“Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among them all, as anyone had need.” (Acts 2:44-45)

Back in the 70’s the cool kids wore tie-dyed shirts, sandals, flowers in their hair and attire, and lots of beads. The focus was on living off the land and simple attire that could readily be manufactured and cleaned. They had little to no interest in industrialism. They were content to have little or no possessions. They all lived together in harmony; sharing what they had and the supervision of their kids. But it was not a time of innocence, as they also believed it was appropriate to live in sin. They saw nothing wrong with sharing sexual partners and the promotion of “the brotherhood of man,” which was actually a sign of early indoctrination as to the ‘One World Order,’ in which the elites of today are almost ready to see come to fruition. To them, it was all just a part of living in peace and harmony, although without God.

Well the early church we read about in Acts chapter 2 bears a striking resemblance to that ideology. The early church members lived like wholesome hippies. They shared all they had, lived together whenever possible/necessary, and were not concerned with worldliness of any kind.

But, of course the glaring contrast shows itself in the day of the hippie: a lagging understanding of God and even worse, indifference to Him and His Kingdom on earth.

But if hippies had lived wholesome, holy lives back in those days, perhaps more people today would be more likely to recall the early church members and gleam many lessons about Christian living and the benefit of God’s Kingdom on earth, with a great example of Christlikeness. But alas, that remains only a dream….

Of course, the early church members had seen Jesus in His Supernatural State when He returned and stood before them after His Resurrection. They did gleam from some pretty powerful motivation. However, the Bible was available to the hippies of the 70’s; they could have learned from the Book of Acts and other passages of Scripture that teach what true love really looks like:

“Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.” (Ephesians 5:1-2)

“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” (John 15:13)

“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1Corinthians 13:4-7)

And today there are many who see sexual freedom as appropriate and harmless, but they have taken the ideology of the hippy to a whole new level:

2024 Philadelphia Pride parade, festival puts inclusivity on full display (youtube.com)

And the Book of Acts is not the only book that illustrates that God is pleased with sharing in a wholesome way:

“But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.” (Hebrews 13:16)  

Moreover, there is a spiritual law that is governed by generosity: Reaping & Sowing:

“There is one who scatters, yet increases more; And there is one who withholds more than is right, But it leads to poverty. The generous soul will be made rich, And he who waters will also be watered himself.”  (Proverbs 11:24-25)

“Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of his fury will fail.” (Proverbs 22:8)

“The wicked earns deceptive wages, but one who sows righteousness gets a sure reward.” (Proverbs 11:18)

“The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.” (2Corinthians 9:6)

“Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” (Luke 6:38)

“Knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free.” (Ephesians 6:8)

ALSO SEE: Galatians 6:7-10

Moreover, when God comforts us, we are then enabled to help comfort others:

“who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ.” (2Corinthians 1:4-5)

Back in the 70’s, the cool kids were blind as to the reason they should have claimed for doing good. But they were not interested in pleasing God or being more Christlike, they were merely pulled into a short-lived fad-culture of the time. They were fighting against the 9-5ers, in which they couldn’t help but notice their elders were aligned. And, although many of them thrived in that culture, the youth of that day believed they knew better. The funny thing is, had they by and large found the missing piece to their ideology of freedom and sharing, that is faith in God through Christ Jesus, living as they did might have become reclaimed among believers today. But one thing is for sure, the early church members were closely aligned to something that only exists in the imagination; a fantasy of wholesome hippies, in which believers could have admired and aspired to imitate.

Linzy is a certified Bible Counsellor, with countless republications on her viewers blogs, Bible Studies, Ezines and the like. Her portfolio includes, non-fiction articles, short stories for all ages, and Christian poetry.