“Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.”
My Notes
What Does Acts 2:47 Mean?
Luke describes the early church with a summary that became the aspiration of every church since: they praised God, they had favor with all the people, and the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. Growth wasn't engineered. It was added. By the Lord.
"Having favour with all the people" means the early church was attractive to outsiders. Not because they marketed well, but because their life together was visibly different. The sharing, the worship, the joy, the unity — the surrounding community could see it and was drawn to it.
"The Lord added" — the growth was divine, not strategic. The church didn't run an outreach campaign. They lived a certain way, and God added people. The Lord did the adding. The church did the living. The division of labor is clear.
Reflection Questions
- 1.Is your church trying to 'add' people through strategy, or creating a community that the Lord adds people to?
- 2.What made the early church attractive to outsiders — and is that quality present in your community?
- 3.How does 'the Lord added' challenge the pressure to grow numerically through human effort?
- 4.What would a community look like that had genuine 'favour with all the people'?
Devotional
The Lord added. Daily. Those who were being saved.
The early church didn't have a growth strategy. They had a life. They ate together. They shared possessions. They praised God. They lived in a way that was so visibly different that the surrounding community was attracted — and the Lord did the rest.
"Having favour with all the people" — this wasn't a PR campaign. It was a byproduct. The church didn't manufacture favor. Favor came because the life was genuine. When you share everything, worship with joy, and care for the broken, people notice. Not because you advertised. Because you lived.
And then: the Lord added. Not the pastor. Not the outreach committee. Not the social media strategy. The Lord. He added daily. The growth was His work. The church's job was to be the kind of community God wanted to add people to.
This is the most important church growth principle in the Bible, and it's the one most consistently ignored: be the community. Live the life. God does the adding. You can't manufacture what only the Lord produces. But you can build the kind of community that the Lord wants to fill.
What would it look like for your church — or your life — to be so genuinely different that people were drawn in without being recruited? That's the early church. And the Lord was adding daily.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
Praising God - See Luk 24:53. And having favour - See Luk 2:52. With all the people - That is, with the great mass of…
Praising God - As the fountain whence they had derived all their spiritual and temporal blessings; seeing him in all…
We often speak of the primitive church, and appeal to it, and to the history of it; in these verses we have the history…
praising God because their hearts were full of thankfulness for the knowledge of Jesus as His Christ.
having favour with…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture