“Concern for the needy of the poor was one of the expressions of fellowship in Christ. Christian charity was motivated not by sympathy or self righteousness but by Christian love which was the determinative force of that fellowship.”
If I give all I possess to the poor…but do not have love, I gain nothing. 1 Cor 13:3
Keith F. Nickel in The Collection: A Study in Paul’s Strategy (Naperville: Alec R. Allenson, 1966) 103.