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phoenixme -> RE: Where did the Acts 2 Church go? (10/24/2007 3:05:11 PM)
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Corinth in the first century was a major metropolitan center of trade, tourism, and religious pilgrimage. Acts 18 narrates Luke's account of how Paul came to Corinth as a missionary, met fellow tentmakers Aquila and Prisca, and stayed with them. He taught in the synagogue, but faced considerable resistance there. After leaving the synagogue, he proceeded to teach the Gentiles. Paul stayed in Corinth for a year and a half. When he continued his journey, he left behind an established commuity of Jewish and Gentile believers. The Corinthian letters arise from Paul's relationship with this young church after his first visit and between following stays with them.
Kinship was the central community where people formed identity and belonging in the ancient world. It was also an organizing symbol for earlyChristian communities. The universal God as "father" of the new family created by Christ opens the boundaries for membership beyond those of traditional kinship to include a variety of people. This is particularly radical for Jewish conceptions of family and community . Paul's kin(g)dom vision conceptualizes the possibility of Jews and Gentiles living together in a new family. Loyalty to and the sense of identity within family are transferred from "natural kin" to the church. The literature of early Christian communities is saturated with "kin" terms. On a practical level, households were the space and underlying unit of being for many early urban churches. There are a number of households who come to belief in Jesus and are baptized as single entities (Acts 16:14-15, 32-34; 18:8; 1 Corinthians 1:16).
Evidence for this early communal living can be found from the very early passages of the book of Acts and the Messianic communal groups in Israel today also lends credence to this fact.
Communal living does not discount the need to come together. Just as much as in my family, everyone seeks the Lord in their own time, but we also make it a point to come together.
1 Corinthians is a perfect example of this Koinonia. The NT application of the word koinonia is to describe the fellowship and communion that existed at the celebration of the Lord's Supper.
Let's consider Acts 2:42 - 27, where we read a striking description of the common life shared by the early Christian believers in Jerusalem. "They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer...All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need…They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.” The term, “the fellowship,” was not a title or name for the Christian church in Jerusalem; rather, it was a description of its central character as one of associating and sharing in a common life.
Although communal living can be described in quite a few ways, the NT example of 'Communal' means they had their own houses (they went from house to house). It is a common misconception that they sold everything and had shared everything. They did not sell 'all' their possessions. They sold "their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need". Especially the fatherless and the widows, who were taken care of my the entire community.
This was why a dispute arose among the Hebrew speaking and Greek speaking Jewish widows in Acts 6 and not among the entire Hebrew and Greek speaking community.
This was why Paul says, "Honor widows who are really widows. But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show piety at home and to repay their parents; for this is good and acceptable before God. Now she who is really a widow, and left alone, trusts in God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day. But she who lives in pleasure is dead while she lives. And these things command, that they may be blameless. But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. Do not let a widow under sixty years old be taken into the number, and not unless she has been the wife of one man, well reported for good works: if she has brought up children, if she has lodged strangers, if she has washed the saints’ feet, if she has relieved the afflicted, if she has diligently followed every good work. But refuse the younger widows; for when they have begun to grow wanton against Christ, they desire to marry, having condemnation because they have cast off their first faith. And besides they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house, and not only idle but also gossips and busybodies, saying things which they ought not. Therefore I desire that the younger widows marry, bear children, manage the house, give no opportunity to the adversary to speak reproachfully. For some have already turned aside after Satan. If any believing man or woman has widows, let them relieve them, and do not let the church be burdened, that it may relieve those who are really widows."
How could they wander from 'house to house' to gossip, be busybodies and say what they ought not to, if the early church did not live in a community?
This was why James also says that we should take care of the widows and the fatherless. In the ancient world, it was mostly only the men who could work.
As we can clearly see the community of the early Church was quite different in concept to the 'community' as we know it today, which may produce extremes like David Koresh and Branch Davidian sect.
In the NT style of community, although the church lived in a community, men were still leaders of their own homes and provided for their own homes. So, "If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home", means just that. Some people were not eating at home, thinking that they were going eat anyway when they got together. So, when it was time to eat, they pile on, not waiting for everyone else. And in so doing place himself above everyone else. That was why Paul says, "when you come together to eat, wait for one another". This passage in fact, lends credence to the 'community' the early church was.
Community does not mean equal distribution of wealth. Communism comes the closest to that. There were even slaves in the community. But even these were treated like brothers. Being a 'community' is more a matter of the heart than of the externals.
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