Was Jesus a Socialist? If you ask some people, they'll give you an emphatic "yes". Their reasoning? Jesus taught compassion for the poor. He taught that God loves a cheerful giver. He told one particular rich person to sell all his stuff and follow Him. He was even quite poor, even having no place to sleep. What an excellent example of Socialism! Right?
But actually, no, not even close. Those who equivocate Socialism and charity misunderstand one, the other, or both. To illustrate this, consider one simple question: Is it possible to be charitable under a non-Socialist system? The obvious answer is yes. When you have complete financial independence, you are free to spend your money on whatever you want. In Mark 14:7, Jesus even says "For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good...". Whensoever ye will, ye may do them good. You can do this in a Capitalist system very easily.
Indeed, one only needs to look at the fact GoFundMe, at least last I heard, provided for more medical expenses than insurance providers. Socialists would look at that and say "how awful, the government should do something about this". But anyone else would look at that and see hope for humanity. Without compulsion, people are so charitable that they are able to do what even private businesses, apparently, are struggling to do.
Coincidentally, this is what scripture says: "Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver." (2 Corinthians 9:7). Not grudgingly. Not out of necessity. As he purposeth in his heart. What part of that screams "give us all your money or men with guns will lock you away"? This one verse makes Socialism impossible.
See, charity is all about the will. If you will to do good, first of all, Jesus says you can. He frames it not only as a command, but as permission. It's almost assumed we will want to do so, simply because we love Him. But He never once says "don't be rich", or "all rich people must give away their riches". In fact, the one time He tells a rich man to do so is not as a general moral principle, but as part of an exposure of a man's idolatry. "Hey Jesus, I've kept the 10 commandments". "Sure buddy, your money is your god." It wasn't all rich people need to become poor, it's this particular rich guy loves his riches more than God.
But consider robbery. Does the victim want to be robbed? Does he consent to any cause the robber will put his money towards? Is the robber himself clear from guilt if he gives his ill gotten gains towards feeding the hungry or housing the homeless? Of course not! Jesus would condemn the robber and wouldn't attribute anything he did with the stolen wealth to the rightful owner.
Thus, Socialism is effectively robbing us of our ability to do good. In fact, it even creates more poverty. Everywhere it goes, it causes shortages, because there are two things you can never legislate against: Limited resources, and unlimited human selfishness.
The limited resources thing is just a tragic effect of living in a fallen world. Before things can be distributed, they must first exist. You can't feed the hungry if no one grows their food. But because we're self-interested, it's hard to get us to work harder than we need to in order to produce much more than we actually need.
This is often illustrated by a story of a classroom. For one reason or another, sometimes even just for sake of proving this very point, the teacher decides that all students will receive the same grade for each test. After the first test, the average grade is an A. "Great", everyone things, "we did good". But by the next test, things start to go downhill. This time, the grade is a B-. The lazy kids, thrilled by the fact they don't have to work as hard to get higher grades, begin relying on the studious kids to boost them. Test day rolls around, and everyone gets a C, just barely enough to pass the class. What's happened? The studious kids are fed up of supporting the lazy ones. Why should we work so hard for such a minimal reward? So of course, no one's working for anyone, and just like that, the whole class fails.
Sadly, this is more than just a cautionary parable. The world has seen this play out many times, as Socialism has been applied to many regions, even whole countries. The result is always poverty, even in countries rich in natural resources. By contrast, if you're reading this, you are eating the fruits of Capitalism. Yes, rich companies made the laptop on which I wrote it, and the device on which you are most likely reading it. Capitalism provides supplies to meet demands we didn't even originally have, which is both a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing because I rather enjoy not having to worry about the fact my handwriting is illegible. It's a curse because it makes us greedy and ungrateful. You can carry a better computer than NASA used to put a man on the moon and still be considered poor!
So was Jesus, the supreme picture of wisdom and justice, a Socialist? Not even close. In fact, quite the opposite. Opposition to Socialism is compassion for the poor. Far greater to raise a culture of fishermen than of thieves who give the hungry a single stolen fish. As the Apostle of Christ said, "...if any would not work, neither should he eat." (2 Thessalonians 3:10).