The Church: Helping in Time of Need

“During this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. This happened during the reign of Claudius. The disciples, each according to his ability, decided to provide help for the brothers living in Judea. This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul.” -Acts 11:27-30 (NIV).

Helping those in need is a principle taught by Jesus and promoted and practiced by the early church and by churches and Christians today. “The poor you will have with you,” Jesus taught. Also, He gave us the parable of the Good Samaritan to teach us that we are to reach out with compassion to those who hurt and are in need.

The passage cited for today’s devotional lists several leaders in the early church, all of whom had active roles in leading the believers to look with compassion on people in need and to respond and give to help alleviate the needs. Prophets had the ability to foresee and predict situations needing response. Agabus was one of those. The disciples, who may refer to the “early disciples,” and also seems in this verse to refer to the new converts in the Antioch church, and the brothers are fellow believers living in Judea, where the famine struck. The elders were those charged with overseeing the business of the church. Barnabas and Saul were the missionaries to Antioch, sent out from the Jerusalem church. They were highly interested in the welfare of believers at any location where churches had been established and believers lived.

Agabus had the ability to foresee the coming of the famine. He led the church at Antioch to begin a relief fund which later (maybe as long as ten years later during the reign of Claudius Caesar) assisted with the famine that did occur.

The example set by the early church of helping those in need became a principle for the church then and since. Those churches who genuinely reach out in love to share with others are fulfilling the mission assigned to disciples and the church by Christ. In recent years many nations have experienced floods, famine, poverty, illnesses and calamities. If we are not moved by compassion to share what we have with those who suffer, we need to examine our motives and rearrange our priorities. I am grateful that my late husband, the Rev. Grover Jones, had a heart for missions and for sharing. He preached it and by example led the people in the churches where he was pastor (and later those in the area he served as director of missions) to be very aware of how churches share resources with those in need. To give to others exemplifies a heart of love and compassion. The nature of Christian love is to share. -Ethelene Dyer Jones 08.14.2016