Even when I believe passionately in something regarding my faith, there are usually one or two verses in the Bible that I cannot answer for. I like to interpret Scripture at face value and not with the purpose of proving my perspective, so when I read 20 verses that seem to point in one direction and 2 verses that seem contradictory, I have to say that my conviction is the same although I cannot understand God's purpose in those 2 verses.
Today was a good day, though, as I had quite a revelation on one of those Scriptures that people use to question my belief about simplicity. Before today, I had no way to justify Jesus' words in Mark 10:
"Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands..."
Growing up I was taught this meant that whatever you plant will be returned to you a hundredfold...so if you plant a seed of $100 (in tithes), you will receive it back a hundred times over in this lifetime.
The "now in this time" part of Jesus' words are what always got me. Does this really mean we should expect to gain great wealth if we just plant a little? I tried to tell people that the reward for obedience in giving to our neighbor was the promise of heaven, but that sidesteps Jesus words: "now in this time." And I'm not okay with sidestepping Jesus' words, especially remembering another well known passage:
"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well."
It truly sounds like our lives will be easy and plentiful if we are obedient, but that doesn't seem right in the context of the whole Bible. We can be sure righteous men have suffered on this earth.
But today...today my eyes were opened to this verse. My thoughts are not original but another product of Ron Sider's book. He beautifully describes the community of the early church in Jerusalem where there was a common purse and nobody was poor, referencing Acts 4:34-35:
"There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them;...and distribution was made to each as any had need."
They didn't have private property; they shared everything they had with one another and made themselves gloriously available to each other. In light of this realization, it is easy to understand how someone who gives up his own house gains 100 houses. When a person joins a community in which all belongings are shared, recognizing that they are not our own but God's, he gains availability to the belongings of the rest of that community. This is the kind of economic security Jesus was referring to in Mark...not that tithing $100 will eventually make Christian's millionaires who store up their treasures on earth.
"The common purse of Jesus' disciples symbolized their amazing availability to each other. In that kind of community, there would be genuine economic security. Each person would indeed have many more loving brothers and sisters than before. The economic resources available in difficult times would in fact be compounded a hundredfold and more" (Sider).
So, it is true. If we choose to be part of this beautiful community of followers by "seeking first his kingdom and his righteousness," the love that causes us to meet eachother's needs "will be added to us as well."
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