Much is made of the radical generosity of those first followers of Jesus. Acts 2:44-45 tells us that “All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.”

Not everyone did this (as other stories show), but many of them did. It was family looking after family. Some had left homes, jobs and biological families, had become adopted by God through faith in Jesus, and were a new movement for God’s kingdom. They provided for each other not only because of love, but out of necessity.

Plus, the poverty in that part of the world was almost unimaginable. So it was powerful to see the disciples giving practical and material help for daily living.

M. Scott Peck writes: “there was a quality about the way these people talked to each other, cried together, laughed together… It was as if the scent of love had drifted down the alley and could draw people like bees to a flower. And people started to say, “I don’t understand this yet, but I want in.”*

What are the ways you can be generous to others because of the generosity God has so clearly shown to you? Is it with money? Is it with goods? Cooking? Teaching? Your time? Love? 

In the end, your generosity isn’t about how great you are, but about helping others, and ultimately, about how great God is.

And who wouldn’t want to know more about a God like that?

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Notes:

–*M. Scott Peck, Further Along the Road Less Traveled: The Unending Journey Toward Spiritual Growth (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993), 150.

–Bible quotes are from the NIV.