“I had no desire for anyone’s silver or gold or expensive clothes. You know that these hands ministered to my own needs working in manual labour and to those of the people who were with me.
“In everything I showed you by example that by working hard in this way you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, it is more blessed and brings greater joy to give than to receive.”
The real difference between a follower of Christ or Christian and a pretender is the motive of giving to those in need and expecting nothing in return.
Paul could have expected payment for his work in preaching the gospel, but instead preached the gospel and worked as a “tentmaker” wherever he went in order to support himself and have the resources to give to others where he worked.
Adam Clarke’s Commentary on verse 35 makes this analysis: “A truly generous mind, in affluence, rejoices in opportunities to do good, and feels happy in having such opportunities…Let, therefore, the man who is able to give feel himself the obliged person, and think how much pain the feeling heart of his supplicant must endure…”
