"In everything I showed you that by working hard in this manner you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, `It is more blessed to give than to receive.'" (Acts 20:35).
Federal Visionists and even semi-heretics like John Piper love this passage because Paul says that we should “remember” that “it is more blessed to give than to receive.” Federal Visionists argue that by “remember,” Paul means that we should be motivated by the promise of blessing. Unfortunately, such Scripture-twisting demonstrates how far the Federal Visionists are from the historic Reformed faith.
The Reformed faith has always insisted that gratitude is our only motivation for obedience. It’s guilt, grace, gratitude. Anything else and you are not Reformed.
Thus, while Jesus may have said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (actually, this statement is not in the gospels and may be the insertion of a proto-FV redactor), the promise of blessing is not to motivate us.
If blessing does come, we are not to link it with our works, otherwise we are preaching a different gospel, which is no gospel at all. To be faithful to the Reformed faith, we would do best to concentrate on obeying out of gratitude, rather than remembering the promise, "It is more blessed to give than to receive."
