Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.
Acts 6:1

We read here that very early in the History of the Christian Church, only about three years after the resurrection of Christ, there was a complaint by one group against another within the church that could have ruined the whole thing.

It almost sounds like a racial issue, as it describes the Greeks, (the Hellenists) complaining about their widows being neglected in favor of the Hebrews, but in reality these were all Jewish people; the “Hebrews” were those who were born and raised in the Holy Land and spoke Hebrew by preference and the “Hellenists” were Jews who had grown up in the rest of the Roman Empire, and spoke Greek by preference.

It’s just human nature,  (and not a particularly good trait of human nature) that we are constantly developing “us versus them” attitudes, finding reasons to consider ourselves as part of a more elite group and superior to others. We all struggle with this every day. We love to look down on other people and find reasons to think that somehow we’re better than them. If it’s not for race or socioeconomic status it will be about who has the right designer clothes or who drives the cooler car, or who has the best teeth. We’ll always be able to find something, if we look critically enough. The devil, the world, and my own sinful nature love to create these distinctions and make them seem so important, in their strategy to divide and conquer what God is doing in us.

As we keep reading in this chapter we see how God gave the Apostles holy wisdom to handle this lapse into the old sinful nature. He turned this exposure of our sinful tendencies into good, causing the people to realize that among those who follow Jesus, these differences that would otherwise divide us don’t matter.

Father, forgive my sinful tendency to invent reasons to look down on other people, just to make myself feel better. Thank You that in Your Kingdom we can be free of such divisions. Fill me with a genuine love for others that overcomes this evil habit, for the sake of Your Kingdom, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Pastor Dan Giles