They shared everything

The first church has no buildings, no clergy, no programmes and no legal status. Luke describes it in four habits: the apostles' teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer. What follows is economic. They sold their possessions and distributed to anyone who had need — not because a rule required it but because, Luke says, they were of one heart and soul. Nobody among them was in want. It is not communism; the giving is voluntary and repeatedly individual, and a later chapter shows a couple lying about how much they gave. But it is not a metaphor either. The earliest identifiable mark of these people, to outsiders, was that they shared their money and ate together, daily, with glad and generous hearts.