Act 2:44-47 “And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.”
Luke tells us that all the believers literally remained together for a season and shared all their goods according to the need. The time came a while later when they were persecuted and driven out of Jerusalem. They scattered to Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia (1 Pet 1:1). Today, we can hardly conceive of any congregation remaining physically together all the time.
Still, there is a wonderful principle taught us in this verse of scripture. Notice that Luke did not say that everyone that agreed on every point was together; all the believed were together. We do not have to agree on the interpretation of every scripture to stand together. Instead, we need to be looking for the commonality of the faith that was expressed by the Ethiopian eunuch: “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God (Acts 8:37).”
Those of us that believe in the sovereignty of God and salvation by His grace alone should be together in heart and mind. As individual congregations, we are not in a competition to see who can gather the greatest following. When our sister churches are prospering, we should rejoice with them with great joy. Our desire should be for the prosperity of God’s kingdom everywhere.
These believers continued daily in the temple. Our first reaction is that we cannot stay at the meeting house all the time. However, the scripture tells us that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost (1 Cor 6:19). We can continue daily in the temple, living with our brothers and sisters according to the mind of Christ.
It should be obvious that we who believe can be together. We can continue daily in the temple, even if there are many physical miles between us. As often as we can, we should break bread from house to house as well. While this can be seen as partaking of a meal together, there are many other ways of breaking bread together.
We are certainly breaking bread together when we are blessed to gather to pray, sing His praise, and hear His gospel preached. When someone calls us for the particular purpose of sharing a revelation, they have been given concerning the scripture, we are breaking bread together from their house to ours. Speaking to someone in the grocery store (even a stranger) and having the Holy Spirit to move the conversation to be about the mercy and grace of God is breaking bread together. Having someone say, “pray for me,” and stopping what you are doing and praying in that moment is breaking bread together.
We should eat our meat (both natural and spiritual) with joy. Our purpose should be to recognize the grace of God in every encounter and revelation of His presence. The result will be a heart that gives Him praise every day for His great grace in our lives. He can cause us to have favor, even with those who may not share our belief that Jesus is all sufficient for our redemption.
We often speak of someone joining the church when they come to a congregation and ask for baptism. The reality is that we do not join the church, as though it were completely at our discretion. We can join a congregation for any number of reasons: our friends are doing it; if we do not, we might die and go to hell; it is what our parents want us to do. If we are truly in the church, it is because God has added us according to His own purpose.
May God bless us to eat our meat together with gladness, giving Him all the praise!
