In Acts 2 Christians were selling their property and giving to those in need. Were these individuals giving to individuals or individuals giving to the church and the church giving? If it was the church giving, were they giving to non-Christians or Christians only? I’ve heard this scripture used for the church giving to non-Christians. And I’ve heard that the money was used to help those who had come, were added to the church, and by staying longer than expected, they needed help.<\/p>\n\t
“Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need<\/em>” (Acts 2:44-45).<\/p>\n
“Nor was there anyone among them who lacked; for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostles’ feet; and they distributed to each as anyone had need<\/em>” (Acts 4:34-35).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Acts 2 doesn’t tell us how the funds were being divided. Acts 4 tells us that it was being done through the church. Individual Christians were selling some of their excesses to help support those in need. By the context, those being helped were the needy within the church. It was “all who believed” who were distributing to “all.” These passages cannot be used to justify a church helping the poor in the general population. This doesn’t mean that individual Christians are not to help the poor as they have opportunities; it is just that these verses don’t justify a church doing these things.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: In Acts 2 Christians were selling their property and giving to those in need. Were these individuals giving to individuals or individuals giving to the church and the church giving? If it was the church giving, were they giving to non-Christians or Christians only? I’ve heard this scripture used for the church giving to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[144,194,154],"class_list":["post-36657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-acts","tag-benevolence","tag-church-funds"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":52572,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-benevolence-by-christians-limited-to-other-christians\/","url_meta":{"origin":36657,"position":0},"title":"Is benevolence by Christians limited to other Christians?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 10, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I want to know whether sharing or any act of benevolence by Christians should be limited to the body of Christ alone. Answer: There are two standards for benevolence work.\u00a0 One concerns what the church can do and the other concerns what individuals are expected to do. The easy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40402,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-poor-lame-man-and-the-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":36657,"position":1},"title":"The Poor Lame Man and the Church","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry W. Benton Just shortly earlier than the scene in Acts 3 is the story of the beginning of the church and the fellowship they had with each other (Acts 2:42f), the selling of possessions to divide among all the saints that had need (due to the unexpected overstay\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50488,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/giving-to-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":36657,"position":2},"title":"Giving to God (Owen)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 26, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Dan R. Owen, Ph.D. via\u00a0The Gospel Advocate, June 2017 Since the time of Abraham, dedicated followers of God have given of their wealth to the One who provides all wealth. God blessed Abraham with much and Abraham gave a tenth to Melchizedek, priest of God Most High (Genesis 14:20).\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24207,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/all-things-in-common\/","url_meta":{"origin":36657,"position":3},"title":"All Things in Common","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 27, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bryan Matthew Dockens It has been argued that socialism is a divinely approved economic system exemplified in scripture. Proponents point to two passages as evidence of their claim: \u201cNow all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/Peter-and-John-Healing-a-Crippled-Man-300x294.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":34375,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-doesnt-the-church-sell-everything-it-owns-to-give-to-the-poor\/","url_meta":{"origin":36657,"position":4},"title":"Why doesn’t the church sell everything it owns to give to the poor?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: The church in Acts had people who sold their possessions and gave to those without. Why doesn't the church do that today? Is it a sin to deny someone something because you want to use it? Answer: An example of the selling of the possessions that you referenced in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36847,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-church-at-work-in-benevolence\/","url_meta":{"origin":36657,"position":5},"title":"The Church at Work in Benevolence","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 23, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Irvin Himmel via\u00a0Guardian of Truth\u00a0XXXIX:10 p. 6-8, May 18, 1995 There is no better way to teach the plan of salvation than examining the cases of conversion in the book of Acts. Such examples as the Jews on Pentecost, the Samaritans, the Ethiopian eunuch, Saul of Tarsus, Cornelius, Lydia,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36657\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}