This is a helpful quote from R. B. Kuiper:
The members of the church at Jerusalem had all material things in common. It hardly needs to be said that this communism was something quite different from the communism for which so may clamor today. It was communism among Christians only. It was local in its scope, there being no evidence in the New Testament that it was practiced in any church other than that at Jerusalem. Even in the Jerusalem church it was a temporary arrangement. There was nothing compulsory about it, for when a member of the church sold a possession and pretended to give the whole price to the church, although actually he gave but part, Peter said to him: “Whiles it remained was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power?” (Acts 5:4). And the spirit behind this communism was radically different from that which often comes to expression in present-day communism. Someone has aptly said: “The Christians at Jerusalem said, ‘All mine is thine’; communists today say, ‘All thine is mine.’”
Kuiper, R. B. The Glorious Body of Christ (Carlisle: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2001), 150-151. Emphasis is mine.
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