Paul writes that he is carrying aid to the Christians of Jerusalem and Judea, collected in the churches of Macedonia and Achaia. And for the apostle this is not simply something done along the way, as today we sometimes deliver a package to friends or to friends of our friends when going to another city on...
Paul writes that he is carrying aid to the Christians of Jerusalem and Judea, collected in the churches of Macedonia and Achaia. And for the apostle this is not simply something done along the way, as today we sometimes deliver a package to friends or to friends of our friends when going to another city on a business or private visit. For Paul, taking the donations collected for the Jerusalem church is part of his apostolic ministry. And this attitude toward such donations reminds us once again that works of mercy for Christians are not only a matter of material or social support for those to whom it is given.
In church life there is no social service in its pure form: the Church knows only spiritual ministries. And helping those who need it is no less a spiritual ministry than preaching, mission, or apostleship. This is understandable: Christian life is not divided into “spiritual” and “worldly.” Such a thing would be possible if we were one kind of people in church, another on the street, and still some third, fourth, or fifth kind at work, among acquaintances, on vacation, and in the other places where we have to be.
Nevertheless, this is often exactly how it is, and then what are called religious duties enter our life.
Among these religious duties, one of the most important for Christians is considered to be “works of mercy,” or “social service.” There is nothing surprising here. If our “spiritual” life exists separately from our “worldly” life, there must necessarily be a connection between them. “Spiritual” life penetrates the “worldly,” and at this intersection there appears what we perceive as our “religious duties.”
These are the duties that may be a joy to us or a burden, but that must still be performed simply because they are duties. Having performed them, we receive the right to “spiritual” life in church, to prayer, to participation in the breaking of bread, and simply to communion with God as such. If you do not perform religious duties, do not go to church!
Of course, in practice everything is not quite so: the practice of church life has long since developed mechanisms that presuppose a certain compromise between the right to communion with God and the scope of those same religious duties. But the logic still does not change; the principle of the interconnection between “spiritual” life and “worldly” life remains exactly the same.
For Paul, however, life is not divided into “spiritual” and “worldly.” To deliver the collected donations is for him not social service, but the same act of love as his whole apostolic ministry and the whole Christian path: a path where there was no division into “spiritual” and “worldly,” and therefore no religious duties that included works of mercy. There was only the Kingdom and its life, one and indivisible.
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15:22 Therefore I have been long hindered from coming to you - Among whom Christ had been named.
15:23 Having no longer place in these parts - Where Christ has now been preached in every city.
15:24 Into Spain - Where the gospel had not yet been preached.If first I may be somewhat satisfied with your company - How remarkable is the modesty with which he speaks! They might rather desire to be satisfied with his. Somewhat satisfied - Intimating the shortness of his stay; or, perhaps, thatChrist alone can throughly satisfy the soul.
15:26 The poor of the saints that are in Jerusalem - It can by no means be inferred from this expression, that the community of goods among the Christians was then ceased. All that can be gathered from it is, that in this time of extreme dearth, Act 11:28-29, some of the church in Jerusalem were in want;the rest being barely able to subsist themselves, but not to supply the necessities of their brethren.
15:27 It hath pleased them; and they are their debtors - That is, they are bound to it, in justice as well as mercy. Spiritual things - By the preaching of the gospel. Carnal things - Things needful for the body.
15:28 When I have sealed to them this fruit - When I have safely delivered to them, as under seal, this fruit of their brethren's love. I will go by you into Spain - Such was his design; but it does not appear that Paul went into Spain.There are often holy purposes in the minds of good men, which are overruled by the providence of God so as never to take effect. And yet they are precious in the sight of God.
15:30 I beseech you by the love of the Spirit - That is, by the love which is the genuine fruit of the Spirit. To strive together with me in your prayers - He must pray himself, who would have others strive together with him in prayer. Of all the apostles, St. Paul alone is recorded to desire the prayers of the faithful for himself. And this he generally does in the conclusions of his Epistles; yet not without making a difference. For he speaks in one manner to them whom he treats as his children, with the gravity or even severity of a father, such as Timothy, Titus, the Corinthians, and Galatians; in another, to them whom he treats rather like equals, such as the Romans, Ephesians, Thessalonians, Colossians, Hebrews.
15:31 That I may be delivered - He is thus urgent from a sense of the importance of his life to the church. Otherwise he would have rejoiced "to depart, and to be with Christ." And that my service may be acceptable - In spite of all their prejudices; to the end the Jewish and gentile believers may be knit together in tender love.
15:32 That I may come to you - This refers to the former, With joy - To the latter, part of the preceding verse.