A Complaint Arose

by Frank Himmel

“Now at this time while the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint arose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews against the native Hebrews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food” (Acts 6:1).

Complaints at church are nothing new. They have been around as long as the church has because the church is people, and people tend to complain. Some complaints are legitimate and constructive: they point out real problems and lead to resolutions and better performance. Others can only be described as petty gripes. It would be instructive for all of us to look at how this first complaint was handled.

What Was Not Done

Before we examine what was done, consider what was not.

No one quit. That sometimes happens. Brethren become disenchanted over some circumstance and quit. We call it quitting the church, but it is really quitting the Lord. What does that say about one’s commitment, his discipleship? A friend of mine calls it, getting mad at your brother and taking it out on your Father.

No one went to another congregation. In this case they couldn’t because there was no other congregation. This was not just the only one in Jerusalem, it was the only one anywhere! And I can’t help but wonder if that wasn’t in one regard a blessing. While there is much to be said for having several churches in an area, one drawback is that it gives folks an option they would not otherwise have - to run away from problems instead of working them out. That solves nothing.

No one started a move to fire the preacher or oust the elders. It is uncertain whether Jerusalem had elders at this time. The apostles were in the lead. The brethren duly respected them. They did not attribute sinister motives. There were none of those privately circulated surveys or petitions, no secret meetings, nor a so-called “vote of confidence.” No one tried to use irrelevant matters such as Peter’s personal weaknesses or Matthew’s former occupation as a means to discredit them.

No one quit, no one split, no one pitched a fit! If only brethren today would abandon these unfruitful practices.

What Was Done

Actually, the solution to this complaint was quite simple. First, the apostles gave it an objective hearing and found it valid. Leaders must be listeners. As is usually the case, no purposeful wrong had been intended, it was just a simple oversight.

The apostles responded promptly, not allowing the problem to fester. They instructed the congregation to select some qualified men whom they could put in charge of the task. Seven were appointed. They must have done their jobs because this problem is never mentioned again.

The Disciples’ Life in Jesus

By Jeff Curtis

As Jesus prepared His apostles for His departure, He told them how spiritual life could be sustained in His absence. He gave them this critical truth by using an analogy of a vine and its branches. He depicted His Father as the vinedresser or a farmer, Himself as the vine, and each of disciple as a branch attached to the vine. Central to this analogy is the idea of a life-giving relationship that supersedes all other relationships. It is a triangular relationship involving the Father, the Son and the disciple.

Jesus’ words are more vital for us to understand, even as they were vital for the apostles to understand. Jesus was describing how His followers could have spiritual life in this world after He had taken His seat at the Father’s right hand. The apostles would no longer have the personal presence of Jesus, but they were to be connected to Him in a life-sustaining way. As we live for Christ today, we must live in Him and through Him as a branch, lives in and through the vine.

An Essential Relationship. Truly, this relationship that the disciple has with Jesus is an absolutely essential relationship. Jesus identified Himself as the vine and declared that we can’t have any spiritual life at all unless we are attached to Him in order to draw life from Him as a branch does from the vine. He said, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser” (Jn. 15:1). Later, He said, “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned up” (Jn. 15:6).

In keeping with this analogy, the Christian life begins when one becomes a branch attached to “the true vine” – that is, when he becomes a Christian. Obtaining salvation involves faith, repentance, confession, and baptism in such a way that we become part of the vine. Paul, using a different figure, said, “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27). At baptism, he said, we enter Christ and are wrapped, or clothed, with Him.

A Continual Relationship. Our relationship with Jesus is a continual one. Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing” (Jn.15:5). The word He used, “abide,” expresses continuity. This relationship that we have with Him is permanent, daily, and growing.

One who doesn’t eat will die unless doctors sustain him with intravenous feeding. No person can live without food, and no Christian can live without Christ’s divine energy. Our relationship with Jesus is maintained by our walking with Jesus, praying through Jesus, feeding on His word, and growing into His likeness.

A Productive Relationship. Having the life of Christ in us means that our relationship with Him will be productive. Jesus said, “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me” (Jn. 15:4). As this divine energy flows into us, we must do something with it. Either we respond to it and allow it to produce in us what Christ’s life always produces – spiritual life, growth into His likeness, a love like His, and a diligence to serve as He served – or we die spiritually.

When we accept Christ’s divine energy and allow it to work in us, making us more and more into His image, we receive the Father’s encouragement so that we can grow more quickly. He sometimes prunes us so that the Son’s life can be fuller and more permeating in us. The apostles had recently been pruned by Jesus’ words. He told them, “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you” (Jn.15:3). Even so, our Father often prunes us through the Word as it enters our hearts anew with power and operates upon us with a more effective cutting edge.

Jesus, then, is not only our hope, our example, our Captain, our Savior, and our Lord, but He is also our life. We have nothing without Him, we can do nothing without Him. Our life with Him is the supreme relationship that we have in this world – it is essential and continual, a relationship that makes us productive and brings glory to God.