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2.3.2 - A History of Christianity in the Apostolic Age
Primitive Jewish Christianity
The Life of the Primitive Disciples - Brotherhood of Faith
But the absorption of the minds and hearts of the disciples in the kingdom which was so soon to be established, and the subordination of all other interests thereto, had the effect of binding them most closely to each other. They were not simply fellow-disciples of a common master, fellow-believers in a common faith, they were brethren in the fullest sense, and the tie that united them was far stronger than their ordinary family and social ties.
Doubtless the fact that many of them were comparative strangers in Jerusalem contributed to their sense of isolation from the outside world, and tended to enhance their feeling of brotherhood, but the impulse had a deeper basis than any such accidental circumstance.
Whether at home or away from home, they constituted one household, and into this household they received all the converts to their faith. They did not conceive their mission to be simply the promulgation of a truth, or the impartation, to those outside, of benefits that they had themselves received. Their mission was to bring others within the family circle that they might there enjoy the blessings promised to the elect children of God.
It is in the light of this sense of brotherhood that we are to explain the kind of communism which the author of the Acts represents a practiced in the church of Jerusalem. [Acts 2:44, 45 & 4:32,34]
It was not, to be sure, an absolute communism. Various indications show that Luke's general statements are to be taken with some qualification. [Acts 6:1 sq. shows that it was not an equal division of all the property belonging to all the disciples that was thought of, but only a distribution to such as were in need. So Ananias and Sapphira were not condemned for failing to turn over al that they had to the church, but for pretending to be more generous than they were (Acts 5:4); and their case clearly shows that the whole thing was voluntary and not required, while in communism in the strict sense, no room is left for individual generosity. The fact that Barnabas is especially commended for selling his field also suggests that such generosity was uncommon, and there is no implication in the account that he turned over to the apostles everything he had.]
But even though not complete, the principle on which it was based was communistic. It was not mere charity that was practiced; it was the recognition of the claims of the Christian family as superior to the claims of the individual, and it was the relief of the necessities of the brethren, not simply because they were needy and suffering, but because they were brethren. [The love for one's neighbor upon which Christ laid such stress and which he expressly made to embrace all men, was commonly interpreted by the early Christians, both Jewish and Gentile, to mean simply love for the brethren, fellow-members of the on household of faith. {We will revisit this when we discuss The Christianity of the Church at Large - The Christian Life (V-6) later}.
The expectation of the speedy return of Christ, and the consequent undervaluation of earthly possessions, of course made such communism easier, but does not account for it. It was the fruit of the conception of the church as a family, which prevailed universally at this time.
In the light of all of this it is clear that the early Christians of Jerusalem must have found their life very largely in their association with one another, and that they must have been much together.
We should expect also that the religious impulse would make itself felt in all parts of their life. They could not confine their spiritual exercises and employments to certain fixed hours and days; their entire life must be a life of expectation and of preparation, and thus religious in the fullest sense.
It would be a mistake to picture them as holding regular and formal religious services such as are held today. They did not constitute a separate synagogue and they never though of substituting their own meetings for the regular services of the synagogue. The latter they doubtless attended faithfully, in company with their neighbors, just as they had before their conversion. They may have been in the habit of gathering together in a body from time to time for common worship and for mutual edification and inspiration, as we find them doing in the days immediately preceding Pentecost; but as their numbers grew larger, such general gatherings must have become increasingly difficult, and it was at any rate not in them, but in their daily intercourse with one another and in the little family gatherings from house to house, that their Christian life found fullest expression and sense of Christian brotherhood, which was all-controlling, had freest play.
Used by permission of the publisher.
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