Hopelessly devoted

In Acts 2, Luke describes the church as follows:

⁴² They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. ⁴³ Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. ⁴⁴ All the believers were together and had everything in common. ⁴⁵ They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. ⁴⁶ Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, ⁴⁷ praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

"Devoted" - proskarterew - means:

1. to adhere to one, be his adherent, to be devoted or constant to one
2. to be steadfastly attentive unto, to give unremitting care to a thing
3. to continue all the time in a place
4. to persevere and not to faint
5. to show one's self courageous for
6. to be in constant readiness for one, wait on constantly  

All too often, we think that 'devotion' applies only to the apostles teaching. But it doesn't. It applies to the fellowship and to the breaking of bread (i.e. probably meals in homes rather than the Lord's Supper cf v46) and to prayer. We're to be devoted to them all - and that means being devoted to each other.

It's not about devotion to an organisation - St Peter's or St Cuthbert's or Downton Evangelical - it's about devotion to people: to John and Jane and Joe and Jack... So let's put this idea into the definition:

to adhere to John, be his adherent, to be devoted or constant to him. In other words to be there for his sake when you don't want to be there or would rather be somewhere else.

to be steadfastly attentive unto Jane, to give unremitting care to her. In other words to listen again and again, to visit and invite again and again.

to continue all the time in a place together with John, Jane, Joe, Jack... Or as Hebrews puts it, 'Do not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing.'

to persevere and not to faint for the sake of John. Don't stop praying.

to show one's self courageous for Joe. Never stop asking the hard questions about her quiet times. Trudge through the snow to be there for her.

to be in constant readiness for Jack, wait constantly on him. When he phones at an awkward time, don't moan!

When people in a church community have that devotion to one another, they will praise GOd with glad and sincere hearts as they meet together. And they will "enjoy the favour of all the people" who are not yet in the community of Christ.
But this kind of devotion can only come when we have each first experienced the devotion of Jesus to us: the Jesus who did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross; the Jesus who agonised in the garden of Gethsemane and whose exertion in prayer caused his sweat to run like drops of blood as he committed himself to do his Father's will and to drink the cup of suffering for you and me.