Acts 4:32-35; Luke 3:11
And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common. And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all. Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles’ feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need.
[Jesus] saith unto them, He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise.
ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): There is the point in which Christ’s teaching joins hands with a great deal of unchristian teaching in this present day which is called Socialism and Communism.
H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): All believers were together in those early days. There was no sectarianism, no strife, no denominationalism. All that believed were together, and “had all things common.” For a little while they had what some people call a world ideal, a kind of Christian communism. It was founded on love for one another―very different from modern worldly communism. The believers were as “brethren in Christ,” Colossians 1:2.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): The disciples loved one another dearly.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): They were a generous Church as well as a united Church. They were so generous that they threw their property into a common stock lest any should be in need.
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): They “had all things common”―which they were not obliged to do, but it was a free and voluntary action of their own, and so is not binding on others; nor indeed is their practice to be imitated, in the direct manner in which they did it, for their case was peculiar. They were not only every day liable to persecutions, and to have their possessions seized, and their goods confiscated; but they also knew, that in process of time, Jerusalem would be destroyed, and they could not tell how soon; therefore judged it right to sell their possessions, and throw the money into one common stock, for their mutual support, and for the carrying on the common cause of Christ.
H. A. IRONSIDE: That is altogether different from what is called communism today. It was not forcing people to give up their possessions; but it was love working in their hearts that made these Christians say, “I will gladly share my possessions with those who are more needy”―They were not forced to do this. No one said, You must sell your property and use your money in this way. But they were moved by the Spirit of God to share with one another.
ALEXANDER MacLAREN: Further, the distribution was not determined by the rule of equality, but by the “need” of the recipients; and its result was not that all had share and share alike, but that “none lacked.”
C. H. SPURGEON: “Share alike today, and share again tomorrow,” this is the leveler’s motto. If we were all equal at this moment, one would spend all, and another would labour to increase his stock, and so the demand would arise for sharing again. What is a Communist? One who hath yearnings, for the equal division, of unequal earnings.
ALEXANDER MacLAREN: You may do as you like about the distribution of wealth, and the relation of Capital to Labour, and the various cognate questions which are all included in the vague word Socialism; and human nature will be too strong for you, and you will have the old mischiefs cropping out again.
WILLIAM KELLY (1821-1906): So, in fact, such a thing as communism lets loose corrupt lusts too.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): The “poor always ye have with you,” John 12:8, in like manner, disposes of an idle dream of Socialism.
C. H. SPURGEON: Great schemes of socialism have been tried and found lacking…These Believers acted in such a generous spirit, one to the other, that it seemed as if nobody accounted that what he had belonged to himself…They were not communists, they were Christians—and the difference between a communist and a Christian is this—a communist says, “All yours is mine;” while a Christian says, “All mine is yours.” And that is a very different thing. The one is for getting, and the other for giving.
ALEXANDER MacLAREN: Christianity is not communistic. It asserts your right of property, but it limits that right by this: That if you interpret your right of property to mean the right to “do what you like with your own,” ignoring your stewardship to God, and the right of your fellows to share in what you have, then you are an unfaithful steward, and your mammon is unrighteous.
MATTHEW HENRY: We can call nothing our own but sin. What we have in the world is more God’s than our own; we have it from Him, must use it for Him, and are accountable for it―to Him.
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): True love towards man does not flow except from the love of God.
ALEXANDER MacLAREN: And that principle, the true communism of Christianity, has to be worked into modern society in a way that some of us do not dream of, before modern society will be organized on Christian principles. These words are no toothless words which are merely intended to urge Christian people on to a sentimental charity, and to a niggardly distribution of part of their possessions: but they underlie the whole conception of ownership, as the New Testament sets it forth. Wherever the stewardship that we owe to God, and the participation that we owe to men, are neglected in regard to anything that we have, there God’s good gifts are perverted and have become “unrighteous mammon.”
C. H. SPURGEON: Some of us may have passed away, but you who are younger may live to see modern thought obtain supremacy over human minds—German rationalism, which has ripened into Socialism, may yet pollute the mass of mankind and lead them to overturn the foundations of society. Then “advanced principles” will hold carnival, and free thought will riot with the vice and blood which were years ago the insignia of “the age of reason.” I say not that it will be so, but I should not wonder if it came to pass—Some who defend Socialism may soon have too much of it.*
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*Editor’s Note: Spurgeon’s prophetic words were spoken in a Sunday sermon on June 23, 1878; the last sentence about “some who defend Socialism” is from his book, The Salt Cellars, published in 1889. The Age of Reason is the title of a book written by Thomas Paine, published in three parts between 1794 and 1807. Paine advocated Deism, which claims a belief in a “Supreme Being,” but rejects Jesus Christ as God come in the flesh, and the Bible as God’s inspired Word. Paine vilified all churches as “human inventions set up to terrify and enslave mankind, for power and profit,” and boasted that “my own mind is my church.” In the “Age of Reason,” Paine slandered God, and claimed that man can be his own god, which is exactly what Satan did in the Garden of Eden (see Genesis 3:1-5).
