St. Basil, Karl Marx, and Acts: "From each according to ability, to each according to need"

This video examines quotes from Karl Marx, St. Basil, and the book of Acts to present their shared ideal for the administration of resources in society as one that prioritizes need over greed.
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[@kennethvolwana7799]

Thank you very much Sir I'm glad I met you in this platform. May God continue bless you.

[@Thinkagain21]

Acts 2 bears little resemblance to K. Marx's approach. There is no compulsion in Acts 2. Marxism says 'what yours is is mine' [kleptocracy], unlike the early church 'what mine is is yours'. Cf. John Stott on Acts 2, "It is important to note that even in Jerusalem the sharing of property and possessions was voluntary. According to verse 46, they broke bread in their homes. So evidently many still had homes; not all had sold them. It is also noteworthy that the tense of both verbs in verse 45 is imperfect, which indicates that the selling and the giving were occasional, in response to particular needs, not once and for all."

[@StephenDMorrison]

I discuss why this is, if not a complete misreading, at least a dubious and misleading reading of Acts 2 & 4 in my book. But in brief, the attempt to frame these commands as voluntary fail to account for Christ's either/or rebuke of mammon and the early Church's insistence that to follow Jesus means to abandon riches. It was "voluntary" in the sense that becoming a Christian was voluntary. But a Christian cannot serve both God and mammon, and thus, were obligated to give what they can. The Shepard of Hermas recounts the involuntary nature of these commands. A rich person cannot be part of the eschatological church according to that text. They must give away their riches are be cast aside.
Also, it is not true that Marx promotes a Kleptocracy. I would challenge you to find anything in Marx's writing that supports that idea. But I suspect it is not from actually reading Marx but from hearing anti-socialist rhetoric that you arrived at that interpretation. Marx was all about those who labor receiving the full benefit of the value they produce (e.g., labor theory of value).