Duane’s Blog:
Thoughts on things
We left off yesterday with the Apology of Aristides. When I was first introduced to the apology, it really got my attention. As a good and proper American, the understandings of socialism were cloaked in political realities, but these descriptions of a community in relationship with one another struck a sincere chord that resonates with the rest of scripture, and dovetailed perfectly with what we read in Acts.
Today, there are some who pursue living a socialist-type lifestyle, I know of a community in Texas, acting as a commercial entity/co-op type community. In Israel, some agricultural communities operate as a ‘kibbutz’ – a community structured around shared ideals.
There is a Finnish community of Christian believers who operate a moshav called Yad Hashmona – similar to a kibbutz but with more personal ownership. So if full-on communal living appeals to you, there are choices.
While going full socialism is an option here in 2024, I’m not convinced it’s the best option for my family and friends. Indeed, I doubt we’d see much buy-in at all. Putting others ahead of ourselves is foreign to our upbringing, our national heritage, our flesh, and giving away ones work is a difficult concept to grasp.
Service – the actual application.
Jesus tells us in John 13 that they will know us by our love one for another, which means we have to figure out how to show that love in a way that is apparent. How then, do you show love to someone?
By doing for your friends what they CAN do for themselves. When there is evident need, most of us are quick to lend a hand, I’m talking about going beyond. I’m talking about meeting the needs of those that don’t need it. I think this type of service is part of the symbolism around the washing of the feet at the Last Supper. There is a giving of ourselves when we do something FOR somebody else.
Now a reminder – we can’t act out of expectation. We can’t do it out of requirement, it must come from a pure heart. Also. I don’t have much expectation that this type of lifestyle will happen before Jesus comes back.
Conclusion
Why serve? Because service is the working of the fruits of the spirit. We generate works, and works are service one for another, in any of a million ways.
This 2-part series dovetails nicely with my Foundations Bible study, where I’m going teaching on Hebrews 6.1-3, and the list contained within. Jesus tells us to produce much fruit and prove to be His disciples. Pray on that.
The Apology of Aristides (again)
“Now the Christians, O King, by going about and seeking, have found the truth. For they know and trust in God, the Maker of heaven and earth, who has no fellow. From him they received those commandments which they have engraved on their minds, and which they observe in the hope and expectation of the world to come.
For this reason they do not commit adultery or immorality; they do not bear false witness, or embezzle, nor do they covet what is not theirs.
They honor father and mother, and do good to those who are their neighbors. Whenever they are judges, they judge uprightly. They do not worship idols made in the image of man. Whatever they do not wish that others should do to them, they in turn do not do; and they do not eat the food sacrificed to idols.
Those who oppress them they exhort and make them their friends. They do good to their enemies. Their wives, O King, are pure as virgins, and their daughters are modest. Their men abstain from all unlawful sexual contact and from impurity, in the hope of recompense that is to come in another world.
As for their bondmen and bondwomen, and their children, if there are any, they persuade them to become Christians; and when they have done so, they call them brethren without distinction.
They refuse to worship strange gods; and they go their way in all humility and cheerfulness. Falsehood is not found among them. They love one another; the widow’s needs are not ignored, and they rescue the orphan from the person who does him violence.
He who has gives to him who has not, ungrudgingly and without boasting. When the Christians find a stranger, they bring him to their homes and rejoice over him as a true brother. They do not call brothers those who are bound by blood ties alone, but those who are brethren after the Spirit and in God.
When one of their poor passes away from the world, each provides for his burial according to his ability. If they hear of any of their number who are imprisoned or oppressed for the name of the Messiah, they all provide for his needs, and if it is possible to redeem him, they set him free. If they find poverty in their midst, and they do not have spare food, they fast two or three days in order that the needy might be supplied with the necessities. They observe scrupulously the commandments of their Messiah, living honestly and soberly as the Lord their God ordered them. Every morning and every hour they praise and thank God for his goodness to them; and for their food and drink they offer thanksgiving.
If any righteous person of their number passes away from the world, they rejoice and thank God, and escort his body as if he were setting out from one place to another nearby. When a child is born to one of them, they praise God. If it dies in infancy, they thank God the more, as for one who has passed through the world without sins. But if one of them dies in his iniquity or in his sins, they grieve bitterly and sorrow as over one who is about to meet his doom.
Such, O King, is the commandment given to the Christians, and such is their conduct.”
Translated by Rendel Harris [London: Cambridge, 1893]