Character of the Assembly
They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Acts 2:42 NASB
Continually devoting – This is a mouthful of Greek–proskarterountes. The word is derived from pros (toward) and kartereo (to be strong, steadfast and firm). The picture we see from this word is a group of people totally committed. They were strong and steadfast in their pursuit of understanding and cooperating. They did not settle for mediocre. They wanted all they could get. We would describe these people as ones who hung on every word, zealous, hungry, perhaps even demanding.
It is quite interesting that the verb kartereo found in this word is also connected to bearing burdens and enduring severe hardship voluntarily. Does this sound familiar? A synonym of kartereo is meno, Greek word Yeshua used when He talked about “abiding” in him. You can’t go very far in the book of Acts without finding the same themes over and over. These people were characterized by Yeshua’s command, “Love one another as I have loved you.”
Today we see devotion as a kind of romantic icon. “Devoted to you” often means that I’m head over heels in love with you. It’s all about the Hollywood version of romance. Unfortunately, devotion in our culture is about as solid as the latest craze. It doesn’t last. But the followers of the First Century knew a different kind of devotion. These people understood that their lives were indissolubly intertwined. They literally lived for each other. Did you know that they actively cared for each other’s physical needs? No one felt alone, unwanted, unnecessary or ignored. It was the congregation of complete involvement. If I hurt, someone helped. If I faltered, someone fixed. If I rejoiced, someone was rejuvenated. If I was crushed, someone cared.
Isn’t this what we seek today? Are you tired of a church that is only a building or a weekly obligation? Do you hunger and thirst for a community of belonging? Do you want a community of acceptance under grace? I do. I long for the peace of being continually devoted to the community of God’s redeemed. I am ready to give all I have to that community. I need these people in my life. I want a life that is continually devoted to them.
Do you long for God’s version of the fellowship of believers? Are you continually devoting yourself to that vision? It will mean taking active steps away from religion. It will mean openness and vulnerability. But God is there, waiting for us to learn what love really is. Don’t give up searching. You are not alone.
Topical Index: continually devoted, proskarterountes, assembly, church, Acts 2:42
Skip, to every question in your last two paragraphs, my reply is a resounding YES!! Thank you again for sharing your heart……your deepest longings.
Dearest Helen,
I have been happy that you are a part of this particular assembly! You are fun and earnest and where you are coming from is important to me. I like that you are not afraid to let people know it, too.
Love in Christ, Laurita
Dear Laurita,
What a precious message to me!! Thank you!!
Quoting from your post: “where you are coming from” and “not afraid to let people know it,” I wish I might understand those phrases. Are we allowed to share our email addresses here?
In any event, I am blessed by your post, and pray God’s blessings upon your day and upon your Life in Him!
Because He is, I am
Helen
I love this post. I have experienced this with the people I am currently associated with. This kind of love does exist and I can only long for the day when the all mankind will love in this manner. I was diagnosed with colorectal cancer back in January. It metastasized to my liver in May. I am not sure how many days I have left, but, I do know that the father has allowed me to know the love of brethren, true brethren, ones who stick closer than a brother! I am so thankful!
Dear William (or do your friends call you “Bill”? : )
Your post is a blessing to me!! Your faith in our God is so sweetly apparent in your words. Thank you for sharing Love with us!!
Helen
This email resinates with me, not because i wish it were something out there that i could find but rather, because i am, a part of such a community. I am fortunate and blessed to be a part of a community of people who search for truth through Messiah and Torah. I am blessed because community is not just a fancy word preached about in a sermon, but rather it is a description of who we really are. Buildings are buildings but community is genuine. It took several years, but what started with six people in a living room has grown into a community that acts like a family. Where broken people are accepted yet challenged. Where accountability is desired, and encouragement comes natural. For everyone who longs for this post from Skip, i encourage you, it is possible but it begins with you. Start meeting with one other person who desires such community and transparency. Be ok with disagreement. Judgement is what destroys this type of community. But if you start and pursue this, it can happen, God willing. But as the post says it takes proskarterountes…
As I read this message this morning….my heart broke and tears filled my eyes….so many long for such a ‘community’ … where one really is family. Even having a family that is family would suffice – but the ‘church/synagogue/fellowshp’ and the ‘religion’ that develops when a hierarchy is put into place and egos burst forth … only leads to … if one objects to the vision or demands transparency – well, then those troublemakers…those jezebels are ‘put outside the camp’ .. I guess until they learn how to keep their mouth shut.
Yes, I’m speaking out of a hurt place … but I’m sure I’m not the only one. May Mashiach come soon.
Dear Pam,
I share that “hurt place” with you, and Amen! to your prayer “Mashiach come soon”
In His Love,
Helen.
I have looked for this kind of community for so long that the dream has faded and the hope has deferred. I’m not talking about an on line community… I mean a real physical place where people live together and allow and even help one another to grow in the way they are being led by the Father. WITHOUT argument over all the little issues of observance. Over the past few years I have given up on this kind of community and more recently I’ve decided that my husband and I are the only true community I have. Everyone wants to rule, no one wants to just be together and take care of one another… the people we have had contact with in this way have been looking to take advantage or looking to control or to just be lazy and have someone else do all the work for them. I just don’t see it, nor do I trust as I did at one time… it is a sad reality. I do pray that those who read this message and hear the call will find each other and build community together. It is the only way we will be able to live in the near future as we wait for the Olam Habah.
Learning to live in community is probably the hardest thing that YHVH asks of us today; but He IS asking us to work on it today, and not wait until after He returns. In the “world to come” I hope that much of what we struggle through today will be resolved much more easily — but that is just wishful thinking on my part because I don’t know that such will be true. Perhaps this is part of reason the Lord’s return has not yet occurred. He wants us to learn to live with our brothers now. We may spend another thousand years dealing with our own lack of vulnerability and our unwillingness to bear the quirkiness of our neighbor without offense. Even in the communities established with the best of intentions, our egos will get in the way eventually, unless we are WILLING to be hurt by our brothers and ready to forgive them when we are injured.
Thanks for this word, Skip. I need to chew on this.
Thank you Skip for this “word” today. We all earnestly desire a community where we can be open and honest, and accepted. Since I was widowed I need this more then ever. When my husband was alive, it was easy to be a community of two. But life happens, people die, illness visits, and we need more. I am so blessed to be part of a small community, our local “church” group. We are quite diverse, yet may express our own viewpoints without demeaning other viewpoints. It is good to “love and be loved” in true brotherly love. Fear has no place in such a fellowship.
Thanks, Skip. I like James chapter 2 – especially verse 18.