Fathers

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What the Fathers say

Acts 2:45

Eastern Fathers

John Chrysostom

Observe the increase of piety: They cast away their riches, and rejoiced, and had great gladness, for greater were the riches they received without labor. None reproached, none envied, none grudged; no pride, no contempt was there. As children they did indeed account themselves to be under teaching: as new born babes, such was their disposition. Yet why use this faint image? If you remember how it was when God shook our city with an earthquake, how subdued all men were. Such was the case then with those converts. …

Homily on Acts 7 ↗

Theophylact of Ohrid

And the words "according to each one's need" he uses not simply, but in the sense of "stewardship," because this expression shows that the apostles did not act as the philosophers among the Greeks, of whom some abandoned their fields, and others threw much gold into the sea. But this was not contempt for wealth, but foolishness and madness: the devil took care to defame the creations of God. To use wealth wisely is no trivial matter.

Commentary on Acts ↗

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

They first dwelt together in unity; who sold all they had, and laid the price of their goods at the Apostles' feet, as is read in the Acts of the Apostles. And distribution was made to each one as he had need, and none called anything his own, but they had all things common. And what is "together in unity"? They had, he says, one mind and one heart God-wards. So they were the first who heard, Behold how good and how pleasant is it, that brethren dwell together.

Exposition on the Psalms, Psalm 133 ↗