They devoted themselves

Three thousand people were added in one day, and Luke tells us in one sentence what they did next.

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

Four things. And the verb governing all of them means to persist in, to hold fast to, to attend constantly — the word used of a boat kept ready for someone and of men who would not let go of a matter.

It is not the word for attending. It is the word for not leaving.

Take the order, because Luke gives them in one and it is not accidental.

The apostles’ teaching first — which at that moment was not a book but a body of instruction from men who had been there, and which within a generation would be the documents this volume has spent nineteen weeks on.

Fellowship — koinonia, shared life and shared property, which the next verses describe concretely: they sold possessions and gave to anyone who had need.

The breaking of bread — meals in homes, with glad and sincere hearts, and almost certainly the Supper among them.

Prayer, with the article in Greek: the prayers, which suggests set times rather than only spontaneous ones.

Which is where nineteen weeks come to rest, and the destination turns out to be a room rather than a desk.

This volume has spent its whole length on a Book, and everything it has said stands. God-breathed, living, active, settled in heaven, refined like silver, worth more than gold, sweeter than honey, better than daily bread. Fire, hammer, lamp, sword, seed, milk, mirror, goad, nail, washing, dew, a stumbling stone, a plumb line, a trumpet, a polished arrow, an inheritance, a table set for people with no money. Nineteen threads walked from Genesis to Revelation. Its writers heard from, its seams left showing.

And the first thing the church did with it was refuse to leave a room where it was being taught.

And notice what is not in the list. No building, no program, no strategy, and no leader named. Four practices, all of them ordinary, all of them repeatable by any group of people in any century with nothing but a room, some bread and a text.

That is the turn, and there is no private version of it. Somebody teaching, somebody listening, a meal, and prayers — and people who kept showing up.

The verb proskartereo means to persist in, adhere firmly to, or continue steadfastly. Luke uses it of the disciples in the upper room before Pentecost, of the apostles devoting themselves to prayer and the ministry of the word in Acts 6:4, and Paul uses it in Romans 12:12 of being constant in prayer.

The four items are joined in Greek in a way that has been read as two pairs — teaching and fellowship, breaking of bread and the prayers — and also as a simple list of four. Both readings are defensible and neither changes what is being described.

Verses 43–47 fill in the picture: awe came over everyone, wonders and signs were done, they had everything in common, they met daily in the temple courts and broke bread in their homes, and the Lord added to their number daily. The devotion is described as daily rather than weekly.

Acts 6:4 shows the apostles applying the same verb to themselves under pressure: we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. When the workload threatened the teaching, they restructured the church rather than the priority.

Hebrews 10:24–25 gives the negative form of the same instruction: let us consider how to spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing. The habit of not showing up is old enough to be named in the first century.

Look it upG4342 προσκαρτερέω proskartereo, to persist in, hold fast to · G1322 διδαχή didache, teaching · G2842 κοινωνία koinonia, fellowship, sharing in common · G2800 κλάσις klasis, breaking (of bread)

Where this touchesActs 2:42–47 · Acts 6:1–4 · Hebrews 10:24–25 · Colossians 3:16 (Week Five, Day Seven) · 1 Timothy 4:13 (Week Fourteen, Day Seven). The earlier turns were James 1:22–25, Ezra 7:10, the two builders, the Bereans, Colossians 3:16, Psalm 119:11, Acts 20:32, 1 Thessalonians 2:13, 2 Timothy 2:15, Deuteronomy 6, John 8:31, Luke 11:28, 2 Timothy 4:2, Revelation 1:3, Hebrews 2:1, Psalm 1, James 1:21 and John 14:23.