All Things In Common
May 23, 2021
Reflecting back on our lives, especially right around when we moved here from Memphis, we have to squint to see through the manna falling from heaven. It rained thick and fast. The kitchen chairs, mower, couch, tools, money, lumber, time, dolly, straps, paracord, ladder, moving supplies, desk, bedroom, food, the list goes on—all a gift from God through his people. We would be destitute, were it not for the church. And that’s not even mentioning all the things we’ve borrowed!
So when we come to Acts 4, and see “Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common,” we should not think it is wholly different from the way the church already functions. It is certainly different in scope. It is certainly something for us to strive for. It is certainly a call for us to continue doing what we’ve already been doing, only more and more as that day approaches.
I suspect Acts 4 isn’t calling us all to sell our property and distribute the funds to the poor amongst us, but it is certainly calling us to not live as Americans. It’s calling us to recognize that all our possessions are not really ours. We did not create them; God did. We did not acquire them; God gave them to us. They don’t belong to us; God has entrusted them to us so that we might be able to go about God’s business.
This is why, under the Law, the Israelites were to not glean their fields to the edges or into the corners. Sure, they owned that property—Israel had private property and established rules for the passing of that property between owners—but in a more real sense, God owned the property. God determined what they did with the crops. God determined to what extent an owner could harvest the crops they planted. The land, the crops, the property—they were all God’s. That’s perhaps why God instructs the Israelites, “If there is among you anyone in need, a member of your community in any of your towns within the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your needy neighbor. You should rather open your hand, willingly lending enough to meet the need, whatever it may be.” (Deut. 15.7-8)
What we read about in Acts is God’s people fulfilling the Law regarding how we ought to show our love for one another. Or, as 1John puts it, “How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?” (3.17).
Holding all things in common, or receiving help when needed, for that matter, are not American values. But they are God values. May we learn to hold things in common, recognizing that all things are a gift from God to be used to bless others.
—John Coffey
