Reflection: Sharing Resources

Our next Holy Habit is “sharing resources”. We are told in Acts Chapter 2 that the first believers had everything in common, and that they would sell land or property from time to time and offer the proceeds to anyone in the group who had need. This is radically different from the world’s way of doing things, both then and now.

Down the centuries, monasteries would emulate this, but most of us in contemporary churches would not go that far. 

We see a more detailed description of this in Acts 4:32-37, but we also see this go spectacularly wrong in chapter 5 (Ananias and Sapphira).

I suspect that the early Christians shared resources partly in expectation of the imminent second coming of Jesus and partly because of the strong sense of unity and friendship they had within the group. As the numbers in the group increased so rapidly, it would have been more difficult to sustain.

However, it is still beneficial to think about what we can share with one another. After all, everything we have is a gift from God, and so we can honour Him by sharing, but only if we do it voluntarily, by faith, and not out of a sense of duty.
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Kevin Haigh