“No Poor Among Them . . .”
Those words from the Book of Acts have been haunting me lately. Get this: in the early church, the people were so on board with mission and loving each other, that there were no poor among them. Where needed, they would share stuff, sell things, and do without so that the word “poor” would go extinct within their little church.
What if our churches looked like that today? What if we heard that Susie sitting down the pew from us didn’t have money to take her five-year-old for a doctor’s checkup, and instead of simply praying for poor Susie, we we actually gave her the $150 bucks she needs. What if we heard that the quiet college student (if there is such a thing) can’t afford books for the semester, and instead of simply praying, we shelled out the money. What if there were no poor among us?
I’m not saying that we’re all rich. I’m not saying that we all eat steak for dinner every night. But I am saying that in God’s church, the last thing God wants to see is one of his children lacking while the rest of the family is feasting. What does it say about us, the light of the world, when we can’t even illuminate our own church buildings? How do we look when member’s of our (God’s) family can’t even send their kids to the doctor or afford textbooks for the spring semester?
Oh, how the church landscape would change if we just adopted this mindset. People would flock to us. (You’re probably thinking, “Yeah, they’d flock to free handouts.” And some may. And we’d love them anyway. But most would run to our love.) They would run to us instead of running away from us.
No poor. Maybe you can see why that haunts me.