Acts 2:44,45

Did early Christians practice communism?

PROBLEM: Some have inferred from the fact that these early Christians “sold their possessions” and had “all things in common” that they were practicing a form of communism. However, even the Ten Commandments imply the right to private property, forbidding one to “steal” or even “covet” what belongs to another (Exodus 20:15; Exodus 20:17).

SOLUTION: There are several reasons to believe that this passage does not teach an abiding form of Christian communism or socialism.

Fourth, the selling of property and giving of money was onlypartial. The text implies that they sold only extra land and other possessions, not that they sold their only place of residence. After all, they all eventually left Jerusalem, to which they had come for the Feast of Pentecost (Acts 2:1), and went back to their homes which were scattered all over the world (cf. Acts 2:5-13).