Romans 15:26

The expression: the saints, characterizes the church of Jerusalem as the most venerable of Christendom; comp. 1 Corinthians 16:1. But it is not to all the church, it is the most indigent of its members, that this service is destined. The idea has often been advanced, that the cause of the poverty of so large a number of believers at Jerusalem was the community of goods which is thought to have prevailed at the origin of this church. This is to exaggerate and mistake the import of the facts related in the narrative of the Acts on this subject. The state of things is quite naturally explained in the following way. From the beginning, the preaching of Christ found but little access except to the poorer classes; “Blessed are the poor,” said Jesus (Luke 6:20). The indigence of those first believers must have been increased day by day by the violent hatred of the Jewish authorities and of the upper classes; comp. James 2:4-6. What easier for rich and powerful families than to deprive poor artisans, who had become the objects of their reprobation, of their means of subsistence! This is an event which is reproduced everywhere when there is a transition from one religious form to another; so in Catholic countries where Protestantism is preached; among the Jews, among the heathen of India or China, etc., when one of their own becomes a Christian. Thus are naturally explained the meals in common (the service of tables) to which the whole church was invited in the first times, the collection made at Antioch (Acts 11:29) in behalf of the church of Jerusalem, and the request which the apostles addressed to Paul and Barnabas, Galatians 2:10. Κοινωνία, strictly communion, and hence material communication so far as it arises from communion of hearts; comp. Hebrews 13:16. The word τινά, “ some communication,” brings out with delicacy the free and at the same time accidental character of this collection, both as to the thing in itself and as to its amount. It is the churches which have spontaneously taxed themselves for this purpose. It is surprising that Paul speaks only of the churches of Greece, for Acts 20:4 and 1 Corinthians 16:1 put beyond doubt the participation of the churches of Asia and Galatia.