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It's not long after Jesus had left the earth, leaving the disciples in charge. Recently, the disciples have been empowered with the Holy Spirit. The "church" is still in its infancy stages, but it's growing by huge numbers everyday.

Then we come across a problem...

Acts 6:1-7 details the issue...

There's discrimination in the church. The Greek widows aren't getting the same amount of food as the Aramaic (Jewish) widows. All the new believers are up in arms and they go to the twelve disciples to straighten this issue out. Something must be done!

The disciples called everyone together and basically said "hey look guys, we really can't act as the police all the time and still have time to pray and preach; y'know... do the stuff Jesus wanted us to do".

The people were thrilled. So, the disciples went on about appointing seven "spirit-filled" followers as leaders to take care of the administrative duties. This freed the disciples to spend their time praying and preaching.

Because of this decision, the church grew... even more than it already had. The amazing part is even some of the priests, who didn't believe that Jesus was the Messiah, came to know who Jesus was because the disciples were able to concentrate on their calling while others handled the "administrative duties".

The point

I'm reminded of the song "If We Are The Body" by Casting Crowns. The song basically says that if we are the body of Christ, then why aren't we doing the things that God told us to do?

Here's the problem, there's discrimination in the early church. How many times have we felt God telling us to talk to someone who may be outside of our "social circle"; someone who may be a "lower class" than we are.

Jesus didn't care who people were, or what status they held, or what class they were from. Honestly, He did more rebuking of those who were "powerful" or "popular" because they had let their position go to their heads. We see the concept that God doesn't care about your status several times in scripture in 1 Corinthians 12:13, Galatians 3:26-29 and Colossians 3:11. And, Jesus Himself was made fun of because of how He reached out to those who were "evil" (Matthew 9:9-13, Mark 2:13-17, Luke 5:27-31).

So, the question is, how will you react the next time you hear God talking to you about talking to someone about Him... especially if they are "less than" perfect.

Let John 3:15-17 sink into you as you go about your life today...

Be blessed!
PA