All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along. Galatians 2:10
“Care for the indigenous poor within the Greco-Roman world lay at the heart of Paul’s understanding of the “good news” of the early Jesus-movement (although that good news is not in any way reducible simply to care for the poor).
While the communities of Jesus-followers in Jerusalem became a specific focus of his attention from 53 through 57 CE, the collection that he undertook for them was merely one expression of an overarching principle about care for the poor that had long guided him when configuring the identity of Jesus-groups.
Even if the theological vision outstripped practical realities, care for the poor was nonetheless firmly embedded within Paul’s understanding of the internal matrices of the good news.”
Bruce Longenecker, Remember the Poor: Paul, Poverty, and the Greco-Roman World (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010) 12.