Acts 6
1But as the believers rapidly multiplied, there were rumblings of discontent. Those who spoke Greek complained against those who spoke Hebrew, saying that their widows were being discriminated against in the daily distribution of food. 2So the Twelve called a meeting of all the believers.
“We apostles should spend our time preaching and teaching the word of God, not administering a food program,” they said. 3“Now look around among yourselves, brothers, and select seven men who are well respected and are full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. We will put them in charge of this business. 4Then we can spend our time in prayer and preaching and teaching the word.”
5This idea pleased the whole group, and they chose the following: Stephen (a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit), Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas of Antioch (a Gentile convert to the Jewish faith, who had now become a Christian). 6These seven were presented to the apostles, who prayed for them as they laid their hands on them.
7God’s message was preached in ever-widening circles. The number of believers greatly increased in Jerusalem, and many of the Jewish priests were converted, too. (Acts 6:1-7, NLT)
The Daily DAVEotional
The Christian church is a mess. At least that’s what we’re to believe if we look at social media and various news outlets.
Everywhere you look and every time you turn around there’s a church scandal involving a high profile pastor or some popular Christian artist has decided to deconstruct their faith. Sexual immorality, greed, back-stabbing, gossip and slander seemingly abound within the church walls.
So why can’t we be more like the New Testament church?
That’s a question that I hear people say all the time. It’s a question borne out of ignorance and a naive desire for a return to some kind of utopian church state that NEVER existed.
The truth is that the church has ALWAYS had problems and it will CONTINUE to have problems, as long as it is being led by imperfect, corruptible humans.
The pollyannaish view that the New Testament church had it all together while the modern church is full of problems is simply revisionist history.
The early church was full of problems, starting with the issue outlined here in Acts 6.
It’s true that the first few chapters of Acts outline a spiritually robust church that was generous, giving, met often for prayer and was full of faith. However, in Acts 6, we start to see some of the flaws and problems that invaded this early community.
According to the text, an issue arose between two different ethnic communities. Those who spoke Greek complained against those who spoke Hebrew. Their complaint was that their widows were being discriminated against.
Apparently, there was a food distribution program that was being run by the church and those who were non-Jewish culturally were not receiving the same attention and consideration as those who were culturally Jewish.
In other words, there was discrimination and preferential treatment toward one ethic group over another. There was racism in the early church.
It’s not surprising that this issue would exist. After all, for centuries Jews followed the Law of Moses, which taught them that Gentiles were unclean.
This does not mean that the Law taught that Gentiles were not equal to Jews or that somehow God saw them as less than. But over the years, the Jewish view of the Gentile devolved into a state of anti-Gentilism.
This view was not isolated. It is repeated throughout the book of Acts. Jews did not like Gentiles and generally saw them as inferior.
In this passage, there is no indication of what the apostles did to address this false view, In actuality, Peter, in Acts 10, needed a vision from the Lord to break him out of his anti-Gentile trance.
The apostles dealt with the problem as indicated but their solution did not fix the racism that existed within the early church.
What are we to make of this?
It’s clear that many of the great evils and ills that infect our modern church were present in the New Testament church. And yet, God was able to use those feeble, flawed individuals just the same. This means that He can use us as well.
I want to be clear that I’m not saying that we shouldn’t call out sin in the church when we see it. We should. And leaders in the New Testament church did as well. It seems that many of the New Testament epistles were written to point out sin and correct bad theology and wrong orthopraxy.
But we shouldn’t be naive to think that the modern church is any worse than the church has been at any other time.
The modern church is not perfect. It can’t be; it’s being led by and is filled with imperfect and corruptible people. But God is in the business of using broken vessels to fulfill His purposes.
So when someone asks, “why can’t we be more like the New Testament church” my response is: brother, we already are!
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Reflection
What has been your view of the New Testament church compared to the modern evangelical church? How have you tended to compare and contrast them and evaluate them?
What are some of the reasons why people tend to yearn for a New Testament version of the church?
What do you think it is about the New Testament church that causes people to long for a return to that era?
What are some reasons that wishing for a return to the New Testament church era would ultimately be futile.
How should we as Christians approach the fact that there are many problems that afflict the modern church? What do you think are appropriate solutions or courses of action for individuals and for the church as a whole?
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
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