Acts 4:32

Unanimity and Love among the first Christians

32. of one heart and of one soul A Hebrew form of expressing complete accord. Thus (1 Chronicles 12:38) "all the rest of Israel were of one heartto make David king," and (Jeremiah 32:39) "I will give them one heart and one way."

neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own It is more emphatic in the Greek, and not one of them said, &c. Each felt that he held his possessions only as a trust, and if occasion called for it, they were to be given up. Such love towards one another, Christ had foretold, should be a mark of His disciples (John 13:35). All those who have sketched a perfect society, as Plato in his Republic, and Sir Thos. More in his Utopia, have placed among their regulations this kind of community of goods which was established by the first Christians. In theory it is the perfection of a commonwealth, but there is need of perfection in the citizens before it can be realized. There can be no question that an expectation of Christ's immediate return from heaven, acting along with the unity of thoughts and feeling, made these men willing to part with their possessions and goods, there being, as we shall see from the case of Ananias, no constraint upon them to do so.