Episode Synopsis:

About the time Paul began his second missionary journey, a serious famine swept through Palestine–greatly impacting the Jerusalem church. Those who lived in the region knew how serious such things could be and so they prepared for it–stockpiling grain, spices, and animal feed, etc. But as soon as a church was organized in Jerusalem–after Pentecost–Jewish Christians found themselves cut off from the synagogue and its well-established relief system. Now on their own, the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem were apparently suffering horribly and were in desperate need of relief–specifically funds to buy food and supplies locally.

Tensions between Jewish Christians and recent Gentile converts to Christianity were apparent from the moment the gospel spread into Gentile regions–as indicated during the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15). At that council, the church renounced the Judaizers and affirmed that God had blessed Paul’s efforts to take the gospel into Gentile regions–which began in earnest after the Macedonian vision (Acts 16:9). Paul planted churches in Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, and Corinth. While these new churches aided and encouraged each other, Paul understood that if the Gentile churches–who had means–took an offering for the Jerusalem church, it would go a great way toward helping fellow Christians in genuine need. It would also de-escalate the worry and anxiety that Jews felt toward Gentiles who were until quite recently godless pagans and often persecutors of the Jewish people.

When Paul arrived in Macedonia, he tells us that there was some unspecified serious trouble and that he would strive to get things cleared up before he traveled south to Corinth. Despite the troubles in the churches in Macedonia, they had taken up a surprisingly generous offering for the Jerusalem church–so much so that it was a major sacrifice, even beyond their means, which Paul describes as an act of grace. Now he gets word from Titus that the Corinthians (who had been collecting a similar offering for a year) and had not followed through with their collection. As a congregation they were far better off materially than the Macedonians, but were so distracted by divisions, the subterfuge of false apostles and other matters, the offering had not been finalized. In chapters 8-9 of 2 Corinthians, Paul addresses this matter head-on.

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