Nobody Lacked

The Story

In the days after Pentecost, something remarkable happened in Jerusalem. Thousands of people had come to faith in Jesus. Many were poor. Some had come from far away and stayed.

And the believers began taking care of one another in a way the world had never seen. “The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul.” No one said, this is mine. They shared everything.

People who owned land or houses sold them and brought the money to the apostles, who gave it out to anyone who had a need. The Bible says, “Neither was there any among them that lacked.”

One of those givers was a man named Joseph from Cyprus. The apostles had nicknamed him Barnabas, “The son of consolation.” He sold a field and laid the money at the apostles’ feet.

Years later, a prophet named Agabus warned that a great famine was coming. The young church in Antioch, many of them Gentiles, decided that “every man according to his ability” would send help to the believers in Judea. And they sent it with Barnabas and Saul.

Reflection