Responsive Love

November 22, 2020 Background Scripture: Acts 4:32 – 5:11 Lesson Passage: Acts 4:32 – 37; 5:1 – 11 The first congregation of Christians believed that Jesus was coming back for the church in their lifetime. As a result of their belief, they made many decisions that had very bad long-term consequences. However, the short-term results were welcomed and created a special closeness within the group. Our lesson text presents one of those decisions. The believers who owned houses and land sold them and brought the money to the Apostles to be used for the welfare of the congregation. If you don’t expect to be in the world much longer, houses and land are unimportant to you. For the impoverished Christian in that congregation, having all their needs met without having to beg for the necessities of life was a godsend. Surely this must have felt like unconditional love to the recipients and the answer to the question “What would Jesus do?” to the benefactors. Some Christians were in need and Christians with assets were responding to those needs by divesting themselves of the assets and turning the proceeds over to the leaders of the congregation. It should be noted that because Jesus did not return in their lifetime, this led to the entire Jerusalem congregation becoming impoverished and dependent on other congregations for benevolence. Today, we understand it is not a good idea to get rid of one’s means of economic support and depend on a religious body for daily necessities. Those persons who do this today are called cults. There is a middle ground here that should not be overlooked. Christians can still support the local church financially without bringing poverty upon themselves. With the proper priorities, the local church can assist the poor among them with the donations received from its membership. Local churches are rarely able to sustain a standard of living for its members, but it can provide enough food to prevent starvation, and provide periodic support to help defray the costs of utilities—or housing. In short, the local church can still exhibit responsive love to those in need. Again, we are talking about a benevolent love, motivated by the need of another, that the benefactor delights in meeting. The tithe system, that was part of the Levitical law God gave Moses, is still a financially powerful method that the congregation can use to assist the most needed among them. Congregations today have many different modes of operating from a financial perspective. Some believe in having millions of dollars in the bank and not responding to individual needs among them or in the surrounding community. Others manage to spend everything on frivolous matters and can never respond to a person who comes in need because the church’s storehouse is always empty. Responsive love requires a local church to look at how it prioritizes finance so that it can be responsive to assisting those in need. The geography of the Holy Land provides a physical representation of the proper balance. The Dead Sea is fed by the Jordan River, but it only receives and is therefore dead. It cannot sustain life. The Jordan River runs by continuously receiving and passing along everything it gets. It has limited opportunity to be of extensive commercial use. The Sea of Galilee is fed by tributaries and then it feeds the Jordan River. As a result of receiving from many, maintaining a reservoir, and feeding others, the Sea of Galilee has sustained life in and around it for thousands of years and continues to do so today. The reservoir, the sea itself, is of great commercial value. If the Sea of Galilee were a person, it would be a perfect model of responsive love. Robert C. Hudson November 2, 2020