5. Financial accountability demands transparency before God and man
5. Financial accountability demands transparency before God and man
I love the fact that when Paul has finished talking about all the people he is bringing into the team to deliver the money to Jerusalem, he explains why he is handling it in this plural way.
We want to avoid any criticism of the way we administer this liberal gift. For we are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord, but also in the eyes of men. (2 Corinthians 8:20–21)
These verses express a principle that is transcultural. That is, they provide a biblical model for us, whatever our culture or background. They are challenging and very significant. I think they should be hung up on the wall of any room where a Christian organization does its financial business.
The arrangements Paul put in place were not only very careful but also probably quite costly. It would cost a lot more for five or six men to travel from Greece to Jerusalem than for Paul to go there by himself; travel was not cheap in those days. So the arrangements Paul was building up around this gift could have aroused resistance. Church members could have said, ‘Why send so many people? You are going to waste some of the gift on their expenses’ (just as we complain about the cost of auditing our accounts). But Paul says, ‘It’s worth that cost because I don’t want any criticism; I want to be completely transparent before God and people, so that nothing we do can be open to criticism’.
Paul was operating within a culture that had similarities to some non-Western cultures today. The Greek and Roman cultures were very top-down, very hierarchical. The Roman system was patron-client oriented. The men at the top were patrons: they were bankers or politicians; they were wealthy, and people would come to their homes every day wanting favours. Being in with the top man was crucially important; that is how Roman politics worked. It was a very relational economy in that sense.
So Paul is acting counterculturally in what he does with this gift. He could have said, ‘I’m the boss; I’m your patron; I’m the apostle. Give me the money and a single armed guard, and I’ll take it to Jerusalem. Just trust me’. Instead he says, ‘No, I want this to be completely transparent, so I must have others with me to make sure all is done properly and above criticism’.
I would love 2 Corinthians 8:21 to become a motto for each of us as Christ’s followers; something that we take to heart: ‘We are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord, but also in the eyes of men’. Let us make this principle a motto for each of us and for all our mission organizations. What a difference it could make, and how it could help to prevent some of the tragic scandals of fraud and theft and mismanagement within Christian organizations.
Summary Principle 5: The vertical and the horizontal are both needed. Paul says, ‘We should be able to trust one another in the Lord, but we want to do what is beyond criticism in the eyes of the watching world as well’.