The apostle Paul refused to take anything for his support from the saints at Corinth, but he gladly took what was sent from the Philippian church. What was the reason? There was a great difference between the two. In the church at Corinth, there were some who thought that they had as good a right to be called apostles as Paul. Such were ministers of Satan, and they would take as much as the saints would give them. Paul, as it were, would say: “Let those who are false apostles take all; I don’t want your money. I am serving the Lord, and He cares for me.”
Was it pride that led him to act in this way? No. It was that these false apostles might have no excuse; that the difference between the true and the false servant of God, between the hireling and the lover of the sheep, might be thoroughly manifested; and that thus the Corinthian believers might be delivered from the bondage they were in to these men who were glorying in themselves, and not in Christ.
We see the spirit in which he served the saints in 2 Corinthians 12:15-16: “I will very gladly spend and be spent for you: though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved. But be it so, I did not burden you: nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile.” I must protest against the way in which this verse is used by some. They use it as a justification for going about the Lord’s work in a crafty way, but that is not the meaning of the verse. He is evidently referring to what some of them had been saying about him. “Did I make a gain of you by any of them whom I sent unto you? I desired Titus, and with him I sent a brother. Did Titus make a gain of you? Walked we not in the same spirit? Walked we not in the same steps?” (vv. 17-18). Some of them had the impudence to say that, though he would not take anything himself, he sent Titus or someone else, and what he would not take directly he got indirectly through those whom he sent. Oh, the depth of the depravity and wickedness of the heart of man when not under the influence of the grace of God!
At Philippi, where he knew that the saints cared for him, he would take anything that they were pleased to send him. He took from them more than their share, but he would not take anything from the Corinthians. There may be similar reasons now for the Lord’s servants accepting help from some, while refusing it from others.
The apostle’s assertion of his right to be maintained by the contributions of the saints has been taken to support the doctrine of a separate class set apart for ministerial functions and distinguished from the believers generally — “clergy,” as contrasted with “laity. ”
But observe that in this chapter he is referring especially to those who preach the Gospel, i.e., to evangelists and their work and support, not to pastors, overseers, or teachers, who are localized in certain towns and associated with the assemblies in those places. When he refers to such, it is in different terms (see Acts 20:28-29).
Now, in addressing these overseers of Ephesus, see how different is his teaching. Instead of telling them that, as a separate or clerical class, they have a right to claim the support of the saints, he asserts the very opposite principle: “I have coveted no man’s silver, or gold, or apparel. Yea, ye yourselves know that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me. I have showed you (overseers or elders) all things, how that so laboring 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.”
There is mutual joy and thanksgiving to God, the great source of all blessing, coming to us through His well-beloved Son. He served us by shedding His life’s blood; shall we not serve Him well, and in such a way as will bring glory to His Name: aye, and give joy to His own heart? Shall we not serve Him by considering how we can help on His work, and help and encourage His hidden ones, who are laboring for Him in lonely parts of the world? The Lord stir up our hearts in this honored, blessed service.
Written by J. R. Caldwell