This is community. The people were eating together, sharing what they had, rejoicing together, and God added to their numbers daily. I notice two things about this:
1. Community is attractive to outsiders. People want to belong. They want to connect with something larger than themselves. I think that's part of the draw of attending sporting events, concerts, helping causes, etc. When people see people living in community, they desire to be a part of it, at least on some level (certainly there are some things that people would just think are freaks).
2. The church didn't cloister itself. We've created our own little Christian subculture. You can go to a Christian gym, Christian bookstore, Christian school, Christian employer, etc. All this as well as worship in a church that is not welcoming to outsiders. But that's not how the early church did it, evidently. They went to the temple everyday (which was a Jewish temple) and lived among everybody else.
What would it look like if we really lived in community among everybody else? I think a whole lot more people would be attracted to Jesus. JM
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