But to do good and to communicate forget not
Which is to be understood, not of doing good works in general,
but of acts of beneficence, or communicating to "the poor", as
the Syriac version renders it: the apostle proceeds to take
notice of another sort of sacrifice, which continues under the
Gospel dispensation; and that is, alms; which should be attended
to: alms should be given, or beneficence be exercised to all men
in need, even to our enemies, as well as to our friends and
relations; and especially to poor saints, and ministers of the
Gospel: and this believers should not "forget"; which shows that
it is a duty of importance; and that men are too apt to neglect
it, and should be stirred up unto it:
for with such sacrifices God is well pleased;
not that they are meritorious of the favour of God and of eternal
life; for what a man gives in a way of charity is but what God
has given him, and cannot be profitable to God, though it is to a
fellow creature; nor is there any proportion between what is
given, and grace and glory which the saints receive; yet doing
good in this way, when it is done in faith, springs from love,
and is directed to the glory of God, is well pleasing to him;
yea, these sacrifices are preferred by him to legal ones, (
Hosea 6:6 ) and
the Jews also say, that
``greater is he who does alms than (if he offered) all sacrifices F3.''