How would an American church feel if poor new converts in the jungle sent them an offering?
According to the analogy, the average American church would be almost repulsed by such an offering. Wealthy believers might find it awkward or offensive that poor new converts with almost nothing sent money back to them, because it reverses normal expectations. Yet the new converts in Macedonia and Achaia did exactly that for the poor saints in Jerusalem.
Les explains the analogy of wealthy America sending missionaries to poverty-stricken areas where people have never heard the Gospel. If new believers out in the jungles, with nothing more than what they could get with their spears, sent an offering back to an American church, it would almost repulse people. But that is exactly what happened with Paul's new converts. They were dirt poor, yet they brought offerings for the Jewish believers in Jerusalem, where civilization and everything had been head and shoulders above what those poor people enjoyed. The lesson is that when people become true children of God, they have a whole different outlook. Instead of wanting American money sent to them, they sent it back to the homeland, Jerusalem. It pleased Macedonia and Achaia to make a contribution for the poor saints at Jerusalem, for their debtors they were.
For it hath pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem.