Acts or 1 Thessalonians or 2

¶ … Thessalonians (1 or 2) Passage from Acts When choosing a passage for something such as this, it is important to be sure to choose something that has meaning. For this paper, the passage chosen is Acts 4, Verses 32-35. These vs. discuss sharing, and they talk about how everyone sold what they had and brought the proceeds back so that everyone could have and no one would have to do without. In its original context it was likely to this was taken very literally.

In other words, these individuals actually did sell their homes and their land and brought back all of the proceeds of the sales to give to the apostles. The apostles would then distribute this money among the individuals who needed it the most so that everyone was basically equal and all of the property that was still owned was held in common.

This was very well for the individuals who were willing to do these things and also for the apostles who were showing their strength and belief in their Lord. Not everyone was willing to do this and only does that believed in the Lord shared things among each other in this way. This brought grace to them and to the apostles as well.

In the present day, it does not appear that individuals believe that everything should be held in common and that someone should sell what he or she has to give to another. Instead, most individuals attempt to hoard what they have and make sure that others do not get it. However, where Christians are concerned, those who are still strong believers and have a great deal of faith in their Lord are often much more willing to share what they have than others are.

That is not to say that all believers share what they have and all nonbelievers do not. There are people who are willing to share much of what they have with others that are not considered Christians. However, this particular passage from Acts deals with believers and the way that they share with each other. As for a personal reaction to this passage, it is one of the more important issues that the Bible deals with.

This is largely due to the fact that the spirit of sharing and caring about what happens to others is something that is very important in today's society but is unfortunately not seen much of the time. Individuals who have a great deal of money often forget about those who have much less. While this is not always the case, it appears that it is the trend with at least most of these individuals.

If it was not the case, many of these individuals who have a great deal of money would be sharing it with those who had very little and everyone would be more equal. Instead, there is a large gap between the extremely wealthy in this society and most of the other individuals. There are some individuals who fall in the middle, but most individuals either fall into the working poor/middle-class area, or they are very rich.

From a personal standpoint, I am in complete agreement with the principal of this passage, but in today's society it is not practical to take it in the literal sense any longer. In other words, not everyone who is a believer is going to sell everything that they have and put all of the proceeds into a common pot for.