Acts 20:35

Act_20:35

Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.

The blessedness of doing good

I. That these words represent the character of our Lord. He was devoted to all the offices of humanity and good nature. The two general habits which filled the whole intenseness of His soul were unaffected piety towards God and charity to mankind. He had not any one affection in the blessed frame of His mind but what was Divinely exercised in constant acts of beneficence; for He scarce so much as ever indulged Himself in any one innocent pleasure of human life, but the going about continually to do good. And here observe that our Lord chose not the charity of almsgiving for His province, how blessed a part soever that be, for gold and silver He had none; neither had He the like obligations with us to lay a good foundation against the time to come. This part, therefore, He left for those principally whom He intended to honour with the sacred trust of being the immediate stewards of His providence; to whose commiseration and care He should commit the indigent creatures of His family. This part of liberality, I say, our Lord exercised not; but His Divine compassion was intent upon a charity much more exalted than this--the relieving the souls of men, and providing for their eternal welfare.

II. That they express the genius of his religion, the natural tendency whereof is to smooth and soften our harsh and unrelenting tempers, that thereby we might be perfectly disposed and furnished unto every good work.

III. That they declare to us wherein the peculiar blessedness of the Christian life doth consist, which is best promoted by giving and by doing good. For charity is not a solitary virtue, a single blessing, but the happy conspiration of all those tender passions from whence humanity, that is, the most perfect state of human nature, takes its name. Nay, all that we know of God, whereby He is in Himself the blessed for evermore, and to us, the great object of our love and adoration, is, that He is absolutely perfect in all the infinite varieties of goodness, wherein the several infirmities and wants and sins of all His creatures take their sanctuary and their refuge. Reflect, I beseech you, on all the various scenes of life which employ the sons of men. What part can we act upon this great theatre so delightful, so honourable, and so nearly allied to God, as that of a patron and friend of mankind! But how blessed it is to give! how much of the life of God there is in it! (G. W. Brooke, D. D.)

Charity blessed

I. I am to explain the grounds upon which we are obliged to works of charity.

1. The principles of natural justice; and--

2. The light of revelation.

II. In what measure our charity is demanded by God.

1. That we are bound to give in proportion to the necessities of the poor. And as their numbers and wants increase, we are to be more liberal; as they lessen, by being set on work, or provided for otherwise, we are under no obligation of scattering unnecessary relief.

2. That every man is obliged to give in proportion to his own affluence and stated income; and between God and his own conscience to allot such a part of it for charity as may answer the general precepts concerning it.

III. Let us now consider upon what objects our charity is most usefully employed.

1. Such as suffer for the truth of the gospel, either against infidelity, or against idolatry and gross corruptions. And in them most properly Christ Himself is relieved.

2. In distinguishing objects of mercy let us regard those especially that are recommended to it by their own worth, or by that of their progenitors.

3. Such objects are well qualified for our compassion as fall into distress or decay by a sudden calamity overtaking them, or by the immediate hand of God; and not by idleness or vice, where the relief of a scourge is generally the fittest.

4. Such objects are very fit for our charity as will improve what is given them, and lay it as the foundation of their future livelihood.

5. From these who are bred up for the service of their country let us proceed to those who by serving it are maimed, and disabled from getting their own bread; and these certainly are worthy objects of public charity.

6. Whenever we are disposed for acts of mercy, they that have the most pressing wants to speak for them are always fittest for our present choice; for charity looks not barely at the man, but at his necessities.

And now upon review, I shall briefly annex five rules concerning the management of our alms.

1. Charity which prevents men from being oppressed with poverty is better than that which only supports them under it.

2. Charity which aims at the public service is better than that which is only for private relief.

3. Charity which is disposed of into a perpetual fund is better than that which is immediately melted and consumed.

4. Charity applied to the making of men virtuous is better than that which only refresheth the body.

5. Charity expended for correcting the idle, and forcing them to work, is better than that which gives them a present ease.

IV. And what need I say more for the encouragement of all these charities than to repeat the words of our Lord Jesus, It is more blessed to give than to receive?

1. It is the advantage of works of charity that they are usually attended here with temporal and spiritual mercies. If thou satisfy the afflicted soul the Lord shall guide thee continually, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden (Isa_58:10-11).

2. The blessedness of charity is yet much greater in that it secures an endless inheritance in the next world (1Ti_6:18-19). And is not this abundant conviction that it is more blessed to give than to receive?

And to confirm us in this persuasion, I shall strengthen what has been said with two considerations.

1. That God will strictly inquire hereafter what the rich have done with all that plenty which He bestowed upon them. And therefore it behoves them to be well prepared for their answer to Him.

2. Let it be considered that the only way to make riches a blessing is to employ and manage them as God hath appointed. (Z. Isham, D. D.)

Receiving and giving

These words suggest three things in relation to Christ.

1. The unrecorded portions of His words.

2. The unworldly character of His teaching.

3. The unselfish character of His life. The text suggests--

I. That receiving and communicating are the two grand functions of life.

1. Man has acquisitive tendencies and powers. His desire for getting is ever active and ineradicable.

2. Man has the impartive tendencies and powers. His social and religious instincts urge him to give what he has attained.

II. That the eight discharge of both these functions is blessedness. This is implied by the word more. To receive in a right spirit, and for right ends, is a truly blessed thing.

1. Receiving as the reward of effort is blessedness. It is natural to feel happiness when the result laboured for has been reached.

2. Receiving as a consciousness of fresh power is blessedness. A conscious augmentation of our powers and resources is joy.

3. Receiving with religious gratitude is blessedness. Gratitude is joy; it is the inspiration of Heavens anthems.

III. That the blessedness of the right discharge of the communicating function is the greater. It is more blessed, etc., because--

1. It is more spiritualising. Every generous, disinterested act tends to detach the soul from the material and temporary, and to ally it with the spiritual and eternal. The man who is constantly gaining and not giving, becomes more and more the slave of selfishness, materialism, and time.

2. It is more socialising. In giving you awaken in the social sphere sympathy, gratitude, and admiration. The loving man awakens love, and happiness has been defined as loving and being loved.

3. It is more God-assimilating. God gives, but cannot receive. He gives all, and only gives. The nearer we approach to God the more blessed we are. Cicero says that men resemble the gods in nothing so much as in doing good to their fellow creatures. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

It is more blessed to give than to receive

The few words of the Lord Jesus here preserved for us by St. Paul, are his crystallisation of a truth which is as deep as the nature of God, which penetrates his whole creation, and on which certainly Jesus own life turned. It forms a key to the whole disclosure of the Divine character which lies open to us in the mission of the Son. Yet it needs no more than a very moderate knowledge of human society to discover that mankind at large act on an opposite rule. That each should take all he can get and mind Number One, are the commonplaces of worldly wisdom. Gladly to take, but to give with reluctance, is, as we say, human nature. At the same time there are certain deeper facts of life which prove this Divine maxim not to be at variance with true human nature, but only with the present unnatural state of human character. In order to see this it is needful to attend to--

I. What these words do, or rather do not mean.

1. They do not mean that it is an unblessed thing to receive. God has made us all dependent upon His own giving, and also dependent mutually upon one another. We must receive before we can give; and whenever we begin to give someone must receive. The relation is blessed on both its sides. Service, therefore, like mercy, is twice blessed; it blesseth him that gives and him that takes; but of two blessednesses, saith Jesus, the higher is that of giving. Now, does not the human heart respond to this comparative estimate? Nearly all men will agree that the domestic relations form the happiest part of life. But this family blessedness turns far more on what we give than on what we get. The infant, for example, which receives everything and gives back nothing, has a blessedness infinitely feebler than that of its nursing mother. They do not mean that giving is more pleasant. Very often it is quite otherwise. Perhaps all giving means temporary loss and suffering. It is eminently so, at least, with the noblest sorts of giving, e.g., a mothers devotion to her child; yet her giving is more blessed than its receiving because it expresses nobler affections, trains her to nobler habits. I ask again, does not the world echo this thought of Christs? In the articulations of society each one has something to give, and he must give it. But we count that man noble who gives to the general good the largest amount of costliest service.

III. The conditions on which giving brings blessedness. These conditions may be summed up in one brief law--That the act of giving is only blessed when it is moral; and always blessed in proportion to its moral pureness and nobleness.

1. There is an unconscious giving. This mutual ministry of help pervades creation. Earth gives of her strength to feed her inhabitants, and of her hidden treasures to enrich them. The beasts lend to man their skill and muscle, and bequeath to him their very bodies when they die. But it is needless to add that all this unconscious and involuntary exchange of benefits in dead or in brute nature, brings no blessedness. A child knows that there is no real worth, nor blessedness, in any giving which is not the intentional act of a conscious agent, which is not, in short, moral. When the human worker is content to work like an animal in the mere struggle for existence, his work may be ever so precious a gift to society, but he is no longer blessed in his giving, and--

2. There is reluctant giving. We make presents because they are expected; we entertain our friends that they may entertain us; we pay compliments for politeness sake; we subscribe to charities under the constraint of opinion; we lend to our neighbour wishing he had not asked us. Now, to whatever extent the wish retracts what the hand bestows, to that extent giving brings no blessedness, because it is immoral in motive. It brings rather cursedness, both because it is to that extent false, wearing a show of charity which is not genuine, and because it argues a division of the man against himself.

3. There is a giving which is not simply defective through the weakness of charity, but at bottom utterly base through the want of it. It is a mean thing to oblige a man with a slight accommodation in the hope of extorting or coaxing from him a greater return; to pay court to a great man, not from loyalty, but for the paltry vanity of being noticed, or the ignoble desire to profit by him; to use ones influence for an importunate suitor, only to get rid of his importunity; to give handsome sums to public charity that ones name may appear well in the advertisements. We must be simpler in our giving if we would be blessed in it. Evil is never so cursed as when it walks in the stolen white garb of good, nor selfishness ever so unblest as when it mimics charity.

III. Rising above human giving, let us gaze upon the Divine--the ideal after which men are to be remade in Christ. God has this solitary preeminence in blessedness, that He gives everything and receives nothing. On this account, as on every other, His is the noblest life, because He is forever imparting of His own to all, and gets in return only what He first has given. It utterly baffles imagination to conceive what streams of reflected gladness must pour back upon the heart of the Infinite Lover from even one small section of the world which He has made so happy. The sunshine and the field s delight us sometimes for a little; they delight God always; and when we, with our love and tenderness, sweeten each others life, that adds more sweetness to the life of God. The rarest joy granted to man below is the joy of leading a brother into the light and love of our common Father; but He, our Father, has the luxury of leading all of us into light, of teaching every child He has to know at least a little of the truth and to love the good a little. God has tasted a still deeper blessedness. When God made all things good, or when He makes His fair world glad, He gives only as rich men give stray coins away, feeling no loss. But can God feel loss? or touch the mysterious blessedness which underlies the pain of sacrifice? For us sinful men and for our salvation, God has--so to speak--drawn upon the resources of His moral nature, and expended not His thoughts, or strength, or pity only, but Himself. He left nothing ungiven when the Son gave Himself for us. Jesus life was one of giving. Because He received so little from His fellow men and gave them so much, His life reveals God. Just here there was realised the supreme blessedness of the Divine nature; for here the Divine character realised in act its supreme nobleness. Down through the mysterious anguish of giving Himself away in utter loss, and pain, and death, the Divine heart pierced to a blessedness than which nothing can be more blessed, the blessedness of daring to die for the saving of the lost. (J. O. Dykes, D. D.)

More blessed to give than to receive

An Irish schoolmaster who, whilst poor himself, had given gratuitous instruction to certain poor children, when increased in worldly goods began to complain of the service, and said to his wife he could not afford to give it any longer for nothing, who replied, Oh, James, dont say the like o that--dont; a poor scholar never came into the house that I didnt feel as if he brought fresh air from heaven with him--I never miss the bit I give them--my heart warms to the soft, homely sound of their bare feet on the floor, and the door almost opens of itself to let them in. (Clerical Library.)

Wherefore is it more blessed to give than to receive

Because--

I. It delivers us from ourselves; from--

1. The bonds of selfishness.

2. The cares of superfluity.

3. The burden of dependence.

II. It unites us to the brethren.

1. By their friendly attachment.

2. Their active gratitude.

3. Their blessed intercession.

III. It brings us nearer to our God. We are permitted to be--

1. Similar to the image of the All-Good.

2. Sharers in the delight of the All-Loving.

3. Expectants of the reward of an Eternal Rewarder. (K. Gerok.)

To give more blessed than to receive

1. After this there was nothing more to be said; from such words there is no appeal. But the elders had heard them before, and were asked to remember what had become a proverb among them.

2. The saying is unequivocally in the style and manner of our Lord. It is another beatitude. As there were many things that Jesus did which could not be written, so with many things that He said.

3. Meanwhile this saying, like a flower from the early gospel time, floating down the stream of Church life, has been caught by an apostles hand, and because so caught is as fresh and fragrant as at the first. It comes to us, not increased in value, for it is already priceless, but recommended and enforced by the great apostle. The manner of quoting it is unmistakably St. Pauls. The Lord Jesus is a designation he frequently uses, full both of reverence and tenderness.

4. The proverb has many sides, and touches human and Christian life at every point. It is true in reference to--

I. The production of happiness. We are blessed in doing good, even if we gain no reward. I knew a man of immense wealth, but his mind was always uneasy, his face always anxious. He was not without conscientious feelings in regard to his property; but he could not make up his mind to give largely. And then death came when his wealth ceased to be of use: but it might have been of use here, and then there would have been a reaction upon himself. Another I knew, far less wealthy; but his life was laid out in diffusing happiness, and there was a perpetual smile upon his face.

II. The formation of character. The highest qualities of heart and life can be acquired only through active exercise. A man is not really unselfish unless he acts unselfishly. By giving we obtain the power of giving. No natural object is more full of characters than a river; but it is by reason of its motion that it becomes beautiful and beneficent. The tree by putting forth its leaves in confident profusion this year grows firmer and larger for next year. The harvest suggests deeper analogies. The dying of the seed corn is set before us as the law of self-sacrifice; and how grandly Paul teaches this analogy from Psa_112:1-10. (2Co_9:8, etc.).

III. The exertion of influence. If we desire to be great and godlike by exercising a power for good, it must be by the diffusive power of our religion. Our Lord says, Ye are the salt of the earth, etc., immediately after the beatitudes whose spirit is carried into these sayings also.

IV. The sustentation of Church work. True Church prosperity is secured by the perpetual habit of giving, and not simply our money, but our service, sympathy, time, etc. For the Church is a cooperative society in and for which each member is appointed to give out that which he has to give, and to find and create happiness in so giving. Many think they can be quite good Christians while they are mere recipients; but it is a great mistake. No one can be holy or happy without giving.

V. The vigour of missionary enterprise. Christianity is in its very conception an aggressive and converting religion. If not this, it is nothing. Who ever gave so much to the world as Paul, and received so little from it? And who has been more truly blessed?

VI. The standard and encouragement of the ministerial office. This office consists in perpetual giving, and hence must be preeminently blessed. This is a danger lest it should degenerate into the discharge of certain functions. But let there be a sincere self-consecration for Christs sake, and with all his anxieties no position is so really happy as that of a Christian minister. It is his very trade to do all the good he can. (Dean Howson.)

The comparative blessedness of giving and receiving

1. We might easily imagine occasions on which these words may have dropped from Christs lips. They may have checked the entreaties of His disciples that He would for once think more of Himself and less of others. They may have answered some kind and friendly remonstrance when He turned aside from an untasted meal to attend to the sorrows and sicknesses which ever thronged the doors within which He rested. They may have explained on any occasion the secret of His perpetual self-sacrifice.

2. Were they not indeed the key to His whole life? Was not this the secret of His humiliation? And when He had thus humbled Himself, did not the same principle originate every act and prompt every motion?

3. How bright a light does this one expression throw upon the whole character of Jesus, Suppose that He had been personally known to later generations but by this one brief sentence? Should we not all have framed to ourselves instinctively some conception of that character which thus expressed itself, of that life which this principle must have moulded? What an intuition must He have possessed, who thus spake, into the real secret of greatness, the true dignity of man, and the essential characteristic of God! More blessed to give than to receive? More blessed, asks the selfish old man, to have an empty coffer than a full one? More blessed, asks the young man of pleasure, to admit another than myself to the desired scene of gaiety? More blessed, asks the man of business, the statesman, or, the student, to stand aside and let others pass me than to reap the fruit of my own skill or perseverance? Nay, let me hear that, however painful, the loss must be submitted to; that it is a condition of the kingdom, and I can understand you: but say not that there is any blessedness in such a life of mortification. Such is ever the true feeling of a fallen and unrenewed nature: there was an inspiration in the words before us; and till He who spake also inspires, we shall hear them still as exaggerated or unmeaning words. And yet if more blessed means in other words, more Divine, more Godlike, is not the saying at once proved true? God, who possesses all things, cannot receive: God, who upholds all things, is ever giving. To receive is to be a creature: to give is to be so far a partaker of the Divine nature. We will illustrate the saying in two particulars.

I. Take the commonest and most obvious of all applications--money.

1. It has many uses; purchases many pleasures; has many powers. With limitations, it can even buy knowledge, rank, subservience. If it cannot buy love, it can buy some substitutes. The rich man is better off than the poor man. Not happier, necessarily, nor better: but better off; speaking of this life only. Now can we possibly say of money, these being its advantages, that it is more blessed to give than to receive? Few men seem to find it so. What an eagerness is there to get money! What a pleasure in finding it multiply! What a desire to die rich! At last it becomes a passion, a business, an appetite, a disease. It is too late, perhaps, then to gain an audience for this Divine saying.

2. But let us try it betimes. Is there nothing in human nature which responds to it? I can fancy a man of average virtue saying, My chief pleasure in money is in paying it away. I rejoice to feel that I owe no man anything; to think that that man, who has served me, is the better for me. Yes, I enjoy paying away at least as much as receiving. This is a poor and faint image of the glorious principle of the text: but it is well to show that Christianity is not all transcendental, but that it seizes upon something which is in all of us till we are utterly hardened, and raises it into a region where approval at least and admiration may follow it.

3. But I do not believe that hearts will ever be changed into the love of giving, save by the entrance of the Spirit of Christ. When the world is seen as it is, and heaven as it is; when we perceive that we are not our own, but bought with a price; when once the example of Christ, who left heaven for us, and the faith of Christ, who opened heaven to us, are felt by us as real motives; then we shall be changed into the same image from glory to glory; we shall value the wealth of this world chiefly for its power of relieving distress and spreading the gospel; we shall find that the Saviours saying is verified.

II. I pass from the basest to the highest of possessions; from money to love.

1. There are those amongst us whose nature is athirst for love. Life is a wilderness to them without it. If there were but one person who loved them they feel that they should be happy. And it comes not. Or they have love, but it is not the love which they desire.

2. We cannot but think that our Saviour has a word for these, and that the text speaks to them, and says, Little as you may think it, it is more blessed, in this respect, to give than to receive. Christ came unto His own, and His own received Him not. It is more blessed, because it is more Christlike, to love than to be loved. To love, and therefore to do good; to love, and therefore to be willing to spend and be spent, though the more abundantly I love, the less I be loved. This is what Christ did: and the disciple is not greater than his Lord.

3. One thing you can say even now, if you be His; that you would not exchange the lot of the unloved for the lot of the unloving. You would not part with the power to love; even for the sake of being free from its disappointments, free from its aching voids or its rough repulses.

4. Purify and refine your affection, more and more, by every argument and every motive of the gospel; wash out of it all, earthly stains, burn out of it all human corruptions: and then cherish it, give it, yea, lavish it. Give as your Saviour gave, without a bargain, and without an expectation, and without a repining, and without one backward look, and in the end you shall be able to echo His words. (Dean Vaughan.)

The blessedness of giving more than receiving

To be governed by this principle is an argument--

I. Of a more happy spirit and temper. Because--

1. It is the nearest resemblance of the Divine nature, which is perfectly happy.

2. It is a grateful acknowledgment of our obligations to God, and all that we can render to Him for His benefits.

3. It is an argument of great wisdom and consideration; for the reflection upon any good that we have done is a felicity much beyond that of the greatest fortune of this world; whereas the spirit contrary to this, is always uneasy to itself; but were our nature rectified and brought back to its primitive frame and temper, we should take no such pleasure in anything as in acts of kindness, which are so suitable and agreeable to our nature that they are peculiarly called humanity.

II. Of a more happy state and condition.

1. To receive from ethers plainly shows that we are in want. But to be able to benefit others is a condition of freedom and superiority, and the happiness which we confer upon others we in some sort enjoy, in being conscious to ourselves that we are the authors of it. And could we but once come to this excellent temper we need not envy the wealth and splendour of the most prosperous.

2. To depend upon another, and to receive from him, is the necessary imperfection of creatures; but to confer benefits is to resemble God. Aristotle could say, that by narrowness and selfishness, by envy and ill-will, men degenerate into beasts, and become wolves and tigers to one another; but by goodness and kindness, by mutual compassion and helpfulness, men become gods to one another.

3. The angels are, as it were, perfectly transformed into the image of the Divine goodness, and therefore the work which, with so much cheerfulness and vigour, they employ themselves in, is to be ministering spirits, to bring men to goodness, and to encourage, and assist, and comfort them in well-doing. And our blessed Lord, when He was upon earth, did in nothing show Himself more like the Son of God than in going about doing good.

III. Of a great reward. There is no grace which hath in Scripture the encouragement of more and greater promises than this.

1. Of happiness in general (Pro_14:21; Mat_5:7; Luk_6:38; Job_25:12).

2. Of happiness in this life (Psa_37:3; Pro_28:27; Psa_41:1-3).

3. Of happiness in death (Pro_14:32; Isa_57:1).

4. Of happiness in the world to come (Luk_14:13-14; Luk_16:9; 1Ti_6:17-19). (Abp. Tillotson.)

The blessedness of giving

I. It is blessed to give because God Himself is the bountiful giver. He is the Author and Giver of all good things, and it is blessed be permitted in any measure to reflect His image and to be followers of Him. If it be the design of true religion to restore the moral image of God to the soul, it must indeed be blessed to act habitually in a spirit which is so harmonious with the Divine mind and will. If, then, we would prove ourselves to be the children of God, we must cultivate this grace, and give freely as God hath prospered us. We must give liberally of our substance for the service of God, for the advancement of true religion in the world, and for the relief of the poor and needy. Nay, more, we must do so not grudgingly or of necessity, nor because our circumstances or social position render it respectable to do so, but from purer and holier motives, because we would be followers of God as dear children, do as our Father in heaven does, and accomplish His will during the little day that we are on the earth.

II. It is also blessed to give because God has commanded us to do so, and blessed are they who do His commandments. He who deals so bountifully with us, and loads us with His benefits, has commanded us to acknowledge Him in the mercies which He bestows. In Old Testament times His people were forbidden to appear before Him empty. They were to honour Him by setting apart of their substance for His service and glory (Exo_22:29; Exo_23:19). Nor were they to forget the poor and needy (Deu_15:11). In studying the history of the Jewish Church nothing is more striking than the large proportion of their temporal blessings which they were required to consecrate to the service of God and to the relief of the poor. In the best days of their history their tithes and offerings, their thank offerings and free-will offerings, were on a scale of truly splendid munificence; nor were they losers thereby, for they found in their happy experience that the blessing of the Lord maketh rich, and that He addeth no sorrow with it. The whole spirit of the New Testament confirms and strengthens these commands. Hear what the great Teacher saith, Freely ye have received, freely give; Give, and it shall be given unto you; Sell that ye have and give alms: provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth neither moth corrupteth. Hear some of the many exhortations of His inspired apostles--Charge them who are rich in this world, that they be ready to give and glad to distribute; To do good and to distribute forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased; Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him; Whoso hath this worlds good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his compassions from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?

III. Giving is, moreover, a Divinely appointed way of acknowledging Gods mercies, and hence it is blessed. When filled with gratitude and love, the Psalmist asked, What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits? Feeling that he had nothing to bestow, he replies, I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now, in the presence of all His people. We have indeed nothing to render that we have not received, yet is He pleased to accept our offerings as tokens of our gratitude and praise; nay, He has appointed them to be made in this spirit and accepted for this end. We are not as Israel were, waiting for the rising of the Sun of Righteousness, but are rejoicing in the brightness of His rays. We have to thank God not merely for salvation promised, but for salvation fully accomplished and freely offered to us all. What boundless gratitude and what large acknowledgments do these unspeakable mercies call for at our hands! If His ancient people offered so willingly unto Him that it was needful to restrain them from further offerings, shall we come before Him empty?

IV. Finally, it must be blessed to give, because great and precious promises are made to those who do so. We are told that the Lord loveth the cheerful giver; and many are the promises which He has given to those who give with a willing heart and a liberal hand--promises of a rich return for all that they have truly lent unto the Lord. Are we exhorted to honour the Lord with our substance, and with the first-fruits of all our increase? There is a great and precious promise connected with so doing: So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. Are we told to cast our bread upon the waters? We are assured that we shall find it after many days. Are we charged to give a portion to seven and also to eight? The reason given for it is that we know not what evil may be upon the earth, and we do know that the faithful Promiser has said, Blessed is the man that considereth the poor: the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. Did the Lord reprove the Jewish people because in a time of coldness and declension they had robbed Him in tithes and in offerings? Hear the gracious words of promise by which He sought to recall them to the path of duty (Mal_3:10). No man ever regretted having been a cheerful giver, and many have been enriched thereby. We have often seen instances of this--of men who have conscientiously honoured God with their substance from their early days, and who have found by experience that godliness hath the promise of the life that now is as well as of that which is to come. There are doubtless exceptional cases. There is much discipline needed in the school of Christ, and hence we see good men overtaken by adversity and placed in the furnace of affliction. These are appointed trials, but the promise standeth sure: Them that honour Me I will honour; and he who, from love to Christ, has given to the least of His disciples a cup of cold water only, shall in no wise lose his reward. And what heart can conceive, what tongue can express, the joy of the cheerful givers in that day when the Lord Jesus shall come again in the glory of the Father and all the holy angels with Him, and when He shall say to them, I was an hungered, and ye gave Me meat, etc.! (W. Niven, B. D.)

The blessedness of self-giving

It is more blessed to give than to receive. Two principles of action are here contrasted. Egoism makes self the centre for inflowing streams. Altruism makes self a centre, but chiefly for distribution. And Jesus declares that action according to the latter principle offers to any moral being the more satisfactory results. We might argue this truth from the outcome of action to the contrary. The miser in his dreary counting-room, the self-lover torn with jealousy, the victim of overweening ambition, the spoiled child of luxury yielding to vice and perishing of ennui, the degraded recipients of misdirected charity, business rivals cutting each others throats in obedience to an iron law of competition, employers and employed fighting for what they call their rights, and the State estopped from its high destiny by parties intent only on the spoils of office, are not to be called blessed even by poetic license of speech. Only as intelligence and morality prevail over brute instincts do men discern common interests and seek the common well-being. If humanity ascends into the Divine, it must be along this pathway of self-giving. If God has ever drawn near to man, He has moved along the heavenly portion of the same blessed way. Was not creation itself a first step in the royal way of the Cross, as a Kempis names it? Has not the whole course of revelation been a continued giving as men could understand and themselves impart what they were themselves receiving? Note three significant incidents in the ministry of Jesus. In the wilderness incarnate self-seeking promised, I will give Thee the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them if Thou wilt fall down and worship me. Incarnate self-giving replied, Get thee hence, Satan. And angels ministered to the Victor. By the lake side His own people were ready to bestow on Him a crown; but the strong Son of Man again held Himself only to giving, fortifying Himself in this purpose by a night alone with His Father in the mountain solitude. Soon another mountain saw Him transfigured. The Altar that bore the offering for the sins of the world was glorified to dazzling whiteness by its self-offered burden. After some such fashion it is possible to argue the superiority of the rule of self-giving. But in the practical stir of daily business and pleasure it seems little more than a vision of the beautiful, a dream of the land that is very far off. Paul was a bolder, loftier spirit. Both in theory and in practice he accepted the Masters opinion.

I. Pauls theology was built about this principle of self-giving. The gospel as he conceived it was a story of the grace of God. Every man looks at the mission of Jesus from the standpoint of his own personal experience. The vision on the road to Damascus is the clue to Pauls doctrine. That he, the violent persecutor of the followers of Jesus, should have been made to see in Jesus the perfect revelation of Gods love to men, was an unmerited favour for which he could find no parallel. Gods treatment of him, the chief of sinners, gave him a universal message. He might apply to the disciples relation to God through Jesus all the legal formularies of Jewish councils and Roman courts. He might find in the ritual of Israel the type of Jesus mediatorship. He might speak of the death of Jesus on the Cross after the fashion of the priests who delighted in the details of their bloody sacrifices. But all such special language was intended simply to describe the self-giving of God to His needy and sinful creatures. Symbols and comparisons of every kind were seized upon to convey this idea. He could even rise to the audacity of declaring that the Ephesian Church was part of the Church of God, purchased with His own blood, yet the boldest imagery was inadequate to describe his vision of the exceeding riches of Gods grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. To this same word of His grace he turns as the last resort after all his care and reminiscence and exhortation. God might sanctify the Church by imparting new knowledge, by providential interference, by spiritual contact. But mainly he must work by the story of grace.

II. Side by side with this self-giving of God to man Paul maintains that this same principle must absolutely prevail in the Church. Great urgency characterises his repetition of this exhortation to the elders. Take heed to all the flock, he says. The Holy Spirit hath made you overseers, to feed the Church. Watch ye. Help the weak. Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He Himself said, It is more blessed to give than to receive. What but a thorough-going adoption of the principle of self-giving could answer to such a charge? Doubtless those poor elders of the Church felt their hearts sink again within them, if indeed they at all comprehended the meaning of his earnest words. The pressure of self-seeking invades the body of Christ and paralyses many of its best intentions. Shall we not say, then, that the Church exists for the manifestation of the spirit of Jesus, to be the corporate incarnation of the life of God? This is obviously Gods method. When He would bring about an elevation of the world He never effects His purpose by a pull at once at the whole dead level of humanity. He has always set to work by giving special gifts to a few elect souls, and through their means leavening the whole of humanity by degrees. The local Church is to be the constant expression of the mind of God for the worlds redemption. It is to be a centre of moral and spiritual health to the changing social organism. It is not a mutual benefit association, a moral insurance company, a religious creche, or even an organisation for the maintenance of public worship. It is all this by being more, a body of servants of Jesus pushing the kingdom of Gods grace intensively and extensively.

3. Our lesson contains illustration by practice as well as by theory and exhortation. Paul could declare with full sense of his responsibility that he was pure from the blood of all men. No person in Ephesus could rise up and say that Paul had not cared for his soul. With lowliness of mind, with tears, with trials, coveting no mans silver or gold or apparel, but caring for himself and his companions by daily labour at his trade, he gave himself to teaching publicly and from house to house, going about preaching the kingdom. He shrank from nothing that was profitable to either Jew or Greek, declaring the whole counsel of God and admonishing everyone night and day with tears. How intense, too, the flame of his devotion still was that had burned so brightly in Ephesus for three years! He was going to Jerusalem under constraint of the Spirit. They should see his face no more. Just what was to befall him he did not know. Only as he went on clear warning came in every city that bonds and afflictions of some sort waited for him, and yet the course marked out for him in Gods grace allured him more than it frightened him. He would accomplish it at any cost. The spirit of self-giving utterly triumphed in him as in his Master. He gloried in his tribulations. He rejoiced in his sufferings in behalf of the disciples. One cannot but feel after this review of the apostles conception of the Christian faith and practice that the principle here commended is fundamental to Christianity. More than any other it voices the essential truth of the religion of Jesus. Herein the religions of the nations fail to stand the test. Strip them of their superstitions and falsehoods, and they are powerless to control the mighty passions of mankind. Christianity alone seizes upon the hearts of men and makes appeal to grateful love, because it is neither a philosophy nor an ethical code nor a scheme of life, but a simple story how God gives Himself to men, in intimate and loving ways, for the removal of their weakness and misery and rebellion. (J. R. Gow.)

The larger blessing and the less

1. This word, like the great apostle who has reported it, was born out of due time. It lay silent in loving hearts, or was whispered by loving lips, until spoken by Paul. In another sense it was like him--not a whit behind the chiefest of the Masters sayings in preciousness and power.

2. Luke reports Pauls speech, and Pauls speech holds a priceless fragment. It is as when a seaman in a shipwreck has seized a servant, who, when she is raised, discovers in her arms an infant of the family she serves. We have here a word of Christ rescued from sinking into oblivion, with a word of Pauls wrapped round it; the jewel and its setting.

3. These words were employed to stimulate the Ephesian Christians to charity; but if you limit them to that application you will miss their deepest meaning. A child sees in the stars only twinkling lights, but you know they are central suns. As the difference between the intrinsic greatness of the fixed stars, and their incidental usefulness at night, is the difference between these words in their origin and their application to Christian contributions.

4. The Redeemer here expressed His own experience. He who loves a cheerful giver is a cheerful giver. A penitent may encourage his soul with the fact that the cure of his disease will impart greater joy to the Physician than to himself. Forms of beauty may be thrown off by common workmen; but the one type grew in the secret of a greater soul. So off the experience of Jesus in His work of redemption from the beginning in the eternal purpose, till its finishing in the fulness of time, was this maxim taken. The love wherewith Christ loved us is the mould in which this practical rule was cast. And so all who have left a beneficent mark on the world have first practised what they preached. Nor has Christs giving ceased now that He is exalted (Eph_4:8).

5. This glimpse into the heart of the Redeemer is a salve for the greatest of all sores. Jesus, for the joy of giving us salvation, endured the Cross. Let us bear these words, then, on our hearts when we pray. He Himself counts it blessedness to give.

6. These words do not mean that it is unblessed to receive. When the receiver is needy, the gift good, and the giver generous, it is blessed to receive. Evidence that Christ delighted in the self-consecration of His disciples crops up everywhere--e.g., in the narratives of the woman with the alabaster box, and the one leper out of ten. It was kind of Him to let us know that He values our gifts, although we render to Him only what we have received. And now that He has gone beyond our reach, it is His express wish that we should consider the poor as receivers for Him. (W. Arnot, D. D.)

The greater blessedness of giving

1. When St. Paul visited Miletus, several of his most potent letters had been already penned. These were saturated with thoughts the origination of which we cannot fairly attribute to him, and for which we can find no adequate explanation in existing literature. Where can we find any explanation of this more rational than that Paul had been himself revolutionised by the words of the Lord Jesus?

2. Strange to say, from our modern standpoint, not one of the four Gospels had then been written. Nevertheless, the teaching of Jesus had gone forth into all lands. And neither Matthew, Mark, Luke, nor John gathered up a tithe of these Divine words, which spread like prairie fire round the whole seaboard of the Mediterranean.

3. We could more willingly part with many an ancient classic, whole sutras of Buddha, and the entire Vedic literature, than with this Divine utterance, which goes down to the very depths of human life, and stretches out to embrace the essential blessedness of God Himself. Small and bright as a dew drop, yet, as we watch, it swells into a veritable ocean of love, on whose placid surface are reflected all the glories of heaven and earth.

I. It is blessed to receive. There is no antithesis here between the blessedness of giving and the non-blessedness of receiving. Oriental mysticism, Buddhist legends, the hyperbole of self-sacrifice for its own sake, have stumbled into this pit of pessimism. Christ illumined the profoundest problems of ethic and the true secret of religious life, when He said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.

1. It is blessed simply to receive natures gifts.

(1) All the progress of man is measured by the degree to which he has received and appreciated these. When man first understood what nature had done for him in offering him the flower and fruit and seed of corn, then began the harvest of the world. When human intelligence apprehended what was involved in the chalk, coal, and mineral wealth at his feet; when he grasped the meaning of fire and lightning, and the contents of water and air; when he began to receive and utilise the energies which had been moulding the world for untold centuries--then science took its birth. If we refuse to receive the light of heaven, we stumble into pitfalls. If we refuse to receive our daily bread, we perish.

(2) Furthermore, nature lavishes upon us appeals to our higher and more subtle desires, and gives us the sense of beauty, truth, and goodness. The surpassing loveliness of much of natures work must be received by those who have the eyes and ears of the spirit opened to receive it. The great artists and poets, musicians and sculptors, have so embodied their strong emotions in abiding form and material, that others may learn from them the blessed secret of receiving the mystery of beauty, and accepting some of the truth and goodness of its eternal source.

2. All human love is a ministration of Divine love. Human tenderness is but a channel cut by Holy Providence through which the rivers of Gods pleasure flow. Now, it is blessed to receive human love and the gifts of love. See the child with its hands full of birthday gifts, intense joy lighting its eye, almost bursting the tiny heart. Only on this principle can the inequalities of human power and capacity be compensated, can the strong help the weak, the physician heal the sick, the wise instruct the foolish, the ignorant walk in the light of knowledge. Because it is blessed to receive, we can drink into the spirit of the mighty dead, and apply to our own case their hoarded wisdom. All beneficence would be dried at its source, if there were no blessedness in receiving the streams of living water which are always pouring forth from human hearts.

3. The most impressive illustration of the principle is the blessedness of receiving the grace of God. The secret of receiving from the living God what is neither earned nor merited, but which we have gracelessly forfeited, is a secret which some are slow to learn. It is blessed to receive what Jesus Christ gives to man, even though it smite down our pride and explode our self-sufficiency. It is blessed to receive the greatest gift, to receive into our very nature a new and endless life, to sit in the sunshine of the Divine Presence, to be satisfied with the grace of the Lord Jesus, to be filled with all the fulness of God, to be forever with the Lord.

II. But it is more blessed to give than to receive.

1. Can any reason be assigned for such a sweeping and comprehensive inversion of all ordinary maxims? Should we not tremble to put it to such a test here in this Christian England of ours? Let the race course and the stock exchange, the insurance office, Parliament, and the law courts answer! Let diplomacy, with its duties, let trade and speculation, let professional etiquette and social distinctions and cliques be submitted to the fire of this principle. The honest advocate of such a law of life would be branded with scorn, and hustled off any stage of human activity.

2. Is this the regal principle in what calls itself the very body of Christ? Individuals may occur to us whose whole being is one unceasing process of giving, and on whose brow there sits the dome of peace, and in whose eyes, which are full of tears of boundless sympathy, there gleams the light of heavens own joy. But is their experience a final proof? Can we take the Son of Man at His word?

3. The judgment of the Lord Jesus was authoritative for St. Paul. The saying of the text must be true, because He who is the truth uttered it. He put the principle to the most complete expression. He tested it, as no other could possibly do, by, on the one hand, a receptivity open to all the amplitude of the Holy Fathers love lavished upon Him from eternity; and, on the other, a sacrifice and gift of Himself which was practically and to our most vivid imagination infinite and absolute.

4. The eternal relation of the Father and the Son is the eternal interchange of giving and receiving love. In the text we see the very order of the Trinity. The Fathers giving greater than the Sons receiving. Jesus says, I and the Father are one; but the Father is greater than I. From this principle we see some hint for the motive of the creation. The Lord called forth an object for the superfluity of His infinite love. Great is the joy of the Lord in the praises of His children, but greater still in bestowing upon them ever-abounding reasons for their praise.

5. The noblest and the most wonderful gift of the Lord God is the incarnation of the Son of God, and that great act of the Father is the blessedest of all. He gave His only-begotten, His well-beloved.

6. But we must adapt this great principle of blessedness to the smaller range of our own experience.

(1) Ye ought to remember and act upon the words of the Lord Jesus, because it is a truth you are, in the corruption and weakness of nature, in continual danger of forgetting. I grant you all the blessedness of receiving the gifts of nature and of the love of man: you must aim at the higher and greater blessedness of diffusing to others what you know to be worthy. The first believers stripped themselves utterly that they might yield themselves to this sublime impulse, and know something of the blessedness of Christ and of God.

(2) Ye ought to remember these words of the Lord Jesus when you are tempted to say, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years. There is a question between the blessedness of buying a ring, or a picture, or a house, or a book, or a co, at for yourself, and the blessedness of giving to the sick, the helpless, the naked, and the fatherless.

(3) Most earnestly St. Paul counsels you to receive the grace of God. But art thou going to sit and sing thyself away to everlasting bliss? Nay, Remember the words of the Lord Jesus. There is a greater blessedness: you are to give yourself back to God in holy consecration. You are not your own, but His who has given Himself for you and to you. Conclusion: We shall find the truth of our Lords undying words when we enter into His joy. Not until we chant the endless hallelujah, not until we yield ourselves absolutely to our Lord God for eternity, having no will but His, shall we fully know how much more blessed it is to give than to receive. (Principal Reynolds.)

The superior blessedness of giving

It is more blessed to give than to receive, because it is--

I. Far higher privilege. To receive may be an advantage, but the very act implies dependence and want, and therefore is so far an irksome feeling. But to be so graciously advantaged by the Giver of all good that we can assume the attitude of bestowers, must at once be admitted to be far the most distinguished privilege.

II. More safe. To be a receiver of good is dangerous, because it is fitted to nourish that selfish yearning so innate in our souls. How many there are who, when they were poor and little exalted in this life, had a heart open to pitys call, and a hand stretched out at pitys claim; but just in proportion as they got more, they gave less, and, as riches increased, they set their hearts upon them. But giving has not this peril. It has, indeed, its attendant danger. Our giving, if it minister to self-complacency--if it lead us to put it in the stead of the free gift of God, which is eternal life by Christ Jesus--it will do us sad harm, and our very acts of charity maybe converted into splendid sins. Nevertheless, there is in Christian giving far less danger than in receiving; there is something in the very exercise that is fitted to keep humble, because he is reminded, Who maketh me to differ from another? and what have I, that I have not received? And then how few comparatively injure their souls by giving, while many and mournful are the examples of those who injure their souls by getting!

III. Happier. There is a pain too often in reception from man, and it requires a very lowly and submissive mind in a rightly constituted poor man to be a dependent upon the kindness of others. And whatever pleasure there may be in gratitude, there is far more pleasure in benevolence. God hath so made us, that our duty is our happiness; and those dispositions which are most pleasing in His sight are most pleasurable in themselves. There is a pleasure that the mother feels in feeding, etc., her child; and in the patriot, whose heart is most passionately attached to his country. And does not this show us that if even the natural exercises of the communicating spirit be its pleasures and its relish, how much more when it is baptized by the Spirit of God, and when it assumes its proper purpose--to glorify God and benefit His creatures! Then, indeed, in giving we get.

IV. More godlike. God is love. And what does His love delight in? Communicating its own beneficence to all. And that goodness hath shown itself infinitely more than all, in that God spared not His own Son, etc., and how shall He not with Him also freely give all things to them that are Christs? And shall we not contemplate the Godlike character of the spirit of benevolence, as it is manifested in God incarnate? Oh! then, would we be imitators of God as dear children? would we put on the Lord Jesus Christ? would we be like our Father in heaven? would we be partakers of the Divine nature, and transformed into the Divine likeness? We must know and feel that it is more blessed to give than to receive.

V. We argue the same blessed truth from the approval and complacency with which God regards the giver. The promises to the receiver are few and not so direct; but the promises to the giver are rich and manifold and animating. Conclusion:

1. What a fatal mistake are most making in the way they set about to be happy! To get more wealth, admiration, power, influence, indulgence. What a mistake! Take a selfish heart to heaven, if it were possible, and it would be miserable; take a generous heart to hell, if that were possible, and it would be happy there.

2. Then what a stupendous change must pass upon our fallen nature I No marvel that it should be called a new birth, a resurrection from the dead. (Canon Stowell.)

The blessedness of giving

It is pleasant to hear people talk about things with which they are well acquainted; but if a person attempts to speak on a subject he knows nothing about, nobody wants to hear him. Suppose someone should lecture about the way houses are built in the moon, would you care about going to hear him? But suppose that a great explorer, after he had spent two winters up towards the North Pole, should lecture about the Polar regions, should not we all be anxious to hear him? Well, when Jesus said, It is more blessed to give than to receive, He knew all about it. It is more blessed to give than to receive because--

I. It is more like God. God is the giver of every good and perfect gift. Who gave us our hands to work with? our feet to walk with? our ears to hear, and our tongues to talk with? our minds to think, and our hearts to love with? these lungs to breathe with? God. Yes, God gives us our health, our strength, our clothes, our friends, our teachers, our parents, our homes, our churches, our ministers, our Bibles.

II. It is more useful. If God should stop giving for just one day, everything would perish.

1. It is more useful to ourselves. Suppose I want to have my arm become very strong. If I carry it in a sling, and do not use it all, after a while it will grow weak and thin. But if I use it all I can, the stronger it will grow. Look at the blacksmith! And what is true of the arm is true of the heart. Our hearts will grow larger, and stronger, and better, by proper exercise. And the proper exercise for the heart is giving. A good many people carry their hearts in a sling. And the consequence is that their hearts grow narrow and little, and good for nothing. If they would begin to exercise their hearts by giving, they would find that what Jesus said is true, It is more blessed to give than to receive.

2. It is more useful to others. If we keep our money without using it, what good will it do? There was once a Scottish nobleman--Lord Brace. He was very rich, but very miserly. He was so close and stingy, that one day when a farmer came to pay his rent, the money he brought was just one farthing short, and the man had to go all the way back to his home, a distance of several miles, and get that farthing before he would give him a receipt. Well, when it was all settled, the farmer said, Now, Brace, Ill give you a shilling if youll let me see all the silver and gold youve got. Agreed, said the miserly lord. Then he took him into his vault, and opened the great iron chests full of gold and silver, so that he could see it all. Then the farmer gave him the promised shilling, and said, Now, Brace, Im as rich as you are. Ay, men, said his lordship, and how can that be? Because Ive looked at your gold and silver, and that is all you will ever do with it. Now let us take an example of a different kind. Some years ago a certain Sunday school was making up a box of things to send to a missionary station. One poor little girl was very anxious to send something. But all she had in the world to give was a single penny. So she bought a tract with that penny, and gave the tract to her teacher to put in the box. It was opened at Burdwan, in India. That tract fell into the hands of the son of one of the chiefs and led him to become a Christian. Then he was very anxious that others should become Christians too. In one year fifteen hundred of the natives of that part of the country gave up their idolatry and became Christians, through the labours of that young prince. And all this good resulted from the one tract bought by that poor little girls single penny. Now think of all this good being done by one penny, and then think of all Lord Braces gold and silver lying useless, and you must admit that it is more blessed to give than to receive or keep.

III. There is more happiness in it. Little Robert Manly thought a great deal about pleasing himself, and this is not at all the best way to be happy. One day a poor woman came to Roberts mother to beg a little new milk for her sick baby. Mrs. Manly had none to spare, except what she had saved for her Roberts supper; and at supper time his mother told him how she had given away his milk for the poor sick baby. Robert didnt like this at all, and kept muttering about the milk being his, and nobody else having any right to it. The next day Robert was taken to see this poor family, and it made him shiver to look round on that cheerless home. The poor woman thanked Mrs. Manly over and over again for the new milk. It kept the baby still all night, she said. As they walked home, Robert did not say a word, though he was generally very talkative. At supper time his bowl of milk was set by his plate, but in a few minutes he went to his mothers side and said in a whisper, Mother, may I take my milk to the poor sick baby? Yes, my son, said his mother. By and by he came bounding into the room covered over with snowflakes, and shouting cheerfully, Mother, the babys got the milk. Her mother said, God bless you, my child! and, mother, my milk tastes very good tonight (smacking his lips); I mean my no milk. Yes, little Robert was proving the truth of our Saviours words. (Richard Newton, D. D.)

The pleasure of giving

It is sometimes hard for one who has devoted the best part of his life to the accumulation of money to spend it for others; but practise it, and keep on practising it, and I assure you it becomes a pleasure. (George Peabody.)

Glad of the opportunity of giving

A gentleman called upon Mr. H. to solicit his aid towards the erection of a Sunday school in a poor and populous district. Mr. H. contributed, and the gentleman began to thank him, when he said,

I beg you will give me no thanks; I thank you for giving me an opportunity of doing what is good for myself. I am thankful to God for the experience I have had that it is more blessed to give, etc.

The blessedness of liberality

I. There is more real pleasure in giving than in receiving.

1. There is always a pleasure in receiving, and this pleasure is sometimes greatly heightened by the circumstances of the receiver, or the disposition of the giver.

(1) A seasonable gift is acceptable, because it is immediately beneficial.

(2) A necessary gift is still more acceptable, because it comes in a time of want.

(3) A great gift excites greater joy, because it not only gratifies the natural desire of property, but throws the mind into a state of pleasing surprise and admiration.

(4) Any gift never fails to afford a sensible pleasure to the receiver, when it comes as a mark of affection and esteem from the giver. But in these and all other cases the giver is more blessed than the receiver.

2. There is a higher and purer happiness in rejoicing in the good of others than in rejoicing in our own good.

(1) The receiver rejoices in his own happiness; and let his joy rise ever so high, it still terminates in himself. But the giver, instead of rejoicing in his own good, rejoices in the good of others.

(2) In receiving gratefully, there is a mixture of submission to our state of dependence; but in giving freely, there is a mixture of joy in being able to give. The receiver is laid under obligation to the giver; but the giver is laid under no obligation to the receiver. And who can doubt whether it be not more blessed to give than to receive an obligation?

II. More virtue; and therefore the giver is more happy than the receiver.

1. The receiver may, indeed, exercise virtue by evincing gratitude. But the virtue of the receiver principally consists in a suitable regard to himself; the virtue of the giver, however, altogether consists in a proper regard to others.

2. There are many circumstances which augment the virtue of giving that do not enhance the virtue of receiving.

(1) The poverty, the distress, and even the unworthiness of the receiver, augment the virtue of the giver. It is truly Godlike to bestow favours upon the evil and unthankful.

(2) The virtue of the giver is always equal to his design in giving. A man may give a Bible to a poor and vicious person, with a sincere design to promote his spiritual and eternal benefit; but he may have a mean or wicked design in receiving it.

(3) And it is generally true that the giver has much more noble and extensive views than the receiver. This our Saviour intimated in His observation upon the conduct of the poor widow.

(4) There is self-denial in giving, which is wholly absent from receiving.

III. God promises to reward the giver, but not the receiver. This distinction plainly intimates that it is more blessed to give than to receive.

1. There are but few things which God has promised to reward men for in this life; but He promises to reward acts of munificence with special tokens of His favour now. Blessed is he that considereth the poor; the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that watereth shall be watered. The alms as well as the prayers of Cornelius were had in Divine remembrance, and he was rewarded in his lifetime with peculiar tokens of the Divine favour.

2. But this is not all; He means to reward them more openly and fully at the great day of retribution. Hence our Saviour told the almsgiver to give secretly, and thy Father, who seeth in secret, Himself shall reward thee openly. He declared that the smallest act of charity to one of His followers should meet with a future recompense (Mat_25:1-46) Conclusion: If it be more blessed to give than to receive, then--

1. We ought to entertain the most exalted ideas of the blessedness of the Supreme Being.

2. We may see why charity or beneficence holds the highest rank among all the moral and Christian virtues.

3. It is a great and peculiar favour to be made rich. Poverty is a real calamity in itself, and draws after it a long train of natural evils. It not only deprives men of the power and pleasure of giving, but subjects them to the disagreeable necessity of receiving alms.

4. We may learn what ought to be the supreme and governing motive of men, in pursuing their secular concerns, and seeking to increase their worldly interest.

5. None have any reason to think that they are real Christians who have never experienced this peculiar blessedness.

6. The covetous and parsimonious defeat their own design, and take the direct method to diminish rather than to increase their temporal interest.

7. Those who are able to give should esteem it a favour when Providence presents them with opportunities of giving. (N. Emmons, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Acts

PARTING COUNSELS

THE BLESSEDNESS OF GIVING

Act 20:35.

How ‘many other things Jesus did’ and said ‘which are not written in this book’! Here is one precious unrecorded word, which was floating down to the ocean of oblivion when Paul drew it to shore and so enriched the world. There is, however, a saying recorded, which is essentially parallel in content though differing in garb, ‘The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister.’ It is tempting to think that the text gives a glimpse into the deep fountains of the pure blessedness of Jesus Himself, and was a transcript of His own human experience. It helps us to understand how the Man of Sorrows could give as a legacy to His followers ‘My joy,’ and could speak of it as abiding and full.

I. The reasons on which this saying rests.

It is based not only on the fact that the act of giving has in it a sense of power and of superiority, and that the act of receiving may have a painful consciousness of obligation, though a cynic might endorse it on that ground, but on a truth far deeper than these, that there is a pure and godlike joy in making others blessed.

The foundation on which the axiom rests is that giving is the result of love and self-sacrifice. Whenever they are not found, the giving is not the giving which ‘blesses him that gives.’ If you give with some arriere pensee of what you will get by it, or for the sake of putting some one under obligation, or indifferently as a matter of compulsion or routine, if with your alms there be contempt to which pity is ever near akin, then these are not examples of the giving on which Christ pronounced His benediction. But where the heart is full of deep, real love, and where that love expresses itself by a cheerful act of self-sacrifice, then there is felt a glow of calm blessedness far above the base and greedy joys of self-centred souls who delight only in keeping their possessions, or in using them for themselves. It comes not merely from contemplating the relief or happiness in others of which our gifts may have been the source, but from the working in our own hearts of these two godlike emotions. To be delivered from making myself my great object, and to be delivered from the undue value set upon having and keeping our possessions, are the twin factors of true blessedness. It is heaven on earth to love and to give oneself away.

Then again, the highest joy and noblest use of all our possessions is found in imparting them.

True as to this world’s goods.

The old epitaph is profoundly true, which puts into the dead lips the declaration: ‘What I kept I lost. What I gave I kept.’ Better to learn that and act on it while living!

True as to truth, and knowledge.

True as to the Gospel of the grace of God.

II. The great example in God of the blessedness of giving.

God gives-gives only-gives always-and He in giving has joy, blessedness. He would not be ‘the ever-blessed God’ unless He were ‘the giving God.’ Creation we are perhaps scarcely warranted in affirming to be a necessity to the divine nature, and we run on perilous heights of speculation when we speak of it as contributing to His blessedness; but this at least we may say, that He, in the deep words of the Psalmist, ‘delights in mercy.’ Before creation was realised in time, the divine Idea of it was eternal, inseparable from His being, and therefore from everlasting He ‘rejoiced in the habitable parts of the earth, and His delights were with the sons of men.’

The light and glory thus thrown on His relation to us.

He gives. He does not exact until He has given. He gives what He requires. The requirement is made in love and is itself a ‘grace given,’ for it permits to God’s creatures, in their relation to Him, some feeble portion and shadow of the blessedness which He possesses, by permitting them to bring offerings to His throne, and so to have the joy of giving to Him what He has given to them. ‘All things come of Thee, and of Thine own have we given Thee.’ Then how this thought puts an end to all manner of slavish notions about God’s commands and demands, and about worship, and about merits, or winning heaven by our own works.

Notice that the same emotions which we have found to make the blessedness of giving are those which come into play in the act of receiving spiritual blessings. We receive the Gospel by faith, which assuredly has in it love and self-sacrifice.

Having thus the great Example of all giving in heaven, and the shadow and reflex of that example in our relations to Him on earth, we are thereby fitted for the exemplification of it in our relation to men. To give, not to get, is to be our work, to love, to sacrifice ourselves.

This axiom should regulate Christians’ relation to the world, and to each other, in every way. It should shape the Christian use of money. It should shape our use of all which we have.

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

20:35 ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’: This saying of Jesus is not recorded in the Gospels.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Act 20:35. Πάντα—ὄτι) i.e. I have showed you, as all things, so also this, that, etc. If I had not showed you this, I should not have showed you all things.—ὑπέδειξα, I have shown) by actual example.—ὑμῖν, you) the bishops. He admonishes these by his own example, courteously, without precept. Therefore in Act 20:33 he does not say, the silver, etc., of none of you, which was evident of itself (without needing that he should say so); but of no man, viz. of no one even of my hearers.—τῶν ἀσθενούντων, the weak) viz. in the faith, 1Co 9:6; 1Co 9:22.—μνημονεύειν, to remember) accompanied with actual obedience.—τοῦ λόγου, the saying) So the ancient MSS., and with them the Latin Vulg. It is a reading midway between the extremes. Others read τὸν λόγον. Most read τῶν λόγων, which reading has arisen from the alliteration to the preceding τῶν. Joh 15:20, μνημονεύετε τοῦ λόγου.—αὐτὸς) Himself.—εἶπε, said) Without a doubt the disciples kept in memory many sayings of JESUS, which are not to be read in our Scriptures in the present day.—μακάριον) blessed, divine. To give, is to imitate the blessed God, and to have recompense, Luk 14:14.—δίδοναι, to give) A specimen of the Divine giving occurs at Act 20:32.—λαμβάνειν) to receive, although in a lawful way. The sentiment of the world is the very reverse, as expressed by an old poet in Athenæus, lib. viii. ch. 5, in the following Senarian Iambics:—

Δημοσθένης τάλαντα πεντηκοντʼ ἔχει·

Μακάριος, εἴπερ μεταδίδωσι μηδενί.

Καὶ Μετροκλῆς εἴληφε χρύσιον πολύ.

Ἀνόητος ὁ διδοὺς, εὐτυχὴς δʼ ὁ λαμβάνων.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act 20:35 . πάντα ὑπέδ .: “in all things I gave you an example,” R.V., see also critical note. The verb and the cognate noun are both used in Greek in accordance with this sense, Xen., Oec [345] , xii., 18, Isocr., v., 27, see Plummer on Luk 3:7 , etc., so ὑπόδειγμα , Xen., De re eq. , ii., 2, and for other instances of the similar use of the word see Westcott on Heb 8:5 , Sir 44:16 , 2Ma 6:28 ; 2Ma 6:31 , 4Ma 17:23 , cf. also Clem. Rom., Cor [346] , 5:1, 46:1. οὕτως , i.e. , as I have done, cf. Phi 3:17 . κοπιῶντας : not of spiritual labours, but of manual, as the context requires. No doubt the verb is used in the former sense, 1Co 16:16 , Rom 16:12 , 1Th 5:12 , but also in the latter, 1Co 4:12 , Eph 4:28 , 2Ti 2:6 (so also κόπος by Paul). In St. Paul’s writings it occurs no less than fourteen times, in St. Luke only twice, Luk 5:5 (Luk 12:27 ). In classical Greek, so in Josephus, it has the meaning of growing weary or tired, but in LXX and N.T. alone, laboro viribus intentis (Grimm). δεῖ , see above on p. 63. ἀντιλαμβ .: only in Luke and Paul, Luk 1:54 , 1Ti 6:2 , cf. 1Co 12:28 . The verb = to take another’s part, to succour (so too cognate noun), in LXX, Isa 41:9 , Sir 2:6 ; Sir 3:12 ; Sir 29:9 ; Sir 29:20 , of helping the poor, cf. also Psalms of Solomon , Act 16:3 ; Act 16:5 , Act 7:9 , see further Psalms of Solomon , Ryle and James edit., p. 73; on ἀντίληψις , H. and R., sub. v. In classical Greek used in middle voice with genitive as here. τῶν ἀθσενούν ., cf. 1Th 5:14 , for a similar precept. The adjective need not be limited to those who sought relief owing to physical weakness or poverty, but may include all those who could claim the presbyters’ support and care, bodily or spiritual, cf. Rom 12:13 . The usage of the gospels points to those who are weak through disease and therefore needing help, cf., e.g. , Mat 10:8 , Mar 6:56 , Luk 9:2 , Joh 5:3 , so also by St. Paul, Php 2:26-27 , 2Ti 4:20 , although there are instances in LXX where the word is used of moral rather than of physical weakness. When the word is used of moral or spiritual weakness in the N.T., such a meaning is for the most part either determined by the context, or by some addition, e.g. , τῇ πίστει , Rom 14:1 . μνημονεύειν τε : the verb is used seven times by St. Paul in his Epistles, once by St. Luke in his Gospel, Luk 17:32 , and twice in Acts in the words of St. Paul, cf. Act 20:31 . Twice in the Epistle of St. Clement of Rome we find a similar exhortation in similar words, ch ap. 13:1 and 46:7, and in each case the word may refer to a free combination of our Lord’s words ( cf. Luk 6:30 ; Luk 14:14 ), so too in St.Polycarp, Epist. , ii., 3. From what source St. Paul obtained this, the only saying of our Lord, definitely so described, outside the four Gospels which the N.T. contains, we cannot tell, but the command to “remember” shows that the words must have been familiar words, like those from St. Clement and St. Polycarp, which are very similar to the utterances of the Sermon on the Mount. From whatever source they were derived the references given by Resch, Agrapha , pp. 100, 150, show how deep an impression they made upon the mind of the Church, Clem. Rom., Cor [347] , ii. 1, Did [348] , i., 5, Const. Ap. , iv., 3, 1; cf. also Ropes, Die Spriiche Jesus , p. 136. In thus appealing to the words of the Lord Jesus, St. Paul’s manner in his address is very similar to that employed in his Epistles, where he is apparently able to quote the words of the Lord in support of his judgment on some religious and moral question, cf. 1Co 7:10-12 ; 1Co 7:25 , and the distinction between his own opinion, γνώμη , and the command of Christ, ἐπιταγή ( Witness of the Epistles , p. 319). τε : Weiss (so Bethge) holds that the word closely connects the two clauses, and that the meaning is that only thus could the weak be rightly maintained, viz. , by remembering, etc., ὅτι being causal. But however this may be, in this reference, ὅτι αὐτὸς εἶπεν , “how he himself said,” R.V. (thus implying that the fact was beyond all doubt), we may note one distinctive feature in Christian philanthropy, that it is based upon allegiance to a divine Person, and upon a reference to His commands. The emphatic personal pronoun seems to forbid the view that the Apostle is simply giving the sense of some of our Lord’s sayings (see above). Similar sayings may be quoted from pagan and Jewish sources, but in Aristotle, Eth. Nicom. , iv., 1, it is the part τοῦ ἐλευθερίου to give when and where and as much as he pleases, but only because it is beautiful to give; even in friendship, generosity and benevolence spring from the reflection that such conduct is decorous and worthy of a noble man, Eth. Nicom. , ix., 8. In Plato’s Republic there would have been no place for the ἀσθενεῖς . Even in Seneca who sometimes approaches very nearly to the Christian precept, when he declares, e.g. , that even if we lose we must still give, we cannot forget that pity is regarded as something unworthy of a wise man; the wise man will help him in tears, but he will not weep with him; he helps the poor not with compassion, but with an impassive calm. μακάριον : emphatic in position, see critical note. Bengel quotes from an old poet, cf. Athenæus, viii., 5, μακάριος , εἴπερ μεταδίδωσι μηδενί … ἀνόητος ὁ διδούς , εὐτυχὴς δʼ ὁ λαμβάνων . The lines are by no means to be regarded as the best expression of pagan ethics, but the μακάρ ., which occurs more than thirty times on the lips of our Lord, bids us aim at something altogether higher and deeper and fuller than happiness blessedness. In Judaism, whilst compassion for the poor and distressed is characteristic of a righteous Israelite, we must still bear in mind that such compassion was limited by legality and nationality; the universality of the Christian precept is wanting, Uhlhorn, Christian Charity , pp. 1 56, E.T., instances in Wetstein, and Bethge and Page, in loco .

[345] Oecumenius, the Greek Commentator.

[346] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

[347] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

[348] Διδαχὴ τῶν δωδέκα ἀποστόλων .

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

As it were by reaching out the hand to them, which otherwise are about to slip and fall away, and so to stay them.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

that so labouring--as I have done for others as well as myself.

ye ought to support the weak to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he--"how Himself."

said, It is more blessed to give than to receive--This golden saying, snatched from oblivion, and here added to the Church's abiding treasures, is apt to beget the wish that more of what issued from those Lips which "dropped as an honeycomb," had been preserved to us. But see on Joh 21:25.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 35. I have showed you all things] The preposition κατα is to be understood before παντα; and the clause should be read thus-I have showed you IN all things, c.

It is more blessed to give than to receive.] That is, the giver is more happy than the receiver. Where, or on what occasion, our Lord spake these words we know not, as they do not exist in any of the four evangelists. But that our Lord did speak them, St. Paul's evidence is quite sufficient to prove. The sentiment is worthy of Christ. A truly generous mind, in affluence, rejoices in opportunities to do good, and feels happy in having such opportunities. A man of an independent spirit, when reduced to poverty, finds it a severe trial to be obliged to live on the bounty of another, and feels pain in receiving what the other feels a happiness in communicating. Let, therefore, the man who is able to give feel himself the obliged person, and think how much pain the feeling heart of his supplicant must endure, in being obliged to forego his native independence, in soliciting and receiving the bounty of another. I am not speaking of common beggars these have got their minds already depraved, and their native independence reduced, by sin and idleness, to servility.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(35) I have shewed you all things.—The words point to his motive in acting as he did. He sought to teach by example, to indicate in all things how others ought to act.

To support the weak.—The Greek verb is rightly rendered, but it deserves notice that it is the root of the noun translated “help” in 1Co_12:28. The word “weak “is to be taken as implying bodily infirmities. (See Note on previous verse.)

To remember the words of the Lord Jesus.—The words that follow are not found in any of the four Canonical Gospels, nor indeed in any of the Apocryphal. They furnish, accordingly, an example of the wide diffusion of an oral teaching, embodying both the acts and the words of Christ, of which the four Gospels, especially the first three, are but partial representatives. On the other instances of sayings ascribed to our Lord, and probably in many cases rightly ascribed, see the Introduction to the First Three Gospels in Vol. I. of this Commentary. The injunction to “remember” the words implies that they had often been prominent in the Apostle’s teaching.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

35. I have shewed you all things] Better (as Rev. Ver.) “In all things I gave you an example.” The verb is cognate with that noun which Jesus uses (Joh_13:15), “I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done unto you.”

how that so labouring] i.e. in like manner as the Apostle laboured. And the verb implies “wearying toil.” He had spared for no fatigue. He speaks of this toil (2Co_11:27), “in labour and travail.”

ye ought to support [Rev. Ver. “help”] the weak] By “weak” does St Paul here mean those standing in need of material or moral help? Grimm (s. v.) takes it for the poor, those who are in want from any cause, as those must have been who could not support themselves, and whose wants the Apostle supplied by his own labour. Yet this is a very rare sense, as he admits, for the verb to have, and “feebleness” of faith and trust is much the more common meaning. And that sense suits well here. If among new converts large demands should be made for the support of those who minister, they who are weak in the faith as yet, may be offended thereby, and becoming suspicious, regard the preacher’s office as a source of temporal gain. An example like St Paul’s would remove the scruples of such men, and when they became more grounded in the faith, these matters would trouble them no more. For the use of “weak” in the sense of moral, rather than physical, weakness, cp. Job_4:3-4; Isa_35:3.

and to remember … Jesus] He appeals to them as though the saying was well-known, and as we notice this, we cannot but wonder at the scanty number of the words which have been handed down as “words of Jesus” beyond what we find in the Gospel. This is the only one in the New Testament, and from all the rest of the Christian literature we cannot gather more than a score of sentences beside. See Westcott, Introd. to Study of the Gospels, pp. 428 seqq.

how he said] The Greek has an emphatic pronoun, which is represented in the Rev. Ver. “he himself said.”

It is.… receive] In support of what has just been said about strengthening the feeble in faith, these words seem as readily applicable to that view of the Apostle’s meaning, as to the sense of “poverty.” What would be given in this special case, would be spiritual strength and trust; what is referred to in “receive” is the temporal support of the preacher, which St Paul refrained from claiming. We cannot doubt that he felt how much more blessed it was to win one waverer to Christ than it would have been to be spared his toils at tent-making by the contributions of his converts.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

35 I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.

Ver. 35. It is more blessed] Epicurus could say, του ευ πασχειν το ευ ποιειν καλλιον και ηδιον, that to do good was not only better, but sweeter also than to receive good. Julius Caesar counted nothing his own that he bestowed not upon others. And it better pleased Cyrus to give than to possess any good thing that he had. Διδους μαλλον η κτωμενος ηδεται (Xenoph.)

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I have showed you - I have taught you by instruction and example. I have not merely discoursed about it, but have showed you how to do it.

All things - Or, in respect to all things. In everything that respects preaching and the proper mode of life, I have for three years set you an example, illustrating the design, nature, and duties of the office by my own self-denials and toil.

How that - Or, that - ὅτι hoti. I have showed you that ye should by so laboring support the weak.

So labouring - Laboring as I have done. Setting this example, and ministering in this way to the needs of others.

To support the weak - To provide for the needs of the sick and feeble members of the flock, who are unable to labor for themselves. “The weak” here denotes “the poor, the needy, the infirmed.”

And to remember - To call to mind for encouragement, and with the force of a command,

The words of the Lord Jesus - These words are nowhere recorded by the evangelists. But they did not pretend to record all his sayings and instructions. Compare Joh 21:25. There is the highest reason to suppose that many of his sayings which are not recorded would be treasured up by those who heard them; would be transmitted to others; and would be regarded as a precious part of his instructions. Paul evidently addresses the elders of Ephesus as if they had heard this before, and were acquainted with it. Perhaps he had himself reminded them of it. This is one of the Redeemer’s most precious sayings; and it seems even to have a special value from the fact that it is not recorded in the regular and professed histories of his life. It comes to us recovered, as it were, from the great mass of his unrecorded sayings; rescued from that oblivion to which it was hastening if left to mere tradition, and placed in permanent form in the sacred writings by the act of an apostle who had never seen the Saviour before his crucifixion. It is a precious relic - a memento of the Saviour - and the effect of it is to make us regret that more of his words were not recovered from an uncertain tradition, and placed in a permanent form by an inspired penman. God, however, who knows what is requisite to guide us, has directed the words which are needful for the welfare of the church, and has preserved by inspiration the doctrines which are adapted to convert and bless man.

It is more blessed to give - It is a higher privilege; it tends more to the happiness of the individual and of the world. The giver is more blessed or happy than the receiver. This appears:

(1) Because it is a condition for which we should be thankful when we are in a situation to promote the happiness of others.

(2) Because it tends to promote the happiness of the benefactor himself. There is pleasure in the act of giving when it is done with pure motives. It promotes our own peace; is followed by happiness in the recollection of it; and will be followed by happiness forever. That is the most truly happy man who is most benevolent. He is the most miserable who has never known the luxury of doing good, but who lives to gain all he can, and to hoard all he gains.

(3) It is blessed in the reward that shall result from it. Those who give from a pure motive God will bless. They will be rewarded, not only in the peace which they shall experience in this life, but in the higher bliss of heaven, Mat 25:34-36. We may also remark that this is a sentiment truly great and noble. It is worthy of the Son of God. It is that on which he himself acted when he came to give pardon to the guilty, comfort to the disconsolate and the mourner, peace to the anxious sinner, sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, life to the dead, and heaven to the guilty and the lost. Acting on this, he gave his own tears to weep over human sorrows and human guilt; his own labors and toils to instruct and save man; his own life a sacrifice for sin on the cross. Loving to give, he has freely given us all things. Loving to give, he delights in the same character in his followers, and seeks that they who have wealth, and strength, and influence should be willing to give all to save the world. Imitating his great example, and complying with his command, the church shall yet learn more and more to give its wealth to bless the poor and needy; its sons and its daughters to bear the gospel to the benighted pagan; its undivided and constant efforts to save a lost world. Here closes this speech of Paul; an address of inimitable tenderness and beauty. Happy would it be if every minister could bid such an adieu to his people, when called to part from them; and happy if, at the close of life, every Christian could leave the world with a like consciousness that he had been faithful in the discharge of his duty. Thus dying, it will be blessed to leave the world; and thus would the example of the saints live in the memory of survivors long after they themselves have ascended to their rest.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

It is more blessed to give than to receive. We find not these words of Christ in the gospels. St. Paul might have them from the apostles. (Witham) --- Among the many excellent examples of good things our dear Lord said, and which are not mentioned in the gospel, this is one: "it is a more blessed thing to give, than to receive;" which did men justly weigh, they would be more ready to give alms, were it only for their own account. Thrice happy then are they who assist their indigent neighbour to the utmost of their power, and for the pure love of God! (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

I have showed you all things; as in Act 20:27.

So labouring; with more than ordinary pains and constancy.

To support; that they do not fall; or, being fallen, that they may rise again. The word imports the stretching out of the hand to retain any that are going away, or to hold up any that are falling.

The weak; in knowledge, faith, or any other grace.

The words of the Lord Jesus; Paul might have these words by the relation of others who heard them spoken by our Savionr; for all things that he said or did could not be written, Joh 20:30.

It is more blessed to give than to receive; not so much in that giving speaks abundance and affluence, but as it shows our charity and goodness, in which we resemble and imitate God. The substance of these words which are attributed to our Saviour, though not the terms, may be found in divers places, as Luk 6:38; 16:9.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

35. The weak—The helpless.

Words—An unwritten saying of the Lord, for the record of which we are indebted to this speech of Paul’s.

More blessed—”Plutarch relates that Artaxerxes said, To bestow is more royal than to take away. And Aristotle says: It belongs to a freeman to give rather than to receive. Both of these sayings correspond in expression to the aristocratic views of antiquity. The former refers to the distinction which existed between rulers and the people; the latter to the ancient distinction between freemen and the slaves. Seneca, on the other hand, speaks in reference to the gods when he says: He who bestows benefits imitates the gods; he who takes, the usurers. There is, however, in all these classic sayings a certain aristocratic pride of sentiment, which cannot fail to be perceived. The saying of Christ, on the contrary, is founded on the fact that God is love.”—Lechler. It will, indeed, be generally found, on close examination, that passages of the Christian Scriptures which are paralleled by some heathen quotation are rooted in deeper and purer grounds, and infused with a higher life.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

In all things I gave you an example for I have showed you all things, A.V.; help for support, A.V.; he himself for he, A.V. In all things (panta, for katanta, e.q. pantwv); altogether, in all respects. Gave you an example. The common use of uJpodeiknumi is, as rendered in the A.V., "to show," "to teach," as in Act_9:16; Luk_6:47; and repeatedly in the LXX But perhaps its force here is equivalent to the phrase indeigma Joh_13:15, uJpo e uJmin, "I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done to you," as the R.V. takes it. So laboring; viz. as ye have seen me do. To help the weak. Meyer, following Bengel and others, understands this to mean the weak in faith," like ajsqenhv inntwn, 1Co_9:22. They say that St. Paul"s self-denial in refusing the help he had a right to claim as an apostle, and supporting himself by his labor, was a great argument to convince the weak in faith of his disinterestedness and of the truth of his gospel, and so he recommends the elders of the Church to follow his example. But the word here is ajsqenou) and ajsqenein and ajsqeneia rather suggest the idea of bodily weakness (Mat_25:36 Mat_10:8, etc.; Luk_5:15, etc.) and the words of the Lord Jesus which follow suggest almsgiving to the needy. So that it is better to understand the word of the weakly and poor, those unable to work for themselves. Doubtless St. Paul, out of his scanty earnings, found something to give to the sick and needy. The sentiment in our text is thus exactly analogous to the precept in Eph_4:28. The very word there used, cersi recalls the aiJ ceirev autai of ver. 34. To remember the words of the Lord Jesus. This is a solitary instance era saying of our Lord"s, not recorded in the Gospels, being referred to in Scripture. There are many alleged sayings of Christ recorded in apocryphal Gospels or in the writings of Fathers as Papias and others (Routh, "Reliq. Sac.," 1:9, 10, 12), some of which may be authentic; but this alone is warranted by Scripture. How it came to St Paul"s knowledge, and that of the Ephesian elders to whom he seems to have taken for granted that it was familiar, it is impossible to say. But it seems likely that, in those very early days, some of the Lord"s unwritten words may have floated in the memory of men, and been preserved by word of mouth. Clement (1 Corinthians it.) seems to refer to the saying when he writes in praise of the former character of the Corinthians, that they were then hdion didontev h) lombanontev. But he probably had it from the Acts of the Apostles, as had the author of the "Apostol. Constitut." (4. 3, 1). Similar apophthegms are quoted from heathen writers, as those cited by Kuinoel: Dwreisqai kainai kreitton h) lambanein (Artemidor., "Onirocr.," 4, 3); Mallon ejstirou tonai oiv dei hj lambanein uqen dei (Arist., "Nieom.," 4, 1), "It is more becoming to a free man to give to whom he ought to give, than to receive from whom he ought to receive.

Paul at Miletus: the greater blessedness.

We may well be thankful that this one word of the Lord Jesus, unrecorded in the fourfold biography," has been preserved to us. It may be said to be Divine indeed. It gives the heavenly aspect of human life. It is the exact and perfect contravention of that which is low, worldly, evil. It breathes the air of the upper kingdom. It puts into language the very spirit of Jesus Christ. It is the life of the Savior in a sentence. To receive is quite on a low level. Any one and anything can do that; and the further we go down in the scale, the more we find recipiency common and supreme. The selfish man, the spoiled child, the ravenous animal, these are remarkable for receiving. And although it may be said that there are truths which only the educated and inspired mind can receive, that there are inducements which only noble souls can receive, yet the act of receiving is one which is common to lower natures, and is one which ordinarily requires only the humbler, if not indeed the baser, faculties. To give is on the higher level; for

I IT IS ESSENTIALLY DIVINE. God lives to bless his universe. His Name is Love; in other words, that which is his distinguishing characteristic, underlying, interpenetrating, crowning all others, is his disposition to bless, his Divine habit of giving. He then most truly expresses his own nature, reveals his essential spirit, when he is giving light, love, truth, joy, life, unto his children. When we give forth of ourselves to others, we are living the life which is intrinsically Divine.

II IT IS CHRIST-LIKE. He "went about doing good." He lived to enlighten, to comfort, to bestow, to redeem. It was little indeed that he received; it was simply everything that he gave to mankind.

III IT IS ANGELIC. "Are they not all ministering spirits?

IV IT IS HEROIC. By living to expend ourselves for others, we take our stand with the best and noblest of our race. As the world grows wiser it has a diminishing regard for those "great" men who signalized their career by splendid surroundings, or by brilliant exploits, or by displays of muscular or intellectual strength; it is learning to reserve its admiration and its honor for those who generously spent their faculties and their possessions on behalf of others. These are our heroes and our heroines now; and they will be so more and more. If we would take our place though it be a humble one with the best and worthiest of our kind, we must be giving rather than receiving.

V IT IS HUMAN, in the higher sense of the word. It may be human, as sin has unmade man, to be coveting, grasping, enjoying. But it is human, as God first wade man, and as Jesus Christ is renewing him, to think of others, to care for others, to strive and suffer for others, to give freely and self-denyingly to those who are in need.

VI IT IS ELEVATING. To be constantly receiving is to be in danger of becoming selfish, of making our own poor self the central object of regard, of depending on continually fresh supplies for satisfaction; in a word, of moral and spiritual degeneracy. But to be giving to be spending time, thought, sympathy, strength, money, on behalf of others, is to be sowing in the soil of our souls the seeds of all that is sweetest and noblest; is to be building up in ourselves a character which our Divine Lord will delight to look upon. To receive is to be superficially and momentarily happy; to give is to be inwardly and abidingly blessed. It is far more blessed to give than to receive.

VII ITS RECOMPENSE IS IN THE ETERNAL FUTURE. C. (see Mat_25:31-46)

The Divine secret of a blessed life.

the words of the Lord Jesus," etc. Interest of the saying as not found in ore" Gospels. The life of Jesus said it. Possibly preserved traditionally. Summary of many recorded sayings. Christ his own interpreter.

I AN INSIGHT INTO THE NATURE OF TRUE BLESSEDNESS. Not in external things, not in a passive state, either intellectually or morally. As we give out from ourselves, we grow in knowledge and enjoyment. Especially true of the active efforts of Christians for the world. To teach is to be taught. To comfort is to be comforted. To sacrifice self is to be rewarded with inward peace and strength.

II A HELP TO THE CULTIVATION OF PRACTICAL CHRISTIAN LIFE.

1. Remember Christ"s care of the poor. The Church an organization for the help of mankind. The poor should see that Christianity is on their side.

2. Remember Christ"s zeal for the house of God. The passive state unworthy of God"s children. Scanty giving a great discouragement to zealous workers; a great hindrance to the progress of the gospel.

3. Remember the claims of the world. The example of the Lord Jesus in laying down life, not to be remembered only by missionaries, hut to teach all his disciples to "count all things but loss for his sake. R.

The blessedness of giving.

We have no other record of these words as uttered by Christ. They must have been treasured in the memory of the apostles, and have been often mentioned by them, but never written down. There must be a great deal of Christ"s teaching not preserved for us; but we may be assured that the unrecorded was like the recorded, and we may gratefully receive what the Divine Spirit has been pleased to preserve for us. The truth of this statement that it is "more blessed to give than to receive," is affirmed and illustrated by:

1. St. Paul"s own life.

2. Christ"s teaching.

3. Christ"s own life of giving.

4. All human experience.

One of the best things said by the late George Peabody is this, spoken at a reunion at his native town: "It is sometimes hard for one who has devoted the best part of his life to the accumulation of money to spend it for others; but practice it, and keep on practicing it, and I assure you it comes to be a pleasure." It was a saying of Julius Caesar that no music was so charming in his ears as the requests of his friends, and the supplications of those in want of his assistance. Our Lord did not say that there was no blessedness in receiving, only that it is more blessed to give. We may feel how true are his words in relation to

I GIVING PRESENTS. These not only win and keep our friends, but they greatly increase our love for them by finding it expression.

II GIVING SYMPATHY. This so greatly blesses us, because we have to fetch up the very best in us if we are to sympathize with sufferers and sinners. We want our holiest power.

III GIVING KNOWLEDGE. We cannot clear and complete our own knowledge better than by making the effort to impart it to others.

IV GIVING LOVE. It is very precious to be loved, but it is surely more precious to love, to give our love to another; it is so ennobling and inspiring that we give our love to Christ.

V GIVING PRAYERS. Intercessory prayers are the holiest kind, and the most directly and abundantly fruitful in blessings to ourselves. Let us bear in mind that the blessedness of giving we all can win. All of us can give, and we all can give in the various possible ways of giving above referred to. Those even that seem to have nothing yet can give, if a comprehensive view of giving be taken. A poor widow who had only two mites could give. Our Lord himself, though he had nothing, could give. Peter and John could say, "Silver and gold have we none, but such as we have we give thee." There are better things to give away than money; and it is in such things that we find the best blessedness of giving. R.T.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I have showed you - Bishops, by my example, all things - And this among the rest; that thus labouring - So far as the labours of your office allow you time; ye ought to help the weak - Those who are disabled by sickness, or any bodily infirmity, from maintaining themselves by their own labour. And to remember - Effectually, so as to follow it; the word which he himself said - Without doubt his disciples remembered many of his words which are not recorded. It is happier to give - To imitate God, and have him, as it were, indebted to us.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

It is more

See, Luk 14:12.

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

See notes on verse 28

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

35. πάντα ὑπέδειξα ὑμῖν, in all things I gave you an example. Cf. Joh 13:15, ὑπόδειγμα γὰρ ἔδωκα ὑμῖν.

ὅτι οὕτως κοπιῶντας, how that thus labouring, i.e. as I myself laboured and you beheld and knew. The verb implies ‘wearying toil.’ He had spared for no fatigue. He speaks of this toil (2Co 11:27) ἐν κόπῳ καὶ μόχθῳ.

δεῖ ἀντιλαμβάνεσθαι τῶν ἀσθενούντων, ye ought to help the weak. By ἀσθενοῦντες does St Paul here mean those standing in need of material or moral help? Grimm (s. v.) takes it for the poor, those who are in want from any cause, as those must have been who could not support themselves, and whose wants the Apostle supplied by his own labour. Yet this is a very rare sense, as he admits, for the verb to have, and ‘feebleness’ of faith and trust is much the more common meaning. And that sense suits well here. If among new converts large demands should be made for the support of those who minister, they who are weak in the faith as yet may be offended thereby, and becoming suspicious, regard the preacher’s office as a source of temporal gain. An example like St Paul’s would remove the scruples of such men, and when they became more grounded in the faith, these matters would trouble them no more. For the use of ἀσθενής and ἀσθενέω in the sense of moral, rather than physical, weakness, cf. Job 4:3-4; Isa 7:4; 1Ma 11:49.

τῶν λόγων τοῦ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ, the words of the Lord Jesus. St Paul appeals to these words as though the saying was well-known, and as we notice this, we cannot but wonder at the scanty number of the words which have been handed down as ‘words of Jesus’ beyond what we find in the Gospel. This is the only one in the New Testament, and from all the rest of the Christian literature we cannot gather more than a score of sentences beside. See Westcott, Introd. to Study of the Gospels, pp. 428 seqq.

ὅτι αὐτὸς εἶπεν, how He himself said. The emphatic pronoun should not be overlooked.

μακάριόν ἐστιν μᾶλλον διδόναι ἢ λαμβάνειν, it is more blessed to give than to receive. In support of what has just been said about strengthening the feeble in faith, these words seem as readily applicable to that view of the Apostle’s meaning, as to the sense of ‘poverty.’ What would be given in this special case would be spiritual strength and trust; what is referred to in λαμβάνειν is the temporal support of the preacher, which St Paul refrained from claiming. We cannot doubt that he felt how much more blessed it was to win one waverer to Christ than it would have been to be spared his toils at tent-making by the contributions of his converts.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

35. πάντα] In all things: so Paul (only), see reff.

κοπιῶντας] A word used by Paul fourteen times, by Luke once only (Luk 5:5 (12:27 v. r.)).

τῶν ἀσθενούντων] Not here the weak in faith (Rom 14:1. 1Co 8:9), as Calvin, Beza, Grot., Bengel, Neander, Meyer, Tholuck,—which the context both before and after will not allow:—but the poor (τοὺς πένητας ἀσθενοῦντας, Aristoph. 636. ὅ τε γὰρ ἀσθενέστερος ὁ πλούσιός τε τὴν δίκην ἴσην ἔχει, Eurip. ap. Stob. cxv. (Wetst.)), as Chrys., Theoph., Heinrichs, Kuin., Olsh., De Wette.

Μακ. ἐστιν κ.τ.λ.] This saying of our Lord is one of very few not recorded in the Gospels, which have come down to us. Many such must have been current in the apostolic times, and are possibly preserved, unknown to us, in such epistles as those of James, Peter, and John. Bengel remarks, ‘alia mundi sententia est:’ and cites from an old poet in Athenæus, viii. 5, ἀνόητος ὁ διδούς, εὐτυχὴς δʼ ὁ λαμβάνων But we have some sayings the other way: not to quote authors who wrote after this date, and might have imbibed some of the spirit of Christianity, we find in Aristotle, Eth. Nicom. iv. 1, μᾶλλόν ἐστιν τοῦ ἐλευθερίου τὸ διδόναι οἷς δεὶ ἢ λαμβάνειν ὅθεν δεῖ, καὶ μὴ λαμβάνειν ὅθεν οὐ δεῖ. τῆς ἀρετῆς γὰρ μᾶλλον τὸ εὖ ποιεῖν ἢ τὸ εὖ πάσχειν.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I have shewed you all things [παντα υπεδειξα υμιν] . The verb means to shew by example. Thus Luk 6:47, "I will shew you to whom he is like," is followed by the illustration of the man who built upon the rock. So Act 9:16. God will shew Paul by practical experience how great things he must suffer. The kindred noun uJpodeigma is always rendered example or pattern. See Joh 13:15; Jas 5:10, etc.; and note on 2Pe 2:6. Rev., correctly, In all things I gave you an example.

As I have done.

To help [αντιλαμβανεσθαι] . See on Luk 1:54.

He said [αυτος ειπε] . Rev., more strictly, "he himself said." This saying of Jesus is not recorded by the Evangelists, and was received by Paul from oral tradition.

The speech of Paul to the Ephesian elders "bears impressed on it the mark of Paul 's mind : its ideas, its idioms, and even its very words are Pauline; so much so as to lead Alford to observe that we have probably the literal report of the words spoken by Paul. 'It is, ' he remarks, 'a treasure - house of words, idioms, and sentences peculiar to the apostle himself" ' (Gloag).

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.