Discrimination among widows: A Growing Church P/1

 

       A WALK THROUGH THE BOOK OF ACTS

                                PART VI - I

 "I, Peter, as well as the other Apostles, were thrilled that more and more people turned to Jesus... However, we became aware of certain problems.... We found out that certain widows were being neglected.... And they were being neglected because they were not Hebraic Jews... They were Grecian Jews...Such kind of discrimation is completely against the Lord's teaching.... For all believers are one in Him.... We are all children of the living God.... Whatever our background.... We knew we must take measures to sort out this problem... We knew too that we could not handle this problem among ourselves.... Our task is to teach the Word of God and to pray for the Church.... We must select a group of other believers to take care of this task."... Please read the typed out attachment when you will learn how the Apostles solved the issue of food distribution....

                        ATTACHMENT A WALK THROUGH THE BOOK OF ACTS 

                                                                   PART VI - I

As the church began to grow, some problems began to arise, and a plan was developed to deal with these challenges as we can read in Acts 6:1-4

In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, "It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word."

A group of deacons was selected to oversee the distribution of food to make sure that all the widows, whether Greek or Jewish, would be properly taken care of. The basis for their selection was that they were to be men who were full of wisdom and full of the Holy Spirit. This task was obviously seen as very important and needed God's wisdom and the leading of the Holy Spirit in order for it to be done in a way that was honouring God. We may well want to ask if today the church upholds that same standard when selecting leaders, including leaders who take care of what we may consider the more mundane tasks.

Read Part Two HERE