A non-systematic, hopefully non-ideological meditation on economic principles of Scripture. #3: Acts 4:32-37

Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet. (Acts 4:32-37 ESV)

Long before there was Muslim extremism, communism was the great worry of many Christians.  I suppose we always have to have something to be angry about, but communism (at least how it was practiced in the USSR, China, and other despotic countries) was always the Great Satan of our existence.  And yes, it was horrible in how it coerced people, it suppressed faith and innovation, and became a religion all its own.

Going to a Christian university near the end of the Cold War, communism's evil was continually on display through the business program being the big dog on campus, espousing free-market economic policies.  National speakers that were brought in were almost always politically and economically conservative.  Not only communism in how it was practiced seen as bad, but its very nature was seen as evil; not only was it unAmerican, it was unChristian.  Didn't the Bible speak of self-reliance, not being a burden on others?

Over the years I have had to unlearn some of the things that I learned.  Yes, the Bible does speak about the necessity of work.  But it's increasingly hard to slander communism when increasingly I am finding that the Bible actually glorifies 'commonism'.  Consider the above passage: nobody thought of these things as their own, but had everything in common.  People didn't look around thinking, 'MINE', which we are indoctrinated to do from the time we first become social creatures.  Rather, having seen the grace of God they realized that grace could be shown by being generous, and it worked so well that we are told that (at this point at least) there were no needy people among them.  The church became a place in which their various spiritual gifts, be they gifts of teaching, administration, or whatever, were to be shared with others.  The gospel had so changed people that people would regularly sell things and, no strings attached, offer it up to those who were in the most need.

Yes, of course...there will always be problems with this system.  There will always be the Judas who is the thief of the common purse (John 12:6); there will be those who abuse the system and not work (cf. 2 Thess. 3:10).  But communism at its core is not the problem when done with God's grace at its core; as people who seek to live as simply Christians, commonism may well be the solution to be like the first century church again.