Acts 20:35: more blessed to give — said by a man who worked with his hands
35I have revealed all things to you, because by laboring in this way, it is necessary 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.’ ”
The saying of Jesus quoted here appears in none of the four gospels. Paul offers it as shared memory, and this verse is the only record of it we have.
Short answer
Acts 20:35 closes Paul’s farewell to the elders of Ephesus with a saying of Jesus that no gospel records. It is attached to an argument about working with your own hands in order to support those who cannot — not about asking anyone for a donation.
- Written by
- Raphael Navarro Schmitt
- Reviewed by
- Maria Luisa Navarro Schmitt
- Published on
- Reading time
- 2 min read
The quotation is short and has travelled on its own for centuries. It almost always turns up asking the listener to be generous. In the text it runs the other way: the speaker is explaining why he never asked anyone for anything.
There is also a detail that surprises first-time readers. The saying is attributed to Jesus, but it is not in Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. This verse is its only source in the New Testament.
Where this verse appears
Paul is at Miletus, on his way to Jerusalem, and has called the elders of Ephesus for a farewell he himself treats as final. It is a speech of accounts: what he did, what he did not do, what will come after him.
A few lines earlier he says he coveted nobody’s silver or clothing, and points at his own hands, which supported him and the people with him.
What it says
The saying does not float free: it arrives as the conclusion of an argument about labour. The sequence is work, support those who are weak, and remember what the Lord said. Lifting the quotation out of that sequence turns a personal example into a general appeal.
This edition puts the weak at the receiving end — people with no capacity to work in that economy. It is not abstract charity but a concrete group inside the community, kept going by the manual labour of those who could.
What the verse does not do is compare amounts. It does not say that giving much beats giving little, and it sets no percentage. The comparison is between two roles, giving and receiving, and the blessing goes to the first without the second being demeaned.
What to do with it today
If you hold any authority in a group — a church, a team, a family — this verse is uncomfortable in the right direction. The test Paul applies to himself is simple: what does this community carry for me, and what do I carry for it?
If you are on the receiving side today, the other half of the reading matters. The line does not shame the person who receives; it describes a gladness available to the one who gives. Being temporarily on the receiving side is not the disgrace this verse often gets used to imply.
A prayer to carry with you
Lord, teach me to work in a way that leaves something over for someone else. And when it is my turn to need help, take the shame out of receiving it. Amen.