{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-2875","native_reference":{"book_number":510,"chapter_from":20,"chapter_to":20,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":35,"verse_to":35},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Apostolic Constitutions</b>: Since even the Lord said: \"The giver was happier than the receiver.\".<br/>He that forbade stealing, now pronounces him most happy who supplies those that are in want out of his own labours.<br/><i>— CONSTITUTIONS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES</i></p><p><b>Bede</b>: I showed you all things. That is, not only must one persist in teaching amid pressures and tears, but one must also work with one's hands to support the weak so that no one is burdened. This is what was meant by: And whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I return (Luke X), namely, to preach the Gospel and not to seek support from the Gospel.<br/><i>— Commentary on Acts</i></p><p><b>Bede</b>: It is more blessed to give than to receive. He does not prefer the rich almsgivers to those who, having left all, followed the Lord; but he glorifies those most greatly who, having renounced all they possess at once, still work with their hands to produce what is good so they have something to give to those in need.<br/><i>— Commentary on Acts</i></p><p><b>Clement of Rome</b>: Moreover, you were all distinguished by humility, and were in no respect puffed up with pride, but yielded obedience rather than extorted it, and were more willing to give than to receive. [Acts 20:35] Content with the provision which God had made for you, and carefully attending to His words, you were inwardly filled with His doctrine, and His sufferings were before your eyes. Thus a profound and abundant peace was given to you all, and you had an insatiable desire for doing good, while a full outpouring of the Holy Spirit was upon you all. Full of holy designs, you did, with true earnestness of mind and a godly confidence, stretch forth your hands to God Almighty, beseeching Him to be merciful unto you, if you had been guilty of any involuntary transgression. Day and night you were anxious for the whole brotherhood, [1 Peter 2:17] that the number of God's elect might be saved with mercy and a good conscience. You were sincere and uncorrupted, and forgetful of injuries between one another. Every kind of faction and schism was abominable in your sight. You mourned over the transgressions of your neighbours: their deficiencies you deemed your own. You never grudged any act of kindness, being \"ready to every good work.\" [Titus 3:1] Adorned by a thoroughly virtuous and religious life, you did all things in the fear of God. The commandments and ordinances of the Lord were written upon the tablets of your hearts. [Proverbs 7:3]<br/><i>— Letter to the Corinthians (Clement)</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: Somehow or other the very one who begs leave to offer you a gift holds you the cheaper for your acceptance of it; while, if you refuse it, it is wonderful how much more he will come to respect you.<br/><i>— LETTER 52.16</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: \"I have showed you all things, how that so laboring, ye ought to support the weak.\" Observe him employed in work and not simply that, but toiling. \"These hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me:\" so as to put them to shame. And see how worthily of them. For he says not, Ye ought to show yourselves superior to money, but what? \"to support the weak\" - not all indiscriminately - \"and to hear the word of the Lord which He spake, It is more blessed to give than to receive.\" For lest any one should think that it was spoken with reference to them, and that he gave himself for an ensample, as he elsewhere says, \"giving an ensample to you,\" he added the declaration of Christ, Who said, \"It is more blessed to give than to receive.\"<br/><i>— Homily on Acts 45</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: And he does not say, that to receive is bad, but that not to receive is better. For, \"remember,\" he says, \"the words of the Lord which he spake: It is more blessed to give than to receive.\" And where said He this? Perhaps the Apostles delivered it by unwritten tradition; or else it is plain from recorded sayings, from which one could infer it. For in fact here he has shown both boldness in meeting dangers, sympathy with those over whom he ruled, teaching with unshrinking boldness, humility, voluntary poverty: but, what we have here is even more than that poverty. For if He says there in the Gospel, \"If thou wilt be perfect, sell what thou hast and give to the poor,\" when, besides receiving nothing himself, he provides sustenance for others also, what could equal this? It is one degree to fling away one's possessions; a second, to be sufficient for the supply of one's own necessities: a third, to provide for others also; a fourth, for one to do all this who preaches and has a right to receive. So that here is a man far better than those who merely forego possessions. \"Thus it is right to support the weak:\" this is indeed sympathy with the weak; for to give from the labors of others, is easy.<br/><i>— Homily on Acts 45</i></p><p><b>Oecumenius</b>: Then he says that this matter also has use and arrangement through the words of the Lord, which is not now found in Scripture; and perhaps the apostles handed it down orally. From which one could reason: to be said in other words, signaling this. He does not say that it is evil to receive and give away, but that it is better not to receive. For this is compassion toward the weak. For to give what belongs to others is not even honorable. Therefore, the first step is to abandon one's own; the second, to provide the necessities for oneself; the third, even for others; the fourth, him who preaches, and therefore has the power to receive, to admonish to receive. He therefore is by far better situated in poverty. [CHRYSOSTOM]<br/><i>— Commentary on Acts</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"9dd7c57679c066dbe32bd64c84bde31b4743dc39c81147dfc5071e1c5d8c0334","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":2875,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"e127474cec03c0affe219b269cae17dcd3ac0be7534fd8ae23a2c6a10b47d8f8","translator":null,"work":null}