Belonging

Acts 2:38–47

“Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the LORD our God will call.” With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who 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.”

In his booklet, The Calvary Road, Roy Hession compares our relationships to a spoked wheel with Jesus at tge centre, the closer we get to God at the centre, the closer we get to each other. The Apostle Paul talked about non-conformity to the pattern of this world (Rom 12:2), and practically that’s what the early church did as we read in today’s verses, St. Paul wrote, “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others (Rom 12:3-5).” We belong to each other just as we belong to God. The pattern of the world today seeks to divide us into neo-Marxist broad categories of “oppressor” and “oppressed”, rather than our common identity in God. To suggest that all of us share the same fundamental identity marker, God’s image, is to undermine this dichotomy. St. Teresa remarked that this is also the reason why we have no peace, “it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other”, because we belong together to Jesus Christ, who is the firstborn of creation, before all things, and in whom all things consist (Col 1:15-18), the centre of it all, one identity, not having group rights based on race, gender, or class, but one humanity, even moreso, one in our baptism in Him (v. 38). Did we just create a new identity category? No, religion, especially Christianity is voluntarily entered into by anyone at all, irrespective of race, gender, and class. The Bible affirms, “You are all privileged children of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Gal 3:26-28).” Let us strive to refresh each other, endeavour to genuinely connect with, serve, and encourage our brothers and sisters in Christ, the LORD said: “A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so also you must love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another (John 13:34-35).”