And they determined, according as any one of the disciples was well off, each of them to send to the brethren who dwelt in Judaea, to minister [to them];
A warning of coming famine reached the young church in Antioch. Before anyone went hungry, the disciples there sent money. Two questions follow. What moved them to give to believers far away? And what set the size of each gift?
No one asked Antioch for money. Judea sent no request, and the famine had not yet started.
How deeply interesting is the faith and love that answered this! No one had preached a charity sermon. They did not wait for a request from believers who were already poor through their own generous love after the great Pentecost, which first saw the church here on earth. They believed the shortage was coming, and they thought of the believers in Jerusalem as truly "one body." Perhaps we may apply 1 Corinthians 12:26 here: if one suffers, all suffer, and as they feel with each other, they also help… It is a blessed thing to act from heavenly motives in earthly duties.
The measure was not a fixed sum, and it was not the same from every person. An older translation also shows what the sending itself was called:
As each of the disciples had the means, they decided that every one of them would send help [literally, for service] to the brothers living in Judea.
That standard also sets a limit. Giving measured by what a person has will not create a new need to solve an old one.
Let their giving be "according to what a person has." There is no thought of meeting one person's need by pushing another into need. That would only lift the burden off one person by laying it on someone else.
The famine would cover the whole world. Antioch stood in its path too, so the disciples were sending away supplies they might soon need themselves.
The coming trouble was to be "a great famine over all the world." So Antioch was in danger as well as Judea, and yet they sent their gifts. That was unselfish love. It is a stronger and longer-lasting bond than church rules, however well meant those rules may be.
Most believers in Antioch were Gentiles, that is, non-Jews. The believers in Judea were Jews. So the striking thing here is which way the money travelled.
We have seen how the disciples in the earliest days at Jerusalem shared everything they had. But at that time they all belonged to one nation, the Jews. This case was different. Many of these givers had once been Gentiles, and they now decided to help those who had been Jews. This was a step forward in putting Christian teaching into practice. The dividing wall of hostility (Ephesians 2:14) really had come down, and they knew it and showed it.
Help ran both ways between these two cities. What Antioch sent was a return, not a one-way gift.
Here the Gentile believers in Antioch give something back for the spiritual gift they had received from the Jewish believers in Jerusalem: they send relief for their material needs. This passage is a beautiful picture of how different members of one body act in harmony. It is not limited to one place. It shows in the way believers in different places walk together.
Why was Judea so poor? In the earliest days in Jerusalem, believers sold property and shared everything. That did not last, and it left them with little when the famine came.
Selling their possessions left many believers very poor when the famine came years later. That opened the way for the relief sent by Gentile churches (see Acts 11:27-30), which did so much to bind together the Jewish and Gentile parts of the church of God.
- Word. They believed the warning, and belief turned at once into action. No one asked them, and no one preached a collection sermon.
- Will. They chose to give at the very moment their own city faced the same famine.
- Measure. Each gave in line with what he had — a standard that never solves one need by creating another.
- Reach. Former Gentiles supported former Jews, showing the old wall between them had come down.
- Result. Spiritual help from Jerusalem came back as material help, and it bound two very different groups into one.
which also they did, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.
Acts 11 begins with Peter defending the gospel going to Gentiles. It ends with those same Gentiles sending famine relief to Jewish believers in Judea, carried to the elders by Barnabas and Saul.
No appeal came from Jerusalem. The gift answered a word from God about a famine that had not yet arrived.
How deeply interesting is the faith and love that responded to this! It was no charity sermon. They did not wait for a call from the saints in Jerusalem, who had already been made poor by their generous love after the great Pentecost that first saw the assembly here on earth. They believed in the coming scarcity, and thought of the saints in Jerusalem as truly "one body."
Earlier in Acts, believers had shared goods among themselves — but they were all of one nation. Here the givers and receivers came from opposite sides of an old divide.
We have seen how the disciples in very early days at Jerusalem had all things in common. But all of them were then of one nation, Jews. In this case it was different. It was Gentiles, as many of them had been, who now determined to minister to those who had been Jews. This marked a development in the practical understanding of Christian teaching. The dividing wall between them was indeed broken down, and they were conscious of it, and showed it.
One detail in the warning shows what the gift cost the givers.
The threatened trouble was to be "a great famine over all the world." So Antioch was in danger too, not only Judea, yet they sent their gifts. That is unselfish love. This bond is greater and lasts longer than church rules, however well meant those rules are.
The passage sets the measure for the giving: each according to his ability. Later generations have lowered it.
In those fresh days everyone gave "according to his ability," and how much love — divine love — was expressed in it! How different it is in the many sad days of decline since then! Then it has to be said instead: "everyone a little of his surplus, and the richest in proportion least of all!" The heart that is in a thing, or is not in it, either degrades it or makes it spiritual.
Elders appear here for the first time, and with no introduction. Where they came from, the record does not say.
Saul (as he is still called) and Barnabas become the channels for bringing the contributions to the elders, who have not been named before. We are not told how these elders were appointed, or even whether anyone appointed them formally. Among the Gentiles we know that the apostles chose and installed them, as we shall see a little later. Scripture does not say whether the same was true among the Jews. But we clearly see that some men held this responsible place among them, as others did in the Gentile churches later.
Two things stand out about the men chosen: the order of their names, and that they went together.
They sent it by the hand (some translations read hands, but that letter s should not be there) of Barnabas and Saul. Later on we read Paul and Barnabas, but here at the start of his service he is content to be named last. It is a good thing not to seek first place in our service… I grant you fully and simply that our service is individual. It is to our own Master that we stand or fall. But I would not want to take up any service where I felt I did not have the fellowship of my fellow believers.
Antioch was now a centre of its own. Yet the account keeps turning back to Jerusalem, and this gift is the thread between them.
But it was important that this assembly should not be cut off from the one at Jerusalem, so the account suddenly takes us back to that city. That assembly is still lovingly recognised… Now the fruits of love strengthen the union.
- Warned — a prophet's word, not a plea from the poor, set the giving in motion. They gave on the strength of what God said was coming.
- Weighed — "according to his ability" made each person's own means the measure. Giving sinks when people hand over only what they can spare.
- Willing — Antioch faced the same famine and gave anyway. That is what makes the love unselfish.
- Wall down — former Gentiles supporting former Jews showed in practice that the old dividing wall was gone.
- Welded — the relief tied the new assembly at Antioch to Jerusalem, and the fruits of love strengthened that union.