“Share with the saints in their needs; pursue hospitality.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

One of the things the church offers the world that really isn’t found anywhere else in the same way or at the same level is community. The community available in the church is good. Really good. In a world where multiple governments have declared loneliness an epidemic, the church offers a real solution to this problem. But as good as community in the church is (or at least can be), it’s not easy. It’s not easy for a variety of reasons, mostly connected to sin. We need help to get it right. As Paul continues offering bullet point commands for kingdom living, these next several commands all speak to getting community right. Let’s take a look.

Paul starts here with a call for socialism. Just kidding. I wanted to be sure I had your attention. Paul tells the Roman church members (and that context is exceedingly important) that they should “share with the saints in their needs.” Believers should help other believers who are experiencing need by willingly sharing from their abundance.

This is something we see both commended and practiced throughout the New Testament. In Acts, when summarizing the nature of the community of the early church, Luke says in 2:44-45: “Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all, as any had need.”

In Acts 4, when once again summarizing the nature of that incredible community, Luke says this starting in v. 32: “Now the entire group of those who believed were of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but instead they held everything in common.” And again in v. 34: “For there was not a needy person among them because all those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the proceeds of what was sold, and laid them at the apostles’ feet. This was then distributed to each person as any had need.”

Right on the heels of that, Luke cites a specific example of this happening: “Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus by birth, the one the apostles called Barnabas (which is translated Son of Encouragement), sold a field he owned, brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.” Barnabas’ story bleeds into a really shocking story about a couple who put on a deceptive show of mimicking his generosity, but didn’t actually, which Peter called them out on, resulting in both of their deaths.

Finally, in his second letter to the Corinthian believers when encouraging them to give generously to the collection he was taking up for the financially struggling believers back in Jerusalem, Paul reminded them of the grace of Jesus to them, saying this: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ: Though he was rich, for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.” In other words, just like Jesus was willing to lay down His life for you to be able to inherit all the riches of the kingdom of God, you should be willing to part with some of your worldly riches in order to help your fellow brothers and sisters in the faith who are in need.

The principle Paul seems to be calling for is this: If you have much, you should share with those who have little. And not a few modern followers of Jesus today, but especially those whose political leanings are inclined toward the leftward side of the aisle, look at all of these examples and commands and conclude that socialism is the most Christian system of economics. After all, they’ll argue, all socialism is is people who have much sharing from their abundance with those who have little. Isn’t that what Paul was commanding? Isn’t that what the church was practicing?

Well, in a word, no, he wasn’t. He was calling for believers to share with one another as members of a family might share with one another because we are all connected as the children of God in Christ. To approach that somewhat differently, Paul was calling for believers to practice the spiritual discipline of sacrificial generosity with one another. The ultimate pattern for this was Jesus’ sacrifice of His own life on our behalf on the cross. If He could give the ultimate gift for us, then we who follow Him can give sacrificially to one another to see the purposes of the kingdom advanced in and through our lives together.

What socialism as a nationalized system of economics does is to take up the mindset that the state owns everything, and therefore has the right and the authority to tell individual citizens how they must use the resources they currently have access to. It looks ultimately toward the abolishing of private ownership entirely. This is incredibly difficult to do in practice, so in countries where socialism is the desired economic model the state collects incredibly high taxes so that it can fund a variety of publicly accessible programs.

Yet while on the one hand, this sounds like it would be a good thing – free college! free healthcare! free childcare! free transportation! – state ownership is never as efficient or well-managed as private ownership. Ever. This is because when people know they are not working for themselves, they don’t work the same as when they do. In this, one of the major problems of socialism is that it fundamentally misunderstands human nature. It seeks to force a certain mindset toward others on people. But enforced generosity is not generosity at all.

Generosity is a matter of the heart, and when the state which has the power to compel my actions by threat of violent force tells me that I have to share with someone else who has less than me, my willingness to share no longer matters. And if there is no willingness, it’s not generosity on my part. It’s theft on the part of the state. Alternatively, the state claims ownership of all the resources that fall within its borders. This means that from the standpoint of socialism, the taking of my resources isn’t theft at all. What I have is extended to me by the state as a kind of institutional generosity. Yet nothing in the Scriptures justifies state ownership of all property. God is the one who owns everything. He can command us to share because it’s all His in the first place and thus His command is legitimate. The state does not and therefore cannot. And because of the brokenness of sin, attempts at enforced state ownership have never and will never work out for the thriving of a people.

There’s also this: Let’s say for the sake of argument that Paul is calling for a kind of socialism within the church. This call is for the church, not the world. To take a command for believers and insist that nonbelievers must abide by it as well with the power of the state enforcing their compliance is not something we are given leave to do in the New Testament. What’s more, folks on the political and cultural left who are likely to make the argument that socialism is legitimized by the New Testament will probably not be in favor of taking other things the New Testament authors command and enforcing compliance with them among the broader population. The selective enforcement here is telling.

So, no, Paul’s command here in no way gives some kind of a justification for socialism to be supported as an economic system by followers of Jesus. This is a command given to believers in the context of a church or of churches working in harmony with one another to their mutual good and the advancement of God’s kingdom.

If you are a follower of Jesus, and if you hear about another follower of Jesus who is genuinely in need, share with them. Practice sacrificial generosity with one another. Now, this doesn’t give leave for people to simply sit back and mooch off of the generosity of others without working hard themselves. In fact, Paul is explicit in another letter that if someone doesn’t work, he shouldn’t eat. The whole principle of sharing generously with one another assumes that we are all working hard to have plenty for ourselves so that we can all share with one another when there is need. This is a group of people all working hard, accumulating an abundance by God’s grace, and helping each other when one of their number encounters an unexpectedly rough patch when their own abundance gets exhausted and there’s not enough to meet their own needs anymore.

Thinking more generally about this sharing, we are to “pursue hospitality.” We are to look for ways and opportunities to use our abundance to create a welcoming, affirming, encouraging atmosphere for the people around us. We should be generous with all that God has provided for us with everyone we encounter. This is where what is happening inside the church can start to spill out to those who are outside of it. When we pursue hospitality, we are generous with one another as brothers and sisters, but that mindset carries us beyond just one another in the church. Hospitality is how we introduce those who are not yet a part of God’s kingdom with the abundance and graciousness that exists within it. Hospitality is a kind of preview of coming attractions for those who are new to an experience of the Gospel. But we can only do this when we get kingdom living right ourselves.

When we pursue hospitality, sharing with the saints in their needs will be a natural overflow. And we do all of this because of what Jesus has done for us. Generosity like this is the currency of the kingdom. This is why in God’s kingdom there will be no need. Guests and strangers will be welcomed with open arms. Not because the state has mandated it whether we want to participate or not, but rather because all of us who dwell there with transformed hearts and minds will willingly and eagerly lavish the love of the Father on one another, putting our needs second to meeting theirs, and sharing gladly from our abundance – which is itself nothing less than a gift from God’s own abundance – with them, knowing without a doubt that when the situation is reversed, they’ll do the same for us. A state-mandated economic system that takes from those with much to redistribute the wealth will never accomplish something similar. Government can’t make us generous and hospitable; God can. God’s kingdom is better. Let’s live like we’re already there in the church.