Common Ground

And all who believed were together and had all things in common. (Acts 2:44) 
 
One of the things I love about the Early Church described in Acts chapter 2 is how they used the Word of God. According to verse 5 and following, there were people from every nation under heaven in Jerusalem for Pentecost, where the birth of the Church took place. There were Parthians, Medes, Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, and Asia. And yet, with all of their regional, racial, and cultural differences and backgrounds, they were able to fellowship together and find something common in the Word of God. 
 
This stood out to me because we are in a time when people use the Word of God to push people away rather than bring them together. So many places use the Bible to beat and berate people, to punish them because they are different, to judge people because of their background and to demean people because of their past. But when the Church was born, the Word was a means of lifting people up, not pulling them down.  
 
Before the Church was established in Acts, the religious folks from years past used the Scripture to divide, to discriminate, to distance, and to condemn. But when the Spirit of God came and gave birth to the Church, people saw that the Word preached was a Word that brought healing to hurting people.  
 
I think this is a lesson we can all take to heart as we grow and mature of our understanding of Scripture. Are we using the Bible as a way to find common ground with other believers? Or are we using it to separate ourselves from others, causing unnecessary division? The Word of God was never meant to divide His people. It was meant to bring them together under the message and authority of the Gospel. We would all be wise to remember that and be motivated by that truth to strive for unity within the body of Christ.