Trailblazin Ministries

Favoritism: Part 3 - Acts 2:44-45

Written by LaRosa Johnson
Tuesday, 21 August 2007

When last we left, we were looking at the example that James was giving comparing the poor man with the rich man and the treatment that they were given when entering the assembly of believers. Today, we want to investigate a few questions that came to mind while putting together this study, the most important of which is why did James write this to begin with? Sure, he was divinely inspired by God to write what He wrote; but that still begs the question of why it was written. The reason for his writing this had to deal with current events that were happening during the early years of the church, and it was important for him to address it to make sure that it didn't spread into other churches. In order for us to get a clearer picture of what was going on, we'll take a look at Luke's account in the book of Acts. There are many passages that we can look at, but we will only take a look at a few.

Acts 2:44-45 (NASB95) - 44 And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; 45 and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need.

Acts 4:34-37 (NASB95) - 34 For there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales35 and lay them at the apostles' feet, and they would be distributed to each as any had need.
36 Now Joseph, a Levite of Cyprian birth, who was also called Barnabas by the apostles (which translated means Son of Encouragement ),37 and who owned a tract of land, sold it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet.

What we see in these passages is a very clear indication of something that was going on in the early church, which was that many new believers were selling their possessions and living in a community amongst one another where they shared all of their resources. This begs another question: why sell your possessions? Let's start with the location; isn't location everything? Location, location, location. Well, much of this was going on around Jerusalem, which was a heavily Jewish community, and an area where many early believers were Jewish converts. Why is this important? It's important because Jews have a very close knit community, as it crossed both religious and cultural barriers, and it was highly frowned upon to break away from these in any way. Remember the Samaritans? They were an offshoot of the Jewish faith, as many Jews who were left after captivity intermingled with the pagans around them, thus being shunned by the true Jews (hence why they are Samaritans and not Jews). The same thing was happening here with Jews converting to the faith; they were ostracized by their friends and family. You could easily imagine that many lost their jobs, thus the necessity for them to sell their belongings and live communally.

It is with this very thing in mind that there were both poor and rich believers who were entering the assembly. There were many poor, such as widows (Acts 6:1), who were coming to seek refuge and fellowship. There were also those who were rich like Joseph of Arimathea (John 19:38-40), the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26-38), Nicodemus (John 19:38-40), and numerous others. It was not necessarily these people, but others like them, who James was referring to who were receiving preferential treatment because of their social and financial statuses. Taking all of this into account, James had to write to make sure that everyone was being treated fairly because they were one body of believers and that one was not greater than the other, simply because of some superficial and exterior status that could be gone just as quickly as it came. The main thing to keep in mind that many of the converts were poor, so those would join the assembly and had money, should not be treated any differently; plus, this kind of thing had to be going on, otherwise James would not have taken the time to have mentioned it in his letter.

So, what we see here in today's passage as we quickly glanced through Acts (and early church history), is that James had a reason to write his words about showing favoritism inside the assembly of believers. He knew what the situation was and that it was something that needed to be addressed so that everyone could continue to walk in a Christlike manner and treat each other with love and respect. Now that we have a greater understanding as a result of some historical background, we will head back to James and continue looking at what James had to say after giving his example. We'll save that for next time. Until then, meditate on His Word and keep it hidden in your heart!