There may be a time later when the spiritual abundance of the Corinthian Christians may minister to the saints in Jerusalem, and the material abundance of the saints in Jerusalem could minister to the Corinthian Christians. Further Paul elaborates his principle from OT (Ex.”16:18) “And when they measured it by the omer, he who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little.” Property is like manna, it will not bear hoarding. All that prosperity, wealth we have is just like manna.
“And just as manna, which was hoarded to excess out of greed or lack of faith, immediately putrefied, so we should have no doubt that riches which are heaped up at the expense of our brethren are accursed and will soon perish and their owner will be ruined with them.” (Calvin).
When God gave food to the Israelites in the wilderness He did so equally according to their needs (Ex.16:16-18). Every church must follow this example of Paul.
The management of collection: (8:16-24):
Titus had a great concern for the church he served. He was an upright man, with great values, enthusiastic and with his own initiative, he was willing to go to Corinth for the collection of money. Paul was anxious that no one should accuse him of misusing the missionary funds. So he appointed Titus, another brother (8:18-19), and a third associate (8:22). This is a good management. All the collection received must be counted, receipted and recorded by more than one person. There are many Christian pastors, evangelists who lost their testimony by not employing these methods of collection. Many Christian workers have lost their power and testimony because of misuse of funds or carelessness in handling the Lord’s money.
Along with Titus Paul is sending another brother who is praised by all the churches for his service to the gospel. Further he was chosen by the churches to accompany with Titus. Bible commentators have given different names for this brother. They believed that this brother may be Luke, or Barnabas, or Silas, Timothy etc. But no one really knows who he was and it really doesn’t matter or else God would have made it clear to us.
In addition to these two, Paul sent another brother who is also un-named, but highly respected, praised by all the churches, probably a representative or an appointee from the Macedonian churches. He would take their gift to its destination in Jerusalem. The presence of this third-brother would serve both to help buffer Paul from accusations of personally profiting from the collection and also to spur the Corinthians on toward completing their project. By their giving, the Corinthians could demonstrate their love for ministry. Paul’s motivation in organizing this collection was to honour the Lord. To that end he scrupulously worked to avoid bringing any disrepute on His name through charges of mismanagement or avarice. Paul was taking every pain to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of men.
When we are organizing a collection for God’s work, there should be no space for accusation, either from God or men. It isn’t enough for the Christian worker to say “God knows my heart.” We must remember that others are watching us, and we dare not give the enemy any opportunity to accuse us of dishonesty. Let every church leader would learn from this example and maintain our values and testimony in the church.