1. Financial support for the poor is integral to biblical mission

Paul sees no dichotomy between his evangelistic church-planting mission and his efforts to bring about the relief of poverty among the believers in Jerusalem. Financial support for the poor is a biblical mandate. For Paul this is all part of his task, his mission, and his calling.

Let us step sideways for a moment, to Galatians 2. Here we again see the mandate for the poor. It is not the central focus of Paul’s teaching, yet its place in Paul’s argument lends particular weight to it. Here Paul is defending three things. He defends (1) his apostolic authority, (2) the content and nature of his apostolic gospel, and (3) the rightness of preaching the gospel to the Gentile Christians, the Galati, a branch of the great nations of the Celts that had migrated into southern Turkey. Paul had preached the gospel to them, and they had become believers. Then Paul faced the great theological controversy with the Jewish believers as to how these non-Jewish people could be accepted into the covenant and into the people of God. Some of the Jewish believers had come to Galatia and troubled the Galatian churches, trying to insist that they must become circumcised and observe the Mosaic Law.

Paul writes the Epistle to the Galatians against that background, to defend the fact that his gospel had been accepted as fully authentic by the apostles in Jerusalem. The New Testament church is very young, and it is important for believers to grasp matters clearly. Paul’s deep passion for truth and clarity is what lies behind Galatians 2. He declares that he had received his teaching from the Lord but had submitted it to the apostles in Jerusalem, and they had accepted that it was authentic and true. He states:

James, Peter, and John, those reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of koinonia—the right hand of fellowship—when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews. All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do. (Galatians 2:9–10)

The ‘right hand of fellowship’ is not simply a token of friendship. The word koinonia means much more. It is a sharing in and a sharing of what God has given to us, and that affects the financial dimension as well as the spiritual dimension of our corporate life. So in Acts chapters 2 and 4 we read about the koinonia of the early church in Jerusalem. Certainly, it was a spiritual koinonia. Believers shared in the apostles’ teaching, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. But it was also a financial koinonia; they shared with one another to relieve poverty. It is clear from what Paul says in Galatians 2 that this spirit of the church in Jerusalem was still operating; the Jerusalem church still cared about the poor in their midst. They saw it as an essential part of gospel koinonia. So if Paul the apostle was going to be a partner with them and share in their understanding of the gospel, then he too must be committed to remembering the poor as part of his gospel credentials. It was, he says, the very thing he was eager to do anyway. So we learn that active financial concern for the poor is how the Jerusalem church operated, and it was part of Paul’s commitment.

At the end of Paul’s letter to the church in Rome (Romans 15), Paul writes about his lifelong commitment to church planting and evangelistic ministry. Earlier in the chapter he explained how God had given him grace ‘to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God,’ so that the Gentiles were becoming an offering to God (vv 15–16). That is his ministry, and that is what he believes he is called to do. He has now done it all around the eastern Mediterranean basin, from Jerusalem to Illyricum (now modern Albania). He continues:

I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ. It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation. . . . But now . . . there is no more place for me to work in these regions. (vv 19–20, 23)

So now Paul is planning a bold missionary project that will take him to the western half of the Mediterranean, toward Spain. That is his great evangelistic vision, and he is looking forward to visiting the Christians in Rome on the way. But at the moment, says Paul, my priority is to go to Jerusalem in the service of the saints there. ‘For Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. They were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews’ spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings. So after I have completed this task and have made sure that they have received this fruit, I will go to Spain and visit you on the way. I know that when I come to you, I will come in the full measure of the blessing of Christ’ (vv 26–29).

Look carefully at what he says a bit later: ‘Pray that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea and that my service in Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints there, so that by God’s will I may come to you with joy and together with you be refreshed’ (vv 31–32).

Paul in effect puts his evangelistic strategy on hold, to carry out his relief of poverty strategy. It is interesting that at this point Paul does not say, ‘I’ve got to go on to evangelize Spain, so I’ll dump the responsibility for this financial gift onto somebody else; they can take it to Jerusalem. My job is to preach the gospel, not to relieve the poor.’ Paul sees no conflict in making his priority at this point his service to the saints through the relief of poverty. So first he will take the collected money to the people in Jerusalem. Not only does he see it as a personal priority; he asks for prayer for it. He asks for prayer just as later he would ask for prayer when he was in prison (when he asked people to pray for courage to preach the gospel). Just as he called on believers to pray for him in his evangelistic ministry, here he asks the Roman Christians to pray for him in his financial ministry to the saints in Jerusalem.

He does not perceive this task as an unavoidable interruption in his evangelistic career. To complete this work of poverty-relief will be to fulfil a Christ-centred calling; as much so as when he was completing his evangelistic mandate. When he has done this, he says, ‘I will come to you in the full measure of Christ’. What a rich phrase, carrying with it a deep sense of fulfilling Christ’s calling.

Paul sees no dichotomy between these two dimensions of ministry. Indeed, as one writer has said, ‘We do not know if Paul achieved this mission [his evangelistic plans to go to Spain], but we do know that he delivered the collection [to relieve the poor in Jerusalem]. The collection was so vital that its delivery was at that moment a more urgent matter for Paul than his desire to evangelize and plant churches on the missionary frontier’.

In 1 Timothy 6 Paul instructs Timothy to pass this teaching on to the church. The responsibility for generous giving by those who have the means is core to our Christian commitment and part of our response to the gospel. Paul says,

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them [note this second use of ‘command’] to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. (1 Timothy 6:17–18)

The English conceals the fact that the Greek word is koinonikos [‘willing to share’]. They are to share their fellowship by their financial generosity, and in this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, echoing the teaching of Jesus.

Generosity is a Christian duty, says Paul, something that pastors can command. He is probably echoing Deuteronomy 15, where God says to the Israelites (vv 10–11, 14–15),

Give generously to him [the poor person] and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you. . . . There will always be poor people in the land [or in the world]. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers. . . . Give to him [that is, the poor person] as the Lord your God has blessed you. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you. That is why I give you this command today.

Summary Principle 1: Paul saw generous financial support for the poor and careful administration of that gift as integral to biblical mission, gospel mission. It was part of what he was called to do, as well as the more obviously evangelistic tasks of preaching and planting churches.

. Jason Hood, ‘Theology in Action: Paul and Christian Social Care’, in Transforming the World: The Gospel and Social Responsibility, ed. Jamie A. Grant and Dewi A. Hughes (Nottingham: IVP Apollos, 2009), pp 129–46. Quotation taken from p 134; italics original.

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