because of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now.
What does participation in the gospel mean? Clear and simple, it means material contributions to Paul's ministry. And that was not by force, they were not following a law, and it was not as a means to a selfish end. In a way, God has enabled the church to have a giving frame of mind, and in this case, support for Paul on a mission for the gospel.
Paul’s recognition of this church is also a window into how God thinks about them.
God used the church to supply Paul’s needs as he did ministry work.
So we have learned about prayer and are now having a lesson about giving. The first thing is that giving is actually a gift, according to Romans 12:8.
Not understanding this means the one who has a giving gift would want to browbeat others. But it is like the hand telling the eye, “Why are you not the hand?” (1 Corinthians 12:21).
How do you know you have the gift of giving? You have a lot of cash lying around, that’s how. How do I know? Paul told Timothy to command those who are rich in this world to be generous (1 Timothy 6:17-18).
There is never the burden of giving placed on the poor, as if giving was a way out of poverty, in a confusion that the gospel to the poor (Luke 4:18) means they give as a way out of poverty. That is noxious to me. I don’t know about you. There is nothing in Scripture that would hold that up. So why does it have so much appeal in some circles? Think about that.
Just as it can be a person's gift, it can be a church's gift, where a church is specially graced to be a giving church.
Churches can have distinct characteristics, as we see in Jesus's letters to the seven churches in the book of Revelation. They are unique.
What motivated the Philippian church's giving to Paul? They recognized that he served God and may see giving as an opportunity to do God's work with him, spreading the gospel.
Paul wrote about the gospel: how would people believe if they have not heard, how would they hear without a preacher, and how would they preach unless they are sent (Romans 10:14-15)?
If you think sending means just waving your hand by the door and saying goodbye, think again.
John wrote that a church should send certain people on their way because they do not want to receive things from unbelievers.
3 John 1:5-8: Dear friend, you demonstrate faithfulness by whatever you do for the brothers (even though they are strangers). They have testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God. For they have gone forth on behalf of “The Name,” accepting nothing from the pagans. Therefore we ought to support such people so that we become coworkers in cooperation with the truth.
So sending has the idea of provision. Jesus said, “I am sending you out,” and he told them they would not lack anything because people were going to provide for them (Luke 22:35). When sending them, he told them what to say, what to do, and how they would be sustained in that process. He said people would supply their needs for accommodation and food (Luke 9:1-6).
Someone can be sent, and that person is funding their own mission, by one means or another, as we see a lot in the ministry of Paul. He said that he worked with his own hands so that he would not cause a hindrance to the gospel and that he had learned to adapt in whatever situation (Acts 20:34-35).
But there is something to be said for sending people on a mission so that they do not think of any need, and there is another sense in which people go and are supposed to take care of their own needs themselves, depending on how God works that out.
In all these, we do not see any manipulation, pressure tactics, or guilt trips. When Paul encouraged the Corinthian church to give, he was careful to tell them that God loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7). And even at that, he was not asking for himself; he was asking for support for a needy church.
We need to not make a law of giving, and in this particular case, not a law concerning giving support to ministers. There is freedom in the Spirit. There is no one way that is the right way. However, it is easy to think like that when we take a portion of Scripture to come to specific conclusions, but the whole evidence of the truth does not say that. Actually, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (2 Corinthians 3:17).
But you say, “What if the church wants to build a building?” It is still the same. Let everyone give as he has purposed in his heart, not under compulsion, not motivated by the pride of this world, where the Bible says the person who gives to be seen by men has already received his reward (Matthew 6:2-4).
The call is to look unto Jesus as the source and not man. Please do not shame people for not giving or ask people to come to the front with their money to be seen by men as givers. Let God be glorified, not man's ego.
