阅读经文 

重读今天经文的最后一句话：“也有许多祭司信从了这道。”（参徒 6:7）这一点以前从未引起过我的注意。

为了更好地理解“许多祭司”的影响，我不得不做一些调查。当时大约有一万八千名祭司生活在犹太人中间。哇！他们在圣殿——一个实体的空间里侍奉。他们每天都有祭司履行职责，照顾周围百姓的需要。这项任务艰巨而又令人疲惫。

许多祭司被基督的道吸引，因为他们看到一群人志愿在他们中间分担照顾穷人的重担——这显然不是出于强制义务。耶稣的门徒这样做是出于真诚的爱。这与我们几天前默想的“恒心”是一致的。当耶稣的信徒殷勤服侍来满足人们的需要时，许多祭司也因此看到了进入这个新的信仰群体的途径。

当然，教会需要平衡对内部的关怀与对外部的连结，但如果教会成为一个以关怀和爱为标志的群体，这也会成为其他人都渴望获得的一份美好。

Look at the last part of today’s verse again: “a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.” This had never caught my attention before.

I had to do some digging to better understand the impact of this “large number of priests.” There were about 18,000 priests living among the Jews at this time. Wow! Their role was to serve in the temple, an actual physical space. Day after day they had priestly duties for taking care of the needs of the people around them. The task was enormous and exhausting.

A large number of those priests were drawn to faith in Christ because they saw a group of people sharing the load of caring for the poor among them—and this was clearly not being done out of obligation. Jesus’ followers were doing this out of genuine love. That falls ­directly in line with being “devoted,” a trait we pondered a few days ago. As Jesus’ followers served diligently to meet people’s needs, many of the priests also found their way into this new community of faith.

Of course, the church needs to balance its inward care with reaching out to others, but if the church becomes known as a community marked by care and love, that is something beautiful that others want too.