The Approval of Paul: Part 4 of 4 (series: Lessons on Galatians)

by John Lowe
(Woodruff, S.C.)

10 Only they would that we should remember the poor; the same which I also was forward to do.

Only they would that we should remember the poor;
The poor in this case is the poor Christians in Judea. It should not be assumed that it would be necessary to make this an express stipulation in regard to the converts from among the Gentiles, and it would not have been very relevant to the meeting of the minds that was taking place between these pillars of the Church. The reason behind this request was to unite the Christians who were saved from among the pagans (Gentiles) and those saved from among the Jews, and to prevent alienation and unkind feelings. It might have been alleged that Paul was of a mind to forget his own countrymen altogether; that he thought of himself as the apostle to the Gentiles and to no one else; that he would become completely alienated from those who were his "kinsmen according to the flesh," and thus it might be expected that those who had been converted from among the Jews would not have a good opinion of Paul. But nothing could be better adapted to dispel this line of reasoning than for him to pledge himself to feel a deep interest in the poor saints among the Jewish converts; to remember them in his prayers; and to endeavor to obtain contributions for their needs. In this way he would show that he was not alienated from his countrymen; and as a result, the whole church would be united in the closest bonds. It is likely that the Christians in Judea at that time were suffering from the evils and hardships of poverty arising from some public persecution; the persecution at the hands of Paul was gone, but it was probably still going on at the hands of others. History reveals the unkind feelings of the Jews at that time in regard to Christians; that the followers of Jesus of Nazareth would be subjected to many hardships on account of their love for Him. For example: a wife might be disowned by her husband; a child disinherited by a parent; a man might be fired from his job simply because others could not stand him or his religion; a family might be persecuted by their countrymen, who took away all their possessions for professing the name of Christ. The region of the world that included Judea was in the midst of a famine at this time (See Acts 11:30; Romans 15:25-27; 1 Corinthians 16:1-2; 2 Corinthians 8:1-7); many of the Christians had made themselves poor through their having given up all their substance into one common stock and fund, as they did at first; therefore, for all these reasons many of the Christians would be poor. It became a serious and immediate need to provide for them; and this is often referred to in the New Testament.

the same which I also was forward to do.
“The same which I also was forward to do” was just mentioned in the previous verse. They saw clearly that God had called Barnabas and me to go to the Gentiles just as he had called them to preach to the Jews; and they did not attempt to give us any new instructions; they only asked us to remember the poor in Judea; but this was something to which we were already committed—“Now about the collection for God's people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do” (1 Cor. 16.1) (Also see Acts 11:23-30.). Paul was definitely interested in taking up a collection for the poor saints at Jerusalem—which is abundantly clear from his epistles to the churches, and especially from his two epistles to the Corinthians—and in this way he gave the best evidence that he was not estranged from them, but that he was deeply interested in the welfare of his countrymen. One of the ways in which people come together in a church is through helping support the poorer members of their community, and every church has some poor persons, around whom they form these bonds of union. The best way to unite all Christians, and to prevent alienation, and jealousy, and strife, is to have a great common object of charity, in which everyone is interested and to which they all may contribute. One such common object for all Christians is our present sinful world. All who bear the Christian name may unite in promoting its salvation, and nothing would promote union in the modern divided and distracted church of Christ like a deep and common interest in the salvation of all mankind. Often this involves sending missionaries, training Christian workers, providing relief for the victims of tragedies, the poor, and starving, etc.

NOTE--In order to understand this epistle and parts of others, the reader must keep in mind the two great divisions of apostolic Christianity, the Jew, and the Gentile. Of the Jewish, Peter, James and John were leaders; of the Gentile, Paul and Barnabas. These leaders were in full harmony, but the two sections of the church were not equally harmonious. The Jewish Christians, as a rule, still kept the Jewish law, and hoped for the conversion of the whole Jewish nation, until the destruction of Jerusalem; one extreme wing of them insisted that the Gentiles should keep the Jewish law, also. It is with this wing that Paul comes in conflict. Here in this chapter, and also in Acts 15, we have accounts of the conflict. After Jerusalem was destroyed, the temple in ruins, and the church forced to go elsewhere, the Jewish Christians gradually gave up the Jewish law, and the two divisions welded into one body in which there was neither Jew nor Gentile, but all one in Christ.