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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
‘Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.’
Act_20:35
I. It was blessed for Him to receive, and as Man he did receive.
(a) He received from the Father, says St. Peter, honour and glory.
(b) It was blessed, too, for Him to receive, not only from His Father, but from His fellow-men. The cup of cold water, the alabaster box of very precious ointment, the washing of His feet with the tears of a penitent, the poor hospitalities of Mary and Martha, these, the few crumbs of love, which the grudging hand of man offered Him but now and then, He welcomed with joy.
II. It was still more blessed for Him to give—and His whole career was one of giving. The Father gave—He spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all. But it is the Lord Jesus Christ as man that we have before us, and His career on earth was all giving. It was meat and drink to Him to give. It was life and joy to Him to give; no fatigue could hinder Him, no weariness or want of rest, no burning noon-day sun, no ingratitude of men, no contradiction of sinners, no cold indifference to His love. In spite of all this He gave, and gave, and gave again, till, at last, He gave His life.
III. And now to come to ourselves.—We shall find that as it was with our Lord, so is it with His Church. It is more blessed to give than to receive. Let us apply the principle to the service of the Sanctuary. We come there to receive, but more especially we come there under an obligation to give.
(a) It is blessed in God’s House to receive. We bring our sins there for pardon, our weakness for strength, our temptations for the way of escape. We bring there our sorrows, and often, so often, do we find that He is with us Who is the Comforter, and we see a light of hope shining on our perplexities and our griefs.
(b) But the Sanctuary is the place not so much to receive as rather to give. For the good of our fellow-Christians each of us ought to have his contribution to bring, of money, if you will; but even more than that—of influence, of example, of spiritual fervour, and, above all, of intercessory prayer and of worship. We should feel our mutual responsibility as members of the same household, and be ever communicating that to our brethren which shall advance their spiritual well-being; and then more blessed still is it, in the Sanctuary, to give to God. Worship means not to receive from Him but to give to Him. It means praise rather than prayer.
—
Rev. J. H. Drew.
TWO GREAT PRINCIPLES
I. There are two principles on which men will and may proceed, any moral being will proceed—one is to give and the other is to get. And there are only these two. The moral value of all thoughts, prayers, deeds, the things that we do for ourselves or for our neighbours, the moral value is determined by the fact whether you have proceeded on the more selfish or unselfish of these two principles in your thought, your word, your action. Do not talk carelessly, for your talk has great moral value. Remember it is possible for a person to commit every sin against the law of God and against himself though he may be paralysed, or lying on a bed of sickness, utterly unable to move a single limb.
II. Our Lord’s example.—If we ask, where did the Lord Jesus say these words? Did St. Paul ever hear Him say them? I think we may say this in reply: He never did actually say them, so far as we have any record. He never uttered the phrase, but it was the motto of His life. If we ask ourselves the meaning of that life, from the cradle in the manger to the death upon the cross, we should say, He never said anything else, except this one thing, ‘It is more blessed to give than it is to receive.’ All that He ever uttered by His lips, all that in that most eloquent of all utterance, the utterance of action, it all amounts to this, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive,’ for any moral or spiritual being. And a man can only live upon one or other of these two mottoes, can only have one or other of these motive powers in his life. He must either live, in each of his actions, to get something, or to give himself—to give something.
—
Rev. W. Black.
Illustration‘We seem to see, in what we are told by the early ecclesiastical historian, and in all that we really know about St. Alban, that the principle was grasped by his heart when, without apparent cause for giving, he gave all that he had to give; he gave his life. Whether it was exactly to save the life of another, because he knew its value as the life of a Christian teacher, a Christian priest, or whether it was from the higher and more delicate motive, which was tinged simply with the feeling of what he seemed so to have grasped the principle of, that he was eager to carry that principle into execution, we cannot tell. But of one thing we may be sure. He did not say to himself as people say now, “Is such a thing necessary for me to undergo? Do you think that such a thing is innocent, is not wrong? May I safely do it without running any risk of my salvation?” No! he said, “How much can I do? What can I give? How much can I let my own heart grasp and feel that it has got hold of this great principle that to give is blessed—because I suffer in the giving?” This surely is the one lesson that the protomartyr of England teaches us. This one incident shines out, serene and bright through all the ages of the Church, and especially of the Church in this country. “It is more blessed for me to give than it is to receive.” ’