Answer: The Christians devoted themselves to the
apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of
bread and to prayer, (verse 42).
MORE INFORMATION AND/OR OTHER SCRIPTURE REFERENCES:
"Devoted" ("continued
stedfastly"--KJV) is in a tense in the Greek that shows
they KEPT ON BEING devoted to. The literal meaning denotes
"to be strong toward" and to do that CONTINUALLY,
without ceasing. They continually submitted themselves to the
One Who has all authority, and they did this in all things:
1) They devoted themselves to the apostle's
teaching. They heard and received the apostles'
teaching, they retained it and they acted on its principles.
This is a PERSEVERANCE in the hearing, meditation upon and
application of the apostles' teaching of the Sound Doctrine
of the ministry of Jesus--all of His teachings and obedient
service to His Father while here on earth, His death, burial and
resurrection, and those further things revealed by the Holy Spirit,
as Jesus had promised (John 14:26). They were
DOERS of the Word of God, and not just hearers only: James
1:22-25: "Do not merely listen to the Word, and
so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the
Word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his
face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and
immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks
intently into the Perfect Law that gives freedom, and continues to
do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it--he
will be blessed in what he does." Each child of God is
to be proficient in the teachings of Christ, as handed down to us
by His apostles who were instructed by Jesus and inspired by the
Holy Spirit, Who was sent by Jesus, Who brought the Word from God
Himself, so that we may make disciples, who then are devoted to
learning and applying these teachings CONTINUALLY in their own
lives, and then teaching others, making more disciples, and so
on.
2) They devoted themselves to the fellowship.
"Fellowship" is the Greek word koinonia, from
koinonos, meaning "partner, sharer in a common
interest," and this from koinos, meaning "what
is common to all." It is "a partnership, a joint
participation in." Just to list a few examples of continually
being devoted to the fellowship:
A) The blood and body of Christ in the partaking of the
Lord's Supper. 1 Corinthians 10:16-17:
"Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a
participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we
break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is
one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the
one loaf."
B) The gathering of believers into the one body for the
purpose of remembering the Lord's sacrifice of Himself so
that we might be made righteous--the Lord's Supper, and
to offer worship to God the Father through Jesus the Son
(Acts 20:7; Hebrews 10:25).
C) The regular giving of our income for the support of the
Lord's work (Romans 15:25-28; 1
Corinthians 16:2; 2 Corinthians
9:1-15).
D) A joint participation in proclaiming the Good News so that
many others may have fellowship with us, those whose fellowship is
with the Father and the Son. 1 John 1:1-4:
"That Which was from the beginning, Which we have heard,
Which we have seen with our eyes, Which we have looked at and our
hands have touched--this we proclaim concerning the Word of
Life. The Life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it,
and we proclaim to you the Eternal Life, Which was with the Father
and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen
and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our
fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.
We write this to make our joy complete."
3) They devoted themselves to the breaking of
bread. "The breaking of bread" here is not a
common meal, but the observance of the Lord's Supper.
From The Acts of the Apostles from Jerusalem to Rome by
Wayne Jackson: "'Breaking the bread,' by a
figure known as synecdoche (a part put for the whole), represents
both components of the Lord's supper, bread and fruit of the
vine (cf. Acts 20:7). There is no authority
here for the Catholic dogma of 'communion under one
kind,' i.e., offering only the bread to the
'laity,' while restricting the cup to the
'clergy.' Jesus plainly taught that
'all' disciples were to drink of the cup (Matthew
26:27). Later, one learns that the communion supper
was observed each Sunday to commemorate Christ's
death." See 2) a) and b) above.
4) They devoted themselves to a continual joint
participation in prayer. Acts 1:14:
"They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with
the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His
brothers." Romans 12:12: "Be
joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in
prayer." Ephesians 6:18-20:
"And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of
prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep
on praying for all the saints. Pray also for me, that
whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will
fearlessly make known the mystery of the Gospel, for which I am an
ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I
should." Philippians 1:4-6, 9-11:
"In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy
because of your partnership in the Gospel from the first day until
now, being confident of this, that He Who began a good work in you
will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ
Jesus...And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more
and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able
to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day
of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes
through Jesus Christ--to the glory and praise of
God." Philippians 4:6: "Do
not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and
petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."
1 Thessalonians 5:17-18: "pray
continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's
Will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Timothy
2:1-3: "I urge, then, first of all, that
requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for
everyone--for kings and all those in authority, that we may
live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.
This is good, and pleases God our Savior, Who wants all men to be
saved and to come to a knowledge of the Truth." See
also Luke 18:1-8; Philippians 1:9-11;
Colossians 1:3-14; Colossians 4:2-4,
12; 1 Timothy 2:8.
