Principle 5: Had Everything In Common
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.1 (Acts 2:42-47, emphasis added)
In this article…
Seeing the Gospel
A recent study by The Barna Group showed that 16-29 year olds are, “more skeptical of and resistant to Christianity than were people of the same age just a decade ago”. Why are young people becoming “skeptical and resistant” toward the Christian faith? Are there not enough churches? …enough Christian programs? …enough Christian resources. No, the root of the problem lies elsewhere:
When young people were asked to identify their impressions of Christianity, one of the common themes was "Christianity is changed from what it used to be" and "Christianity in today’s society no longer looks like Jesus." These comments were the most frequent unprompted images that young people called to mind, mentioned by one-quarter of both young non-Christians (23%) and born again Christians (22%).2
Young people are saying, “If the Gospel is true then it should have impact on individual lives and on our communities.” They are right! They want to see the Gospel in action among the followers of Christ and not just hear about it.
Living the Gospel
The early Christians had none of the resources that are available to us today: easy transportation, wide assortment of communication tools (phone, email, web, mass media, etc), religious freedom, easily attainable copies of the Bible, enormous financial resources, Christian everything (books, magazines, music, movies, t-shirts, etc), etc. But, what they did have was a firm commitment to live out the Gospel in intimate, multi-ethnic community (Acts 2:5, Acts 2:42-47). That was enough to transform the entire Roman Empire within a few short decades and plant seeds of Christian community that would quickly spread throughout the world. We would be wise to follow their example.
In the original Greek, Acts 2:42 looks like this (the small numbers represent the original word order):3
The Greek word 
(koinonia) is translated here as “fellowship”. Koinonia is the word that is often used in the Bible to describe the community that was shared by the early Christians (1 Co 10:16, Gal 2:9, Php 2:1, Phm 1:6, Heb 13:16, 1 Jn 1:3, 1 Jn 1:7, etc.)
What does koinonia mean? Bob Gillam provides a thorough definition of koinonia in the article, “The Importance of Fellowship in a New Testament Church”. He explains:
Koinonia is used nineteen times in the New Testament and in addition to being translated as “fellowship” it is also translated by the words, “contribution,” “sharing,” and “participation.” A close study of the usage of this word shows that action is always included in its meaning. Fellowship, you see, is not just being together, it is doing together! This is a point almost universally ignored by Christian groups today.4
In the article, “Christian Fellowship” J. Hampton Keathley explains:
There are two main ideas with this word: (a) “to share together, take part together” in the sense of partnership or participation, and (b) “to share with” in the sense of giving to others.5
The sharing community
Koinonia is a joint participation in which people are actively involved in sharing with one another. So, what types of things do we “share together” or “take part together” in the New Culture? Here are some examples:
- homes / meals (Acts 2:46)
- successes and failures (1 Co 12:26)
- financial resources and possessions (2 Co 8:4)
- strong relationships (Php 4:1)
- worship (Acts 2:46-47)
- ministry (Php 4:3)
- opinions and perspectives (Gal 2:14)
This is the true meaning of koinonia as it was taught and modeled by Christ, the apostles, and the early church. Unfortunately, many Christians have come to view “fellowship” primarily as attending a Sunday morning service. Worship meetings are important and helpful–but, it is impossible for us to share our lives if we only participate in a worship service for an hour or two every week.
A give-and-take mentality helps to maintain a healthy balance in the relationships within a biblical, multi-ethnic community. If one person/group is always giving and another is always receiving it can create a false sense of superiority on the part of the givers and a false sense of inferiority on the part of the receivers. If we follow the biblical model we will avoid this mistake. Jesus modeled the importance of receiving when he began his conversation with the Samaritan woman by asking her to give him a drink (John 4:7). His humble willingness to be served by the woman allowed them to begin their relationship as co-sharers. As John Perkins writes in With Justice for All:
She was at the well to get water; (Jesus) asked for a drink. Notice that he didn’t just talk about her need; He brought His own need. Her need was water; His need was water. And by asking her to give, by asking her to help Him, He affirmed her dignity. Man’s most deeply felt need is to have his dignity affirmed. He wants to feel his somebody-ness – to know that he is a person of worth. That is what the woman at the well needed to know. She needed to know that she was as good as a Jew.6
Cooperation vs. koinonia
As I have been a part of efforts to build multi-ethnic partnerships and community over the last ten years I have observed a sad reality: in the rare cases where Christians of different ethnicities do come together it often becomes a cooperation rather than a koinonia. There is a willingness to “get along” and cooperate on a specific task (conference, outreach, service project, etc.) but the relationships remain at a surface level and there is very little “life sharing” which takes place. Sometimes these cooperations have some degree of success (and sometimes they don’t) but the relationships usually feel forced, artificial, and short-lived. I walk away from the experience feeling like, “There must be more!” I’m not saying that multi-ethnic cooperations or partnerships are a bad idea — they can be helpful. But, there is a danger if we think that we are fulfilling the biblical call to multi-ethnic koinonia by participating in such activities.
The excellent book, United By Faith, describes how many multi-ethnic churches can get stuck at the cooperation level rather than achieving true koinonia (p.167):
The second type of congregation that we found is the pluralist multiracial congregation. In this type of congregation, physical integration has occured in the sense that members of different racial groups choose to gather in the same church and the same worship service. They are all members of the same congregation. Although this physical integration is notable, members do not move beyond coexistence to real integration of social networks. While official committees may be multiracial, the informal social networks still remain segregated by race. In some cases, there may even be an underlying sense of “us” and “them,” which may or may not be accompanied by a certain degree of rivalry.7
That is part of why we encourage organizations to focus on building biblical, multi-ethnic community rather than “increasing their level of diversity”. An increase in diversity will often not translate into an increase in multi-ethnic koinonia — sometimes it even has the opposite effect. As ethnic diversity increases there is greater temptation for the individuals to form ethnic-specific groups which merely “get along” or coexist. The biblical model of the New Culture calls us to not be content with this type of multi-ethnic cooperation and to push forward until we experience true multi-ethnic koinonia as we see it in the early church.
Footnotes:
1 The Holy Bible : New International Version. electronic ed. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984, S. Ac 2:42-47
2 (2007-09-24). A New Generation Expresses its Skepticism and Frustration with Christianity. The Barna Update, Retrieved August 21, 2008, from http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdateNarrow&BarnaUpdateID=280
3 Schwandt, John ; Collins, C. John: The ESV English-Greek Reverse Interlinear New Testament. Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2006; 2006, S. Ac 2:42 (emphasis added)
4 Gillam, B The Importance of Fellowship in a New Testament Church. Retrieved August 21, 2008, from http://www.bible.org/page.php?page_id=437
5 Keathley, J Christian Fellowship. Retrieved August 21, 2008, from http://www.bible.org/page.php?page_id=935
6 Perkins, J (1982). With justice for all. Ventura, California: Regal Books.
7 DeYoung, C, Emerson, M, Yancey, G, & Chai Kim, K (2003). United by faith: The multiracial congregation as an answer to the problem of race. New York: Oxford University Press.
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