And every day, being constantly in the temple with one accord, and breaking bread in [the] house, they received their food with gladness and simplicity of heart,
This verse shows the first Christians in Jerusalem at the temple and at home on the same day. Two questions follow. Why did they keep going to the old Jewish worship? And was the bread they broke the Lord's Supper or just a meal?
The believers had not yet made a visible break with the worship of Israel. Commentators see this as a stage of transition, not as failure.
There was as yet no clear break of the tie with Judaism, at least with the circumstances of its worship. We know that in principle the cross does make a break with all that belongs to the first man, and a break that cannot be repaired. But old habits were strong, and the joy overflowing in their souls was strong too. For the moment this made them, I may say, better Jews. There was something now within them far stronger than any drink that had ever filled the old skins of the law. Those skins were sure to burst before long.
But the temple could not hold what was now their own.
They still went to the temple every day. This came from the love that still waited on His ancient people. God allowed it and used it as a testimony to the nation. But the temple after all was not where they could enjoy what was peculiar to themselves. The bread in which they remembered what had made all things new to them was broken at home.
Some translations read "from house to house," as if the meeting moved from place to place.
They broke bread at home, in contrast with the temple. It might be the very same house in which the breaking of bread always took place. They would choose the most suitable place — near enough to reach easily, and large enough to hold as many brothers and sisters as possible.
The verse names two things: breaking bread, and eating food with gladness. Elsewhere in the Bible "breaking bread" can mean an ordinary meal.
Here the text draws a distinction between eating their food and breaking bread. It does so because elsewhere we do find breaking of bread used of an ordinary meal — in the last chapter of Luke, for instance. Here the breaking of bread was not the ordinary meal. It was the remembrance of the Lord Jesus, as He Himself appointed before He went on high. To prevent confusion, the Holy Spirit joins it with the ordinary taking of food.
The distinction is not only in the sense but in the sentence structure itself.
Two religious facts are stated in evident connection: their continuing with one accord in the temple, and their breaking bread at home. Both are distinct from their taking of food (which does refer to ordinary meals) with gladness and singleness of heart.
The verse says this happened "day by day." How often, then, should believers break bread?
Acts 2:46 is the clearest proof that when unusual circumstances call for it — and spirituality alone can judge that rightly — it is not an unauthorised thing to take the Lord's Supper every day.
Later in Acts the pattern changed. One writer traces the change to a cooling of that first zeal.
At the beginning they broke bread every day; Acts 2:42, 46. When gatherings had formed everywhere, and zeal had weakened, they met only on the first day of the week, the day of the Lord's resurrection. This was not a rule, but Luke speaks of it as a custom well known everywhere among the Christians.
The joy did not stay in the meetings. It changed the taste of plain daily routine.
Eating with gladness and singleness of heart tells us that the common routine of life had taken on a fresh, delightful fragrance because of their common joy in the Lord.
Older translations read "singleness of heart" where the ESV has "generous hearts." One writer names what filled those hearts.
And how happy they were! They had Christ, and that was enough. No system of theology, creeds, set of forms or anything of the kind that historical Christianity is full of — "Nothing but Christ." Joy and singleness of heart are two great marks of the true believer.
One writer ties the people's goodwill back to the way they had once viewed the Lord Himself.
Even ordinary meals shone with the happiness of His presence. How much more the meal where all His self-sacrifice was before their eyes! So they praised God. And all the people looked on them with the same favour they had once shown Christ Himself in His earlier days.
- Transition — they had not yet broken with the temple, and God still used their visits as a testimony to the nation.
- Home — they broke bread at home, not in the temple and not from house to house.
- Distinction — breaking bread here is the remembrance of the Lord, named apart from the ordinary meal.
- Daily — the first believers broke bread every day; meeting on the first day of the week came later, as a custom and not a rule.
- Overflow — the joy of their worship reached their meals too, and outsiders looked on them with favour.
praising God, and having favour with all the people; and the Lord added [to the assembly] daily those that were to be saved.
Luke ends his account of the church's first days with a scene from ordinary life. The believers praised God. Their neighbours thought well of them. The numbers grew every day. Two questions sit inside the verse: who did the adding, and who are the ones "being saved"?
This praise needed no organising. It came from people who had found everything they needed in one Person.
And how happy they were! They had Christ, and that was enough. They had no system of theology, no creeds, no set of forms — none of the things historical Christianity is full of. "Nothing but Christ." Joy and singleness of heart are two great marks of the true believer.
The neighbours could see a change in how these people lived.
People round about took account of them. They saw the kind of people they were. There was a change in those people, and they now had a good report. Before, they had been taken up with rites and ceremonies in the Jewish faith. Now all this was changed. They were showing love to each other. They were showing features of Christ in their daily walk — oh, what a change there was! People saw it, took account of it, and it made them think.
The goodwill was wide, but it was not universal.
Their praise to God was spontaneous and genuine. At this moment the people in general looked on them with favour. The leaders, of course, did not share it (ch. 4:1-2).
One Person does the adding here — not the convert, and not the preacher.
Christ adds to the Church... No one can "join" this Church. No pastor, however successful, can "add to the membership." It is Christ who does the adding. All merely voluntary "joining," or human "adding," is like waxwork apples fastened to a living tree. It is like an artificial limb attached to a live body. He is the One who "builds" His Church (Matthew 16:18). It is His body, and every true believer is a member. Now here is my little finger; it is a member of my body. But how did it become a member? Or when did it ever "join"? It did not join by any choice of its own, and no clever surgeon attached it. God, my Maker, joined it to my body.
The company stayed real as it grew. No one drifted in for the atmosphere.
The early Church had such power and holiness that the unsaved would not dare to join themselves to it. They felt they did not have what these born-again believers had. But when any were saved, they were added to the Lord, not to men or organisations. They found themselves naturally one with the believers, already joined to the Church of God.
Commentators differ on what this phrase means. One reading ties it to the judgment coming on a nation that had rejected its Messiah.
So the assembly was formed. Day by day the Lord added to it the remnant of Israel. They were to be saved from the judgments that were to fall on a nation which had rejected the Son of God, their Messiah. And, thank God, they were saved from yet deeper ruin. God brought into the assembly those whom He spared in Israel. He owned that assembly in this way, by the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Others read the words as naming a class of people. They link the phrase to a question once put to Jesus about how many would be saved.
"And the Lord added together those that were being saved" — that is, a class of people marked out in this way, sharers in salvation. Someone had asked the Lord about that class during His life: "Lord, will those who are saved be few?" (Luke 13:23). Day by day people could now see that class growing in numbers.
What this verse describes did not stay that way for long.
At the beginning "the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved" (Acts 2:47). Soon "false brothers" crept in and weeds were sown. The house was filled with all kinds of vessels, and a faithful person was to keep himself clean from them. It was filled with a form of godliness without power, and the faithful one was to turn away from that.
- Upward. Praise came first. It needed no system of forms; Christ was enough for them.
- Outward. Changed lives won public goodwill. Neighbours saw love and the features of Christ where rites and ceremonies used to be.
- Inward. The Lord added; no one joined. Membership in His church is His act, like a limb joined to a living body, not a name added to a roll.
- Guarded. The company stayed real. Outsiders felt the difference and did not dare attach themselves.
- Warned. That beginning did not last. False brothers crept in. The verse now shows where the church started and measures what came after.