Acts 2:42 - “And they devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”
This simple verse summarizes the most important things the first century church focused on at it’s inception. The word “devoted” is the Greek word “proskartareo” and means “to adhere to” with the idea of “doing constantly.”
The church was constantly learning from the apostles teaching. Why the apostles? They were the personally trained disciples of Jesus who saw and heard his every move and word over a three year period. Their teaching, inspired by God’s Spirit became the New Testament scriptures we now devoted ourselves to learning.
The church was constantly in fellowship. It is a business partnership word that indicates “doing life together.” The early church were closely connected to one another - meeting each other’s needs and celebrating each other’s joys.
The church was constantly breaking bread. While this certainly indicates eating meals together in fellowship, there is strong biblical evidence that this phrase “to break bread” was an adherence to the celebration of the body and blood of Jesus in communion.
Finally, the church was constantly in prayer. Since the article “the” comes before prayers, this is likely a reference to attending and participating in the Jewish times of prayer and the temple. But again, we see evidence of prayer being a group thing they practiced over and over again in their homes and gatherings.
Read the Bible. Live in Christian community. Celebrate Jesus’ sacrifice. Pray. These are the marks of the church then, and now.
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