I’d be very interested to hear your take on the link that mawhorter posted.

-Danny

“They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart,praising God and having favor with all the people And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.”

That’s pretty powerful stuff if you think about it. They were practically living in a socialistic community. Socialism has been shown to almost never work, because it depends upon so much sacrifice of the individual. The free-enterprise economy uses our greedy and competitive nature to its advantage; it depends upon it. However, the early Christians were able to make it work.

In the film “God Grew Tired of Us”, one of the Sudan refugees talks about how lonely American culture is. I think I agree. We seem so intent on having our own things, and our own accomplishments that it tends to separate us from other people.

That we love our brother by all that we own.

For those of you who know the song I don’t feel like I even need to say more. That song sticks with me.

I agree with you that this is an often ignored sin in our churches. 1 Cor 5:11 says that we aren’t even supposed to eat with people that consider themselves Christian but are greedy. This is so foreign to our church culture. People will acknowledge that materialism is bad but I think that people usually define that as being “spending more money on myself then I currently do”. People need to be taught that true surrender involves self-denial and sacrifice. To love your neighbor as you love yourself mean that others needs trump our wants, just as we would do for yourselves.

My husband has written an essay on the biblical mandate for radical self-denial. You can read that here if you are interested.

I agree with you that this is a very under recognized sin in our society. 1 Cor 5:11 says that we aren’t even supposed to eat with people that claim to be Christians but are greedy. This is so foreign to our churches. Some churches even go so far as to teach that if you are faithful to God then you will be financially secure or even rich. Christians need to be taught that true surrender means self-denial and sacrifice. We need to give up our own rights and desires for the sake of others. This is what it really means to love your neighbor as you love yourself. Their needs trump your wants, just as you would do for yourself.

My husband wrote an essay on this topic in an attempt to share our new convictions with friends and family as well as people on the web. If you are interested you can read his essay here.