Before we continue Abram’s story in Genesis 16, I want to go back and pick up something from near the beginning. I’ve always thought this paragraph was sad:

Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver and in gold. …Now Lot, who was going with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents. And the land could not sustain them while living together, for their possessions were so abundant that they were not able to live together. (Genesis 13.2 – 6, LSB)

This shows that Abram and his family believed in private rather than communal property. It’s a little surprising when you think about it: two members of the same family, living as nomads, you’d think their property would be communal.

But it wasn’t. It seems sad that their wealth prevented community. “Their possessions were so abundant that they were not able to live together.”

It seems this attitude continued even to Isaiah’s day:

Woe to those who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is no more room, and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land. (Isaiah 5.8, ESV)

Dwelling alone…that’s what Abram and Lot did.

That makes the early church’s attitude that much more surprising. The first Christians, the Acts 2 Christians, were Jews, descended, of course, from Abram (later called Abraham). So they would have believed in private property. However:

All those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. (Acts 2.44, 45, NAS)

And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them. (Acts 4.32, NAS)

I’m just reporting…not advocating! However, those of us who are wealthy (most people reading this blog) could probably stand to be a little more open-handed with our possessions. Think how many families have been divided, for example, by will-readings!

Someone in the crowd said to [Jesus], “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” (Luke 12.13 – 15, ESV)

Tell those rich in this world’s wealth to quit being so full of themselves and so obsessed with money, which is here today and gone tomorrow. Tell them to go after God, who piles on all the riches we could ever manage—to do good, to be rich in helping others, to be extravagantly generous. If they do that, they’ll build a treasury that will last, gaining life that is truly life. (1 Timothy 6.17 – 19, MSG)