Social concern was high on the priority list in the early church. Paul had been infected with this concern through his association with Barnabas, if not earlier. Early on, the latter had been sent from Jerusalem to Antioch to investigate reports of a huge number of Gentiles coming to faith. He recruited Paul from Tarsus to help in the teaching work there. It was during this time that a famine broke out, which was especially severe in Judea. The mostly-Gentile believers in Antioch sacrificially gave of their resources for the famine relief, sending the funds to the church in Jerusalem by the hand of Barnabas and Paul (Acts 11:22-30). That was Paul’s second visit to Jerusalem, the third one being the one referenced presently in our text.

We see this emphasis on benevolence continue into Paul’s later ministry. On his third mission tour he actively solicited financial support for the struggling believers in Jerusalem (see Rom 15:25-28, 1 Cor 16:1-3, Acts 24:17).  Though he was adamant about his independence from the Jerusalem leaders and about the Gentiles not needing to convert to Judaism in order to be saved, he none-the-less felt compelled to honor the Jerusalem church and their leaders, “For if the Gentiles have shared in their [believers in Jerusalem] spiritual things, they [i.e. Gentile believers] are indebted to minister to them also in material things” (Rom 15:27b).

Paul was clear that benevolence did not provide a basis for salvation, yet was still compelled to be generous to the poor. He taught the Ephesian elders, “You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my own needs and to the men who were with me. In everything I showed you that by working hard in this manner you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ” (Acts 20:34-35).

Today the poor are all around us. Certainly there are beggars on the streets and those who make their rounds looking to churches for financial aid. But there are also people in our churches who struggle with making  ends meet, astronomical medical bills, single mothers, struggling students. This is not to mention those in third world countries, especially children, who live in dire poverty. Let this mind be in us that was also in the apostle Paul and the Jerusalem leaders; let us remember the poor in tangible, real ways. Let us open our wallets and checkbooks—and our lives. Let us give sacrificially to help others.