II Corinthians 8:16-24
With him we are sending the brother who is famous among all the churches for his preaching of the gospel. (v. 18) Immediately I am asking the identity of this brother. My first guess was Silas, but that was only a guess – he had, after all, been a traveling companion of Paul’s during Paul’s second missionary journey, most prominently noted in their arrest in Philippi. However, my Study Bible suggested Luke and possibly Barnabas. I personally ruled out Barnabas; it seemed that his split with Paul was complete (Acts 15:36-40). Then I went online and almost every commentary suggested Luke. https://biblehub.com/commentaries/2_corinthians/8-18.htm I have no problem with that “brother” being Luke.
And not only that, but he has been appointed by the churches to travel with us as we carry out this act of grace that is being ministered by us, for the glory of the Lord himself and to show our good will. (v. 19) And then immediately in the following verse – this brother was appointed “by the churches”… Typically I sense that any reference to “the church” implies the church in Jerusalem or Antioch. But here, the plural “churches” suggests otherwise – most likely the churches in Macedonia (Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea). They were appointing someone to travel with Titus to continue the collection for the relief of the brothers in the Jerusalem church, donations which they had already made. Titus and his companion were headed to Corinth, with Paul following later. I’m guessing that the collection went with them, since I recall that Paul then had plans to go from Corinth to Jerusalem, possibly by way of Ephesus. He later reversed course and went back through Macedonia (possibly due to even greater generosity by the Macedonian churches?), but still I’m guessing that the collection went from Macedonia to Corinth with Titus and his companion.
We take this course so that no one should blame us about this generous gift that is being administered by us. (v. 20) Here Paul is talking about his own accountability associated with these gifts. He doesn’t want anyone to think that he is not trustworthy – so much so that it seems that he is being “hands free” from touching these donations at all, but rather that he is putting his trust (and the trust of others) into the hands of Titus and his companions. It’s a good model for church stewardship. Our pastor, David, never wants to know who in the parish is giving how much – unless they speak directly to him about a gift. He keeps his hands free from any connection to our revenue, except in hearing or reading our aggregate reports. And those of us who are entrusted with the church’s funds have guidelines to follow and mechanisms in place for others to look over our shoulders at how we are handling the funds that are given to the church. There are too many examples of people guilty of church embezzlement for us not to be careful!
Slava Bohu!