people that acted the way they did were all people “that believed" (v. 32). Those who helped one another were all of the household of faith. Here is something that the world has never learned, namely, that some things will work within the community of Chris tian believers but will fail utterly when attempted by unbelievers. 3. Still further, the plan worked among these early believers because th ey , were enjoying a true unity o f the Spirit, being “of one heart and of one soul” (v. 32). There are many things attempted by even those who believe, which fail through lack of spiritual unity. And true spiritual unity is reached only as men are “filled with the Spirit.” 4. The action o f the early church was carried out under the direct guidance of the apostles (v. 35). The funds were “ laid . . . down at the apostles’ feet.” The apostles handled the matter of distribution^* Even in the United States our modern relief program would work better if we had a few divinely endowed apostles to administer the funds. 5. The sharing of the early church was based on the actual “need" o f those who were poverty-stricken (v. 35), not on a godless political philosophy which would level all men down to the same dull and mediocre status. In the Greek, the very tense of “ were sold” in verse 34 indicates that the sharing was to meet a present emergency. It is an imperfect, “were being sold,” that is, as the need required. 6. Finally, it cannot be repeated too often that the sharing o f ,the early church was purely voluntary. No one was required by law to give up his possessions. Read Peter’s rebuke to Ananias in Acts 5 :4, where the latter is reminded that even after he had sold the property, the price still belonged to him. Ananias was struck down for lying, not for keeping what already be longed to him. Golden Text Illustration A Methodist minister tells that in one of his charges a good man gave regularly every Sunday five dollars for the support of the church. Another member o f the same church was a poor widow who sup-
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belonged to the infant church, but we must be governed by the precepts believed and taught by the early church—precepts pre served for us through the ministry of divinely appointed and equipped apostles. II. T he P recept of the E arly C hurch (2 Cor. 8:1-9). The precept that governs Christian so cial service relates giving to the grace of God (v. 1). The grace o f giving is be stowed by God and is like God, and is to be manifested in every believer’s life. The Corinthian saints did not wait to be urged to give of their means, but they pleaded that the manifestation of this grace should be received (vs. 2-4). They had abundance both of joy and of poverty, and from this strange combination their liberality arose. The secret of this ideal Christian social service is seen in that the donors first gave themselves to the Lord. Then their gifts were given freely and with joyfulness. Liberality can never be judged by the size of the gift that is given. A dollar may be given liberally and a thousand dollars may be given grudgingly. The grace* of giving is needed to give symmetry to the Christian life (v. 7). The Corinthian believers, like many today, had other virtues such as faith, knowledge, and utterance, but for poise and balance they needed the grace of giving, too. It is sig nificant that the only words of our Lord that are unrecorded in the Gospels but preserved for us elsewhere in the Word, have a bearing upon generosity. “ It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). Christian giving will not spring from compulsion from without, but from desire from within. W e are not commanded to give, but we will give with joy when the life of Christ is allowed to reveal itself through our lives (v. 8). Moreover, the giving will prove the sincerity o f professed love. It is useless for one to say, “ I love God,” when the hand is closed firmly over one’s possessions. Love cannot exist with out giving (cf. John 3:16; 10:11). A heathen boy who had been taught some thing of the love of God and its expression in Christ, came to a missionary meeting where an offering for the poor was taken. One by one those present rose and said, “I will give so much,” but when it came the boy’s turn to respond, this lad, newly converted from paganism, said, “ I will love so much”—and on that basis he made his contribution. If this were the standard maintained in our churches today, all the needed social service would be easily ar ranged, and there never would be the slightest shortage in our church treasuries. Our Lord was rich, infinitely rich, but He became poor that we through His pov erty might be rich (v. 9). The object in His voluntary humiliation was not that we BLACKBOARD LE S SO N '
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