Acts 2:44-45

Acts 2:44-45

[44] And  all  that believed  together,  and  had  all things  common;  [45] And  sold  their possessions  and  goods,  and  parted  them  to all  men, as  every man  had  need. 

What does Acts 2:44-45 Mean?

Contextual Meaning

These early believers had frequent contact with each other. Communal living was voluntary and temporary in the Jerusalem church ( Acts 4:32; Acts 4:34-35; Acts 5:4); it was not forced socialism or communism. No other New Testament church practiced communal living to the extent that the Jerusalem Christians did. The New Testament nowhere commands communal living, and Acts does not refer to it after chapter five. [1]
The believers" willingness to sell their property (real estate, cf. Acts 5:37) and personal possessions to help others in need demonstrated true Christian love. One writer argued that Luke"s portrait of the early church was true to reality and not an idealized picture. [2] Others have disputed this claim. [3] The believers were probably giving to non-believers as well as to their Christian brethren, but what Luke stressed was their sacrificial giving to one another. Beside Christian love it may have been their hope that Jesus Christ would return very soon that motivated them to live as they did. Furthermore since Jesus had predicted judgment on Jerusalem, what was the use of keeping property?