Theme: DIGNITY OF LABOUR
Text: “Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me.” – Acts 20:34.
Comment: According to available history, St. Paul’s education was “Lengthy, profound and exceptionally broad”. He sat at the feet of Gamaliel, a highly reputed Jewish teacher of the first-century A.D. in Jerusalem. (Acts 5:34) Though St. Paul was a great man in the work of God, yet he was sometimes found himself in dire straits or difficult economic circumstances – “the want of the common support of life”. He declared: “I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.” (Philippians 4:12) He labored to maintain himself by engaging in manual occupation wherever and whenever possible. But by virtue of his calling he ought not to do that. But he worked partly because of the situation he found himself at times and to show good example to the members. One thing that is glaring here is that the learned Apostle believed in the dignity of labour. “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:13). So, he charged the Christians: “I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye 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.” – Acts 20:35.