Give What You Have
"One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon. Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them. Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”"
— Acts 3:1-6
Luke says a few verses later that the man was over forty. For many people in his condition, handouts from strangers were the only realistic income. The hour named here fell in the middle of the afternoon, and it went with the second of the two daily offerings, when worshippers came through in the greatest numbers. Their day was split into twelve hours of daylight, so that same point arrived earlier in winter. Their own law commanded open hands toward the poor, and people on their way to pray were the likeliest to give. The Greek word behind his request comes from the word for pity, which English wore down into alms. The name Luke uses for that entrance appears in no other ancient source, and nobody now knows for certain which one he meant. The two visitors were fishermen from the north, in a capital where a man from their region had been executed not long before. Alms were usually copper. Silver and gold was a stock phrase for money of any kind, so Peter is saying only that he has none. Before that same evening was over, both men were under arrest and held overnight. He had nothing the man had asked for, and he had the one thing nobody else was offering him.