A Clash in the Community

Acts 6:1–7 ESV

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. And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them. And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

Playing favorites. It takes different forms. Most of the time, it is that one person who gets special treatment above everyone else. We see it in the story of Joseph, the oldest son of Jacob’s beloved wife Rachel. Joseph had 10 older brothers, but HE got a custom-designed jacket! The ten older brothers all worked as shepherds in the fields, but Joseph stayed near the house, helping his dad run things. Clearly the favorite.

That’s one form of favoritism.

But there is another form—a reverse of the first one. It is when someone or a group of people get singled out as the UN-favorite. The kid in school everyone picks on. That particular individual that we would rather avoid. That whole side of the family that gets looked down upon for one reason or another.

In today’s passage, we see favoritism being played out in the church. We learned earlier that the 3000 souls who came to Christ on the Day of Pentecost had a real transformation in their hearts. They built a community where they looked after each other. Those who had plenty readily shared with those who had need. Wealthy people willingly sold property and gave the money to provide for their impoverished brothers and sisters.

But, as is the way of things, old attitudes began to creep in. Old resentments rose up, and people began to decide who was deserving and undeserving. One group of Jews decided to exclude another group from the daily provisions.

The Family Feud

To understand what was going on and why, we need to have a quick history lesson.

In 335 BC, Alexander the Great rose to power and began the great Macedonian empire. As he went, Alexander worked to spread Greek culture throughout the world. After Alexander died, his empire was split between his four greatest generals. They decided to go beyond Alexander’s desire of spreading Greek culture. They wanted to turn everyone into Greeks. They would tear down temples of other nations and order everyone to worship the Greek gods. They somehow created a culture that made you ashamed to be anything else but Greek. Even the Jews were affected by it. Many Jews were convinced to abandon some of their traditions, like circumcising their baby boys, and to adopt Greek culture and dressing more like Greeks. They quit speaking Hebrew and Aramaic and spoke only Greek. These are the Hellenist Jews. The Jews who didn’t give into peer pressure, who stayed true to their traditions, looked down on the Hellenist Jews as as people who had turned their backs on what it means to be a Jew.

But even though they had abandoned many of the Jewish traditions in favor of Greek culture, these people still were Jews. They went to the Tabernacle to worship. They still believed in God and in the Messiah that was promised. So they were present when the apostles preached about Jesus. They came to believe in Jesus just like the traditional Jews, what our scripture calls the Hebrews, did. Everyone is one big, happy family in Christ, right?

How many of you know that letting go of a grudge is easier said than done?

The local Jews, the ones who had held onto their Jewishness, felt like the one who had “abandoned” their Jewish heritage were less deserving of the daily distribution of food and supplies. Maybe it was a malicious, “serves you right” type of thing. Maybe it was just an “us and them” attitude that the Hellenist Jews were outsiders and should take care of themselves. Whatever their thinking, the result was the same. Widows were being excluded from the daily distribution because of the particular group they belonged to.

Even though we are children of God, we are still human. We make mistakes. We have disagreements, and we can get angry—even with other Christians. The book of Acts makes it clear that dissent within the church has existed as long as the church has existed. So what do we do when there is a clash in the Community of faith? Let’s look at what the church in Acts did.

Responding vs Reacting

What do I mean when I talk about responding versus reacting? A reaction is automatic. When you have allergies, your body automatically exhibits negative changes, like sneezing or a rash. The same can be said about how we handle certain situations that come along. It can trigger deep emotions. We can have an immediate reaction—positive or negative.

A response, on the other hand, takes thought. It acknowledges whatever reaction we experience, but it is not ruled by that reaction.

The Hebrew Christians were apparently bothered by the Hellenist Christians being allowed to join the community. They reacted by doing things to exclude the Hellenists from the community.

The Hellenists could have reacted by doing even more to separate themselves from the Hebrews. They could have gotten ugly. They could have tried to drive the Hebrews out of the Community.

Instead of just reacting to the apparent injustice at the hands of the Hebrews, they responded by looking for a solution that would deal with the problem.

In life, not everything is going to go our way. People will say and do things we don’t agree with. At that moment, we will have a reaction. We will feel confusion, and maybe even deeper negative emotions. At that point, we can either allow ourselves to react based on our emotions, or we can put thought into how we should respond. Just remember this: reaction rarely rears real resolution.

Appealing vs Attacking

When the Hebrews decided that the Hellenists should take care of their own, the Hellenists were right to feel upset. If they had gone the rout of reaction, more than likely they would have wanted to retaliate. Even as they thought about how they should respond to the injustice of the Hebrews, they could have decided that the Hebrews needed to be taught a lesson. They could have decided to take what was being denied to them. They could have decided to view the Hebrews as their adversaries and go on the attack.

We are too quick to go into attack mode. It happens everywhere around us, especially in social media. People get offended, and they go on the attack. Unfortunately, it even happens within the church. Someone says or does something we don’t like, and we take it personally. We get offended, and then we go on the attack. That is not how Jesus wants us to handle things! What God cares about is relationship.

We were created to be in relationship with God and with each other. Sin broke our relationship with God. He sacrificed his own son to restore that relationship with us. And he wants us to be in right relationship with each other.

Psalm 133:1–3 ESV

Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes! It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion! For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore.

God values unity. And you know what won’t bring about unity? Attacking each other. So what do we do?

The Hellenists, instead of attacking the Hebrews, appealed to the apostles, who also happened to be Hebrews. They explained their case to the apostles. And then they did something else which leads to our final point.

Submission vs Secession

in 1860, following the election of Abraham Lincoln, who was notoriously anti-slavery, South Carolina decided that the “Union experiment” was a failure, and they seceded from the United States. Others quickly followed South Carolina’s example to form the Confederate States of America. This is a typical response to conflict: react, attack, then walk away. But, as I said, this is not God’s way. He values unity. He wants us to find a way to preserve unity, even in the midst of opposing ideas and conflict. To do that takes a willingness to submit ourselves to a greater authority.

The Hellenists, after explaining their situation to the apostles, submitted themselves to whatever the apostles decided. The submitted themselves because they respected the authority the apostles had as having been directly chosen and taught by Jesus. They submitted themselves because they trusted the godly wisdom of the apostles. They submitted to the apostles’ authority because they believed that authority came from God.

When conflict arises, the easy reaction is to get angry, lash out, and break contact. The better response is to go to our Creator for wisdom in what to do next. The Hellenists, because they trusted the apostles, even though they were Hebrews, submitted themselves to them. The apostles, submitting to the will of the heavenly Father, had all the disciples (the 120 who had met in the upper room and were baptized by the Spirit at Pentecost) chose seven men to handle the daily distribution of goods. Do you want to know something interesting? All seven of those deacons, Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, had Greek names, meaning they were Hellenists.

And those seven Hellenists, being submitted to the Holy Spirit, served all their Christian brothers and sisters, Hebrew and Hellenist, with fairness and love.

Isn’t it amazing what can happen when we choose to handle conflict in a way that builds up the body of Christ! When we choose to embrace others as brothers rather than exclude them as outsiders. When we choose to thoughtfully respond instead of emotionally react, to appeal rather than attack, and to submit our own agendas rather than secede from the community.

Of course, this is easier said than done. The only way this can happen is through the empowering of the Holy Spirit. My flesh wants to have its own way. My flesh wants to retaliate when I am offended. My flesh wants to make you feel as bad as I do. My flesh wants to pull away and end a relationship to preserve my pride.

But my spirit echoes Jesus’ prayer when he asked the Father

John 17:21 ESV

that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.