“After I come, I shall give letters of introduction to those you have approved, and send them to take your gift to Jerusalem. If it seems worthwhile for me to go, then they can go along with me.”  – 1 Corinthians 16:3, Good News Bible

In Church today, we often tend to measure maturity by spiritual highs — the depth of our prayers, our passion in worship, or our grasp of deep theological truths.

However, the apostle Paul, writing to the Corinthians in regard to how the collection they were putting together for the suffering church in Jerusalem should be handled, gives a single qualification: whoever carries this gift must be someone “you have approved.”

Approved; not admired; not liked, not anointed.

‘Approved’ is a word that implies scrutiny – a track record, a reputation tested and found solid.

It would have been easier for the apostle to simply entrust the task to the most fire-spitting leaders among them, or even to carry the money himself.

He did neither.

He asked the church to name its own representatives – trustworthy people with a track record for handling responsibility well, and only those individuals would be entrusted with the gift.

Someone could accuse the apostle of distrusting the church leaders.

But it was wisdom about human nature.

Paul understood something the modern church keeps forgetting: sincerity and financial integrity are not the same virtue, and one cannot stand in for the other.

And this principle did not begin with Paul.

Long before Corinth, the Law demanded honest scales, because God is not honored by crooked accounting (Leviticus 19:36).

When the tabernacle was built, Moses required a public account of every measure of gold and silver that passed through the builders’ hands (Exodus 38:21), so that no whisper of suspicion could attach itself to the sanctuary.

Generations later, the priests who managed temple funds worked in pairs, under seal, because no single man’s word — however devout — was treated as sufficient proof.

Approval is a character formed in the light, over time, and confirmed by others who have watched it hold under pressure.

Scripture is remarkably consistent on this point: devotion is never allowed to substitute for verification.

Paul makes his own reasoning explicit in his second letter to the same church.

He arranged multiple trustworthy escorts for the collection so that no one could later accuse him of mishandling it, “providing for honest things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men” (2 Corinthians 8:20–21).

Stewardship, in Paul’s understanding, is not merely a private matter between a believer and his God.

It is a public trust, and it must be able to withstand public scrutiny.

Sadly, we have drifted from that standard.

Too many congregations still run entire ministries on one signature, one unaudited bank account, one long-serving man of God whose integrity is simply assumed because to question it would feel unspiritual.

Unsurprisingly, financial scandal in ministry circles has become so common that it barely makes headlines any more, and that numbness is itself a warning sign.

As per Paul’s reasoning, God’s people were never called to be naive.

They were called to build a character of credibility by being transparent and accountable.

So, what does it look like in practice? It looks like refusing to let any one person — however beloved, however long-tenured — be the sole custodian of God’s resources.

It looks like church resources that are tracked and reported openly, because secrecy breeds suspicion even in the absence of wrongdoing.

And at the personal level, it looks like character built quietly, long before the responsibility ever arrives: faithfulness with a household budget, promises kept in small things, because Jesus Himself said that whoever is faithful in little would be trusted with much (Luke 16:10).

Approval, then, is not a title the church hands out casually to whoever seems most spiritual.

It is a character formed in the light, over time, and confirmed by others who have watched it hold under pressure.

Paul did not ask the Corinthians for admiration or popularity of the men carrying the gift.

He asked for proof.

The church today would do well to ask the same question of itself – not whether our leaders are loved or are anointed, but whether they are, in the fullest sense of Paul’s word, embody the approval of the people who contribute the money, to handle it faithfully.