All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s gracewas so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need. Acts 4:32-35
“There was more ot the economic koinōnia of the early Christians than meets the eye. If the outsiders saw just their seeming sense of oneness in heart and mind and their willingness to sell and share everything they had, to the extent that there was no needy among them, they would have thought of it as the microcosm of an ideal society. However, there was something in the interiors of the members that was not public knowledge: a cognitive dissonance or a mismatch between motives and actions.
Ananias and his wife Sapphire, being true to the spirit of their community and emulating Barnabas, sold a piece of their property intending to contribute to care for the needy. But they had second thoughts. They colluded with each other to keep part of the money from the property for themselves, and brought the rest to the apostles. It is not possible to pinpoint from the narrative the motive Ananias and Sapphira had.”
Babu Immanuel Venkataraman in Acts of the Apostles (India Commentary on the New Testament: Primalogue, 2015) 57-58.
This scholar from India helps us see that even when people are following God’s design, there can be more going on than meets the eye. There is always more going on in the “interior” of the members.
What’s going on in your interior? Are you enjoying and sharing God’s blessings richly? Special thanks to those who shared with the GTP South Asia campaign to build up God’s workers there.
Whether or not you give to this effort, attune to what God is doing in your interior. Is He nudging you to a deeper level of trust and generous giving because He wants you to depend on Him?