Titus was trustworthy. He was one of Paul's dependable assistants (2 Corinthians 7:16), along with Timothy. He shared Paul's concern for the church in Corinth, longing for them to grow up in Christ and keep their promise to give money to the impoverished believers in Jerusalem. Titus knew that the church could not grow, and would be prey for the false teachers, if they did not do what they had vowed (Deuteronomy 23:21). So, he was eager to take Paul's letter back to them and encourage them to complete what they had started, by doing what they had said.

Another brother was sent with Titus. We do not know who he was, but he was respected by all the churches for his devotion to the Lord, the apostles and the believers; he was hard working and honest – a man to trust. Paul described him as being specially selected by the other believers for this important and dangerous task of ensuring that all the money reached Jerusalem.

The reason two men were sent was to ensure that the administration was above reproach. They were to support each other and to be accountable to each other, so that neither Paul nor Titus could be accused of gathering money for themselves. They wanted to do what was right before the Lord and to avoid any potential criticism about the way the gifts were administrated. They went out of their way to be transparent for the sake of the gospel (Philippians 2:14-15).

Money provides the ground for many temptations: to get it the wrong way, to keep it for the wrong reasons, to spend it in the wrong way – also to use it to buy influence, to use its absence to beg or steal, and to fail to give what the Lord asks. The love of money is a root of evil (1 Timothy 6:10) which is why it is important for all money transactions to be conducted transparently with the church, the civil authorities (Romans 13:6-7) and unbelievers. To love the security and power of money is to deny the security and power of the Lord (Matthew 6:24). Where we have failed in the past we need to repent and set in place proper accountability structures so that money becomes a good tool in the Lord's hands. It all belongs to the Lord, we are just trustees; handle it with care, for His sake.