I have showed you all things, how that so laboring you ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said,
It is more blessed to give than to receive.
All Commentaries on Acts 20:35 Go To Acts 20
John Chrysostom
AD 407
And where said He this? Perhaps the Apostles delivered it by unwritten tradition; or else it is plain from (recorded sayings, from) which one could infer it. For in fact here he has shown both boldness in meeting dangers, sympathy with those over whom he ruled, teaching with (unshrinking) boldness, humility, (voluntary) poverty: but, what we have here is even more than that poverty. For if He says there (in the Gospel), If you will be perfect, sell what you have and give to the poor Matthew 19:21, when, besides receiving nothing himself, he provides sustenance for others also, what could equal this? It is one degree to fling away one's possessions; a second, to be sufficient for the supply of one's own necessities: a third, to provide for others also; a fourth, for one (to do all this) who preaches and has a right to receive. So that here is a man far better than those who merely forego possessions. Thus it is right to support the weak: this is (indeed) sympathy with the weak; for to give from the labors of others, is easy. And they fell on his neck, it says, and wept.
