They Devoted Themselves

So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

Awe came upon everyone because many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved. 

-Acts 2:41-47

I am going to take a little aim at our American culture of individualism today. Stick with me. There is a reason.

When I was younger, the churches that formed me placed great emphasis on having a personal “quiet time.” They taught us to set aside some time every day, find a quiet place, read your Bible, pray, and reflect on what God might be saying to you.

There is nothing seriously wrong with that advice. Personal prayer and Scripture reading can be wonderful spiritual disciplines.

I just no longer believe that personal devotion practices are enough.

The problem comes when we begin to imagine that the Christian life consists primarily of me, my Bible, and God. Without realizing it, we can begin to assume that our own common sense is all we need to understand Scripture. I read the passage, decide what it means to me, and walk away satisfied that I have understood it.

But none of us comes to Scripture with clear and objective eyes.

We bring our own experiences. Our culture. Our family history. Our political assumptions. Our church traditions. Our wounds and hopes. Our level of spiritual maturity. All of those things affect what we notice when we read. Just as important, these things impact what we fail to notice.

That is why we need reading partners.

From the very beginning, Christianity has been a communal faith. Look at the picture of the newborn Church in Acts. These first Christians “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship.” They prayed together. They worshiped together. They ate together. They cared for one another so deeply that they sold their property and distributed money based on needs. Their formation as disciples happened within a community that had covenanted itself to a radically new way of life.

They learned together because they were trying to become something together.

Scripture was forming a people set apart for a purpose.

That remains true for us.

I see this all the time as I lead studies. Other Christians notice what I miss. Someone else asks the question that never occurred to me. Someone whose life has been very different from mine may hear a passage in a way I never could. Another person may challenge an assumption I have carried into the text without even realizing it was there.

Sometimes that can be uncomfortable.

Good.

Christian community is not supposed to exist merely to reinforce everything I already believe. At its best, the Church gives us people who love us enough to listen to us, learn alongside us, and occasionally say, “I'm not sure that's the only way to read this.”

We need one another.

That is one reason I believe so deeply in studying Scripture in groups like Disciple Bible Study, Sunday School classes, Lectio Divina groups, and other small communities of faith. Personal study still matters. But when we bring what we have seen into the community, place our interpretations alongside those of other disciples, and seek God together, radical transformation occurs.

In Acts, the disciples did not merely devote themselves to the teaching.

They devoted themselves to the teaching and the fellowship.

Because those two things have always belonged together.

May it be so with us.

Rev. Ryan Young