Ummm . . . Better Read a Little Further There

...they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.

 - From the Second Chapter of Acts

Scoffers and mockers in our time, love to throw this verse in the face of "evangelical" and "conservative" Christians. The online version of this scripture is usually accompanied by such accouterments as "lol" and its many variants. 

It is indeed, a wonderful concept. It is of course a great challenge to believers. And guess what? We are all familiar with it. We know that we fall short in this area. We test our own depth of faith. We challenge each other. It happens in a rather private type of format. We do not parade around the ways in which we grow, fall, and grow again, spiritually. So to the unchurched that love to point this out to us: Thank you for caring, and for pushing us to higher levels. But we struggle enough with passages like this, without your help.

But at the same time, scoffers, typically, cherry pick one or two verses that can cause the most embarrassment (note how their objective is to embarrass - - - how wonderfully mature of them). But there are other concepts contained within, that they always fail to mention:

* Signs and wonders were everywhere
* They stayed together, and shared everything
* They stayed in church
* Even the unbelievers were drawn to them
* Their growth was meteoric

Now, these other features are usually not mentioned. But each item needs the others to flourish. It's okay to sell all you have, and give to the poor. But you also need to be in church, and in prayer, almost constantly. You need to adopt a communal lifestyle. And if you don't see signs and wonders, i.e. miracles happening all the time, then the parallel to modern Christians is very weak indeed.

Let me suggest this to those that love to point this verse out to Christians:

Show, don't tell. If you want to shame Christians, don't talk about our Bible . . . DO it yourself. YOU sell your possessions and share with those that have needs. This will do way more than just talking and pointing a finger. Not only does this challenge Christians in a gentle way, but it does so in an EFFECTIVE way. YOU would be starting a grassfire of charitable goodness. 

And since your hearts would be in the right place, you would find yourself no longer interested in shaming Christians. And that is a step forward for all of us.