The Bible tells us that the people in the early church had everything in common. It wasn't a command, just continuing the way Jesus and his disciples had always done things.
God put the man, Adam, in the Garden to work it and take care of it, free to eat from any tree except from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Clearly, God did not make Adam an owner, but a steward.
We now know that people did not become farmers and shepherds like Cain and Abel right away. First, they were hunters and gatherers owning nothing individually except perhaps some tools or clothing. The advent of agriculture and husbandry marks the beginning of escalating claims of individual property ownership rights. Over time, wealth and power has become concentrated into fewer and fewer hands ending in the absurd wealth disparity and violence we see today.
Having everything in common was not the norm even at Jesus' time. At least it was unusual enough that Luke felt a need to mention it. Jesus repeatedly pointed out that the accumulation of wealth was an obstacle to returning to the Garden.
Restoring the Garden is not going to be easy. Some people like the common purse idea, but would really prefer something a little less radical. The inconvenient truth is that the common purse is not radical enough. It still involves the use of money. Jesus himself fell victim to the power of greed when Judas sold him out.
The common purse is an achievable goal to set while we scale our communities to a level where we can finally eliminate the curse of private property and demonstrate to the world that there is an alternative.
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