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A few moments ago I was reading the 11th Chapter of Acts. As I’m slowly reading through the book, I’m trying to remain in the framework of Luke’s intention for writing the book. He was writing up a specific account with some goal in mind, explaining the action of the earliest followers of Christ. If you’re familiar with Acts 11, you’ll remember that it includes the account of the church at Antioch, where “the disciples (of Jesus) were first called Christians.” It’s the place where they were, for their love and obedience, they were known as Little Christs. That’s an amazing honor. It then reads:

And one of them named Agabus stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world (this took place in the days of Claudius). So the disciples determined, everyone according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers living in Judea. And they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabus and Saul. [Acts 11.28-30, emphasis added]

Jesus had told his followers that the world, specifically those who hadn’t joined their Order, would be able to identify them by their love for one another. By their care, concern, compassion, and ultimately submission to the goodness of something greater than themselves. And this makes sense right? It lines up well. 

Here’s what confuses me. In our day, there’s a great trend towards volunteerism and social agendas mixed with the Gospel. And some of it’s good, because we should be feeding the hungry and clothing the naked. We should, as Christians, be charitable and benevolent, serving and giving. But in Luke’s documentation (his story) of the earliest Christians, he specifically points out that they were giving towards other Christians.

I have to believe by the telling of history that these earliest Christians were probably generous towards non-Disciples during the days of Claudius and the sufferings of the Roman Empire. But here we have Luke specifying, for some purpose, that the Christians were benevolent to each other as a natural reaction to the circumstances.

If we abstract it from the context of feeding the poor during famine… maybe we learn that our generosity and grace towards our brothers and sisters in Christ is absolutely vital. So whether we want to call people names or fling our rhetorical poo across the Evangelical room, we’ll be ruining our cause until we learn to be the Church united.

How will the world know us? By our love.