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The commandments they had received as to how they should walk to please God
(I Thess. 4: 1-3) were evidently those suggested by the church at Jerusalem in Acts 15:
When Paul went through Macedonia on his last tour it is evident that those of
Thessalonica would have been among the many who were so ready to "remember the
poor".
Romans was written towards the end of this last tour, and there Paul refers again to
this collection:--
"But now I go up to Jerusalem to minister unto the saints, for it hath pleased them of
Macedonia and Achaia (in which was Corinth) to make a certain contribution for the poor
saints which are at Jerusalem" (Rom. 15: 25, 26).
The reason for this gift is then given:--
"It hath pleased them verily, and their debtors they are; for if the Gentiles have been
made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal
things" (Rom. 15: 27).
In this same epistle Paul "proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin"
(Rom. 3: 9). And so concerning salvation he wrote: "Even the righteousness of God
which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe, for there is no
difference" (Rom. 3: 22). The Lord Jesus was all in all to them both:--
"For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek; for the same Lord over all
is rich unto all that call upon Him" (Rom. 10: 12).
But when it comes to the question of their position, there was a very decided
difference between the Jew and the Gentile. The word of salvation was: "To the Jew
first" (Rom. 1: 16), which was observed in the preaching during the Acts (3: 26; 13: 46).
All the blessings that were before the believers were Jewish blessings: of these the
Gentiles were made partakers. Rom. 11: 13-24 explains the position:--
"And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree,
wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive
tree . . . . ." (verse 17).
The gift of the poor saints at Jerusalem was the result of the recognition of this:--
"For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is
also to minister unto them in carnal things" (Rom. 15: 27).
Galatians, in which the exhortation to "Remember the poor" is given, shows also that
"They which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham" (Gal. 3: 9). Gal. 6: 6 may
express the same thought as Rom. 15: 27. The gift of the Gentiles to the Jews was
therefore something more than the alleviation of the needy:--