THE COLLECTION FOR THE POOR CHRISTIANS AT JERUSALEM-THE EXAMPLE
Charles R. Erdman
2 Corinthians 8:1-6
1 And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. 2 Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. 3 For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, 4 they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints. 5 And they did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God’s will.
The eighth and ninth chapters of the Second Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians form the great classic passage on Christian beneficence. All the principles which should control Christian giving are here set forth. It is a complete summary of the motives and methods of church support and of church benevolences. If modern Christians were familiar with these principles and were guided by these instructions of the apostle, there never would be need of special appeals, and the treasuries of all boards and agendas of benevolence would overflow.
The occasion of these chapters was Paul’s desire to have the Christians in Corinth complete a collection for the relief of their fellow believers residing in Jerusalem. Just why there was such need for this Palestine relief fund is not stated. Possibly the Christians in Jerusalem were in financial straits because they practiced a community of goods. It was purely voluntary.
More probably the poverty among the Christians in Jerusalem was due to the fact that the church in that city was composed largely of persons of small means, of tradesmen and artisans. Moreover, the Christians in that city were from the first subjected to persecution and to social exclusion which made it difficult for them to earn a livelihood.
Whatever the occasion of their poverty, it was obviously acute, and the rest of the Christian Church felt sympathy for these fellow believers in Jerusalem who were suffering from this dire financial distress.
It was for the relief of these sufferers that Paul was concerned in making a collection. In this matter he had taken the keenest interest. There were a number of reasons why he was so eager for its success. First of all, the common grace of Christian charity would lead him to sympathize with persons in need. Then again, these particular persons were Jewish Christians, his kinsmen after the flesh, and his brethren in Christ. In the third place, it should be remembered that at the council in Jerusalem, when it was agreed that Paul should be recognized as the apostle to the Gentiles, it had been specially stipulated that he should “remember the poor,” by which was meant the “poor saints in Jerusalem.” There was a fourth reason for his interest in this contribution: Such a gift from Gentile churches would prove, to any who were skeptical among the Jewish Christians, the reality and genuineness of the faith and the conversion of the Gentiles. Probably the supreme reason, however, was the desire of the apostle to establish the union of Jew and Gentile in the one body of Christ. Nothing would more clearly demonstrate such oneness of life than would this expression of sympathy and of love, given by converts from various nations to the members of the mother church in Jerusalem.
The motive for the treatment of this subject in these two chapters of this epistle was Paul’s desire to have the Corinthian Christians complete their part of the collection before he reached the city. He was on his way and was passing southward through Macedonia when Titus met him with good news from Corinth. Among other important matters he learned that the members of the Corinthian church had begun to make their contribution at least a year earlier. Therefore, as the apostle writes to prepare for his imminent coming, he devotes this second section of his letter to a presentation of the cause which is so dear to his heart. His approach to the subject is most courteous and happy. The previous portion of the epistle had closed with the statement of his joy and his confidence in his Corinthian friends. He begins this portion by telling them of the joy which has been occasioned by the generosity of the Macedonian Christians, among whom he is briefly sojourning, and by implying that as he has such confidence in the Corinthian Christians, he can without fear broach the delicate subject of a church collection.
As a basis for the appeal which forms the substance of this section, he first describes the generosity of the Macedonian churches. ” we want you to know ” he writes, ” about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches.” This grace, as he implies, has been and is still operating there. Its result is the production in the converts of an extraordinary degree of Christian generosity. As Paul states, “Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.” Its particular character is uncertain. Such sufferings were all too common among the Christians of the Early Church. In connection with this “severe trial” the apostle mentions “their overflowing joy” This is a striking combination of ideas, quite characteristic of the experiences in the Early Church. Suffering and joy were usually united. It is of peculiar interest to note that Paul was at this time in Macedonia, probably in Philippi. In this city he had sung his songs in the night, when he lay bleeding in the prison, and to these Macedonian believers he had written his great hymn of joy, namely, his Epistle to the Philippians. This he had penned while a prisoner in Rome.
In addition to their “severe trial” Paul makes mention of “extreme poverty” This also was an experience with which the members of the Early Church were only too well acquainted. It is true, however, that Macedonia felt in a peculiar measure the oppression of Roman rule, and that as a colony it was continually complaining of its commercial difficulties and its financial straits. What Paul tells his Corinthian readers is that the test of affliction and the pitiful poverty issued in a rich stream of liberality. This last word originally meant simplicity or simple-mindedness. It seems to have meant that singleness of purpose which is directed toward the relief of others, with no selfish thought and no ulterior motive in mind; hence the word came to denote, as it does here, generosity or liberality. If sincerity is the word which embodies the message of the first seven chapters of this letter, liberality is the term which states the theme of the eighth and ninth chapters.
Paul declares of these Macedonian believers that “they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability” That is, their giving was not only in accordance with their means, but it went far beyond the limits of their slender resources, and, furthermore, it was purely voluntary and spontaneous; it was “Entirely on their own”.
These Christians had shown their liberality still further in that, without waiting for any suggestion from the apostle, they had begged him as a special favor to allow them the privilege of having a part in the offering which was to be devoted to the relief of their fellow Christians in Jerusalem. He adds that they had increased his surprise by the spirit which they had shown. Not only had they given much more than he had expected, but they had given themselves to the Lord first of all, and then as servants to Paul, through whom their gifts were to be sent. It was this self-surrender which formed the chief feature of the grace which God had bestowed upon them.
It was the most striking characteristic of their liberality.
The consequence of this self-dedication of the Macedonians to God and to his apostle was this very message which Paul was writing. He was sending it by the hand of Titus. He was commissioning this trusted friend to return at once to Corinth, and there to complete the task which he had begun on his recent visit. Or, as Paul expressed it his writing to these Corinthians, he had “…urged Titus, since he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part.”
In reviewing this picture of the exemplary generosity of the Macedonian Christians, and in studying the instructions which follow, it should be noted that while Paul is referring to a church collection, he never uses the word money, but employs such felicitous phrases as a “grace” a service or ministering a communion in service or “the privilege of sharing in this service”, a generosity or a blessing, a manifestation or proof of love.
All these phrases are beautiful and full of meaning. Possibly the first is most significant of all. Liberality, according to the apostle, is a “grace”. Generosity is an endowment. It is a gift from God. It is a talent. By some it is possessed in a very striking degree, while others are almost as notable for their lack of this grace. However, like all talents, it may be cultivated. It is well for each believer to exercise this gift to the full extent of his ability, and it is sometimes stimulating for one to observe the liberality of others. Particularly does the example of persons who are in poverty, like these Macedonians, arouse others to generosity.
The Macedonians show some of the characteristics which, in greater or less degree, every Christian should manifest. In the face of every demand for relief, in answer to every appeal of suffering and want, there should be a response showing something of the joyousness, of the sacrifice, of the spontaneity, of the self-surrender, manifested by these large-hearted members of the Macedonian church.
